Programming Techniques for the Automatic Monitoring of Human Performance

Book excerpt: The report describes the organizational and operational design of a digital computer program for the automatic monitoring of human performance during simulated training missions. The computer program, now in its developmental stage, is designed to serve the dual and interdependent purposes of (1) assisting in the analysis and determination of meaningful performance measures and performance criteria and (2) using these criteria to automatically monitor human performance, including performance evaluation (scoring), adaptive task sequencing, and the automatic initiation of simulated system malfunctions for training in emergency procedures. A description is provided of a Criteria Format that aids the user of the automatic monitoring program in defining criteria with variable tolerances for conceivably any aerospace task or mission. Some projections are made about possible uses of the research-oriented automatic monitoring program to (a) vary criteria as the skill level of a particular student increases, (b) hold selected flight variables constant to allow the teaching of isolated skills on a progressive basis, (c) effect 'overlearning' of selected skills by controlling the outputs to the cockpit, and (d) aid in debugging simulation programs. A topical flow-chart is provided for the entire automatic monitoring program. (Author).