2017-2018 Assessment of the Army Research Laboratory (2019) / Chapter Skim
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7 Human Sciences
7 Human Sciences
Pages 167-186
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From page 167... ...
projects of the ARL Human Sciences Campaign at the Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland, on June 27-29, 2017. The human sciences project areas reviewed were as follows: • Real-world behavior.
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From page 168... ...
1 National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, 2016, 2015-2016 Assessment of the Army Research Labora tory: Interim Report, The National Academies Press, Washington, D.C.
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From page 169... ...
RWB data collected over extended time periods during complex human or human-agent behavior makes critical demands on data management and sophisticated data interpretation. The data may include multiple sensor readings, patterns of communications, behaviors, and behavioral outcomes.
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From page 170... ...
. The goal of this research is to enable quantitative measurement of human behavioral performance and brain activity while an individual is driving in traffic on the highway.
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From page 171... ...
The RWB projects also have synergistic interactions with issues of human variability and the complex demands of multiagent teaming that are also the target of the Human Sciences Campaign research. The group has done an excellent job of identifying important technological challenges and opportunities; almost all are high demand and high reward.
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From page 172... ...
Individual differences in sleep duration, sleep need, and response to sleep loss have been characterized in numerous research studies, and incorporating such knowledge into ongoing studies of human variability as well as real-world behavior, monitoring sleep and fatigue of participants in all studies, and integrating sleep into the theoretical framework for understanding variability in human performance and behavior at ARL is well-justified and overdue. There are good collaborations with the broader scientific community under ARL's Open Campus Initiative.
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From page 173... ...
This expertise is far too narrow for the broad program of human variability that ARL is currently working on, and ARL requires a wider range of sleep expertise to advise its human variability program. Related to integrating information about sleep into the ongoing studies to understand how it contributes to variability, biological time-of-day (circadian rhythmicity)
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From page 174... ...
That said, it is critical when moving into new scientific areas that the right collaborators are selected. HUMANS IN MULTIAGENT SYSTEMS The Humans in Multiagent Systems program focuses on problems related to understanding and supporting distributed soldier collaborations in sociotechnical networks exemplified in three broad areas of inquiry: human-agent teaming, cyber and networked systems, and understanding sociocultural influences.
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From page 175... ...
It can become a mechanism for bringing together a diverse and multidisciplinary group to look at an important set of Armyrelevant problems. On the other hand, the topics of human-agent teaming, cybersecurity teams, and sociocultural influences in civil affairs teams are only very loosely connected, and some areas of expertise are lacking.
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From page 176... ...
The inclusion of sociocultural influences and civil affairs as a research area in the general ARL portfolio represents a good opportunity for creating an end-to-end program. Creating tools to support the gathering, processing, and visualization of data collected by Army civil affairs specialists (and facilitating stakeholder decision making)
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From page 177... ...
HUMAN CYBER PERFORMANCE Over the past year, the small Human Cyber Performance group has established a bold mission: advance a foundational science of cybersecurity that addresses the human dynamics of attacker, defender, and user interactions in Army networks to support training effectiveness and transition of agent-based technology to improve the operational efficiency and effectiveness of cyber warfighters. The group's primary focus is on the cyber analyst, and it wants to become a leader in the cybersecurity community by advancing scientific understanding and improving human performance of human cyber analysts in their critical role in defending real-world Army networks and systems.
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From page 178... ...
The nascent ARL cybersecurity research effort in the Human Sciences Campaign shows great promise, but it suffers from not having a critical mass of researchers dedicated to this effort. The group has done a lot with the resources it has and has developed successful collaborations with cybersecurity researchers in other parts of ARL and externally, but its current staffing level limits both the breadth and depth of its research.
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From page 179... ...
One area that lacks depth is qualitative research. The work on sociocultural influences in particular seems heavily dependent upon the use of qualitative methods, but the methods used for conceptualizing research questions and analyzing and presenting data need some additional expertise to be brought up to the standards of similar academic research.
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From page 180... ...
Recommendation: The Human Sciences Campaign should develop a clearly articulated plan to achieve a balance and an identifiable interaction among field studies, laboratory studies, and the underlying theoretical basis of its experimental and field studies. The plan should include a strategy for linking the theoretical underpinnings of projects in a given project area, across projects in the campaign, and with projects in other ARL campaigns, and should identify the mechanisms for monitoring and guiding formulation and implementation of such linkages, including, where appropriate, the participation of external advisors.
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From page 181... ...
There is not a formal program of mentorship and career development within the Human Sciences Campaign at ARL, and this represents a missed area of opportunity. In particular, new and junior researchers at ARL need regular career guidance and mentorship from more senior and experienced ARL scientists and administrators through a formalized program.
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From page 182... ...
Recommendation: The Real-World Behavior group should consider developing an advisory board of scientific experts to provide advice on topics relevant to the major initiatives. To be successful, the Real-World Behavior large experiment projects will require resources and expertise in the areas of big data, data management, work flow, machine learning, and human-computer interaction Recommendation: The Real-World Behavior group should consider reaching out to informa tion sciences or other computational resources, perhaps within ARL, to look for opportunities for collaboration in the areas of big data, data management, workflow, machine learning, and human-computer interaction.
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From page 183... ...
Recommendation: The Human Variability group should seek appropriate sleep expertise in the form of a scientific advisory board, hiring one or more sleep-performance experts or col laborating with a multidisciplinary sleep research group with particular expertise on sleep recording in field studies, sleep and performance, and individual differences in sleep duration, need, and response to sleep loss. Recommendation: The Human Variability group should consider having some of its existing personnel train off-site in leading sleep research laboratories to gain knowledge in sleep, and the group should also consider hiring at least one new postdoctoral fellow with training in sleep and performance.
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From page 184... ...
Keeping human-agent teaming, cybersecurity, and sociocultural difference research projects in the same program may be creating areas where necessary depth is lacking in favor of generalists who are working across areas. Recommendation: The Humans in Multiagent Systems group should, in collaboration with the Human Sciences Campaign leadership, examine whether keeping human-agent teaming, cybersecurity, and sociocultural difference research projects in the same program is facilitat ing progress in each of these important areas.
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From page 185... ...
Recommendation: The Human Cyber Performance group should increase the number of staff working in the area of behavioral cybersecurity research, adding both junior and senior team members with interdisciplinary expertise in cognitive psychology, human-computer interac tion, cybersecurity, and machine learning. ARL behavioral cybersecurity researchers need to interact with external researchers at the top usable security, security, and human-computer interaction (HCI)
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From page 186... ...
The Human Cyber Performance group research is largely observational and descriptive; it is not clearly aimed at providing explanatory and predictive power. Recommendation: The Human Cyber Performance group behavioral cybersecurity research ers should think through how to expand their research to go from offering observations and descriptions to providing explanatory and predictive power.
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