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THE ARMY COGNITIVE READNESS ASSESSMENT (ACRA) SYSTEM – A NEUROERGONOMIC APPROACH. Robert D. O’Donnell, Ph.D. Col. USAF (Ret.) NTI, Inc. Fairborn, Ohio www.NTIINC.com. CURRENT STATE OF THE ART IN NEUROCOGNITIVE ASSESSMENT BATTERIES. Concept:
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THE ARMY COGNITIVE READNESS ASSESSMENT (ACRA) SYSTEM –A NEUROERGONOMIC APPROACH Robert D. O’Donnell, Ph.D. Col. USAF (Ret.) NTI, Inc. Fairborn, Ohio www.NTIINC.com
CURRENT STATE OF THE ART IN NEUROCOGNITIVE ASSESSMENT BATTERIES Concept: Standardized probes usually all administered in a fixed sequence Examples: • Criterion Task Set (AF) • UTCPAB (Tri-service) • MTB (NASA) • STRES Battery (NATO) • CANTAB (Canada) • ANAM (Commercial)
EVOLUTION OF THE ACRA “NEUROERGONOMIC” APPROACH ONR (Susan Chipman) - 2001 A “next generation approach” to cognitive testing DARPA (Brett Giroir) - 2004 Enhance field-usable interpretability of tests NASA (Lauren Leveton) - 2007 Incorporate prediction, diagnostic, and prescriptive capabilities for long-duration missions ARMY RESEARCH LABORATORY (Linda Fatkin, Pam Burton, Katrina May) – 2003 - 2011 Expand tests and incorporate physiological measures – the neuroergonomic approach… “… the study of the human brain in relation to performance at work and in everyday settings.” (Parasuraman, 2011. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 20(3).81-186)
WHAT IS ACRA? • Neurocognitvely-based assessment system that: • Customizes test batteries to any job or mission • Estimates the individual’s cognitive readiness to successfully complete the mission • Projects person’s future cognitive readiness based on sleep and workload history • www.NTIINC.com
HOW TOMAKE TEST BATTERIES MORE RELEVANT TO SPECIFIC JOBS - “THE TEST BATTERY GENERATOR” 1. CREATE AN “ARMORY” OF TESTS 2. GENERATE ‘MISSION-CUSTOMIZED” TEST BATTERIES
THE ACRA TEST BATTERY GENERATOR 1. CREATE AN “ARMORY” OF TESTS • Define a “comprehensive” taxonomy of cognitive functions or skills • Ref.: O’Donnell, Moise, and Schmidt (2005). Aviation, Space, and Environmental Medicine, 76(7), C24-C30. • Select tests that probe those skills
SELECTION OF THE TEST “ARMORY” Tests currently in ACRA: 1. CONTINUOUS MEMORY 2. MOTION INFERENCE 3. NOVASCAN C 4. RAPID DECISION MAKING 5. TRACKING - UNSTABLE 6. MANIKIN 7. TOWER OF HANOI 8. DICHOTIC LISTENING 9. PERIPHERAL INFO PROCESSING 10. PROCEDURAL MEMORY 11. VISUAL VIGILANCE 12. WISCONSIN CARD SORTING 13. RELATIVE MOTION Additional tests currently available 14. Digit span 15. Match to sample 16. Math processing 17. Sternberg (Letters) 18. Sternberg (Symbols) 19. Strooptest 20. Tracking (Pursuit) 21. Precision timing Physiological procedures currently in development 22. Actigraphy (activity, HR variability, temperature) 23. Ocular measures 24. Amylase
THE ACRA TEST BATTERY GENERATOR GOAL: GENERATE “MISSION-CUSTOMIZED” TEST BATTERIES AUTOMATICALLY SELECT A SET OF TESTS THAT OPTIMALLY PROBES THE COGNITIVE DEMANDS OF A SPECIFIC JOB OR MISSION
THE ACRA TEST BATTERY GENERATOR DEFINE THE COGNITIVE DEMANDS OF THE MISSION Involve operational user in battery development • Subject-matter-experts • Training manuals • Task analyses
THE ACRA TEST BATTERY GENERATOR GOAL: AUTOMATICALLY SELECT AND CONFIGURE OPTIMAL TEST BATTERIES FOR SPECIFIC MISSIONS APPROACH: THE “T-MATRIX” WHAT THE ARMORY TESTS MEASURE OPTIMIZATION ALGORITM SELECTS AND CONFIGURES BEST BATTERY FOR THE MISSION T-MATRIX WHAT THE MISSION DEMANDS
TEST INTERPRETATION • Goal: Make the output of test batteries more OPERATIONALLY MEANINGFUL
OPERATIONALINTERPRETATION OF ACRA THE PERSON-SYSTEM-MISSION (PSM) MODEL Person System/Mission Operational impact Skill 1 demand Cognitive skill 1 Overall cognitive capacity to carry out mission ACRA BATTERY RESULTS Skill 2 demand Cognitive skill 2 Cognitive skill 3 Skill 3 demand Cognitive skill 4 Skill 4 demand Cognitive skill “N” Skill “N” demand
PSM OPERATIONAL FEEDBACKCapacity for cognitive demands of “clear and secure” mission
PERSON-SYSTEM-MISSION (PSM) INDEX FINAL OUTPUT The overall cognitive capacity of the person to carry out mission “X” is a function of: Cognitive capacity in each skill and the “criticality” of that skill to mission “x” Yields a single number indicating the person’s current cognitive status for the mission.
ADDING PREDICTION, DIAGNOSIS, AND REMEDIATION GOAL: Add a TEMPORAL COMPONENT to the model APPROACH: Incorporate SLEEP and WORKLOAD models into PSM
SUMMARY THE ACRA SYSTEM APPROACH EXPANDS CURRENT COGNITIVE READINESS TESTING THROUGH: • 1. Tailored batteries for different jobs/missions • 2. Test interpretation in operational terms • 3. Modeling of future changes in cognitive readiness