Kyle M. Wilson

Friendly Fire in a Simulated Firearms Task

Factors such as poor visibility, lack of situation awareness, and bad communication have been shown to contribute to friendly fire incidents. However, to the authors’ knowledge, an individual’s ability to inhibit their motor response of shooting when a non-target is presented has not been investigated. This phenomenon has been modeled empirically using the Sustained Attention to Response Task (SART; Robertson, Manly, Andrade, Baddeley, & Yiend, 1997) computer task. The SART is generally a high Go/low No-Go detection task whereby participants respond to numerous neutral stimuli and withhold to rare targets. In the current investigation, we further investigate the SART using a simulated small arms scenario to test whether lack of motor response inhibition can be modeled in a more ecologically valid environment. Additionally, we were interested in how error rates were impacted in low Go/high No-Go versions of the task. Thirteen university students completed a computer and simulated small arms scenario in a SART and low Go condition. Both the computer and small arms scenario revealed similar speedaccuracy trade-offs indicating participants’ inability to halt their pre-potent responses to targets even in a more ecologically valid environment. The SART may be used in future studies to model friendly fire scenarios.

Cognitive engineering: Cognitive engineering

Cognitive engineering is the application of cognitive psychology and related disciplines to the design and operation of human-machine systems. Cognitive engineering combines both detailed and close study of the human worker in the actual work context and the study of the worker in more controlled environments. Cognitive engineering combines multiple methods and perspectives to achieve the goal of improved system performance. Given the origins of experimental psychology itself in issues regarding the design of human-machine systems, cognitive engineering is a core, or fundamental, discipline within academic psychology. WIREs Cogn Sci 2013, 4:17-31. doi: 10.1002/wcs.1204 CONFLICT OF INTEREST: The authors declare no conflict of interest. For further resources related to this article, please visit the WIREs website.

Friendly Fire and the Sustained Attention to Response Task

Objective: We investigated whether losses of inhibitory control could be responsible for some friendly-fire incidents. Background: Several factors are commonly cited to explain friendly-fire incidents, but failure of inhibitory control has not yet been explored. The Sustained Attention to Response Task (SART) could be a valid model for inhibition failures in some combat scenarios. Method: Participants completed small-arms simulations using near infrared emitter guns, confronting research assistants acting as friends or foes. In Experiment 1, seven participants completed three conditions with three different proportions of foes (high, medium, low). In Experiment 2, 13 participants completed high-foe (high-go) and low-foe (low-go) versions of a small-arms simulation as well as comparative computer tasks. Results: Participants made more friendly-fire errors (errors of commission) when foe proportion was high. A speed–accuracy trade-off was apparent, with participants who were faster to fire on foes also more likely to accidentally shoot friends. When foe proportion was higher, response times to foe stimuli were faster, and subjective workload ratings were higher. Conclusion: Failures of inhibitory control may be responsible for some friendly-fire incidents and the SART could be a suitable empirical model for some battlefield environments. The effect appears to be disproportionately greater at higher foe proportions. The exact nature of performance reductions associated with high-foe proportions requires further investigation. Application: The SART may be a useful model of friendly-fire scenarios. It could be used to indicate a soldier’s likelihood to commit a friendly-fire mistake and to identify high-risk environments.

The effects of warning cues and attention-capturing stimuli on the sustained attention to response task

Abstract Performance on the sustained attention to response task (SART) is often characterized by a speed–accuracy trade-off, and SART performance may be influenced by strategic factors (Head and Helton Conscious Cogn 22: 913–919, 2013). Previous research indicates a significant difference between reliable and unreliable warning cues on response times and errors (commission and omission), suggesting that SART tasks are influenced by strategic factors (Helton et al. Conscious Cogn 20: 1732–1737, 2011; Exp Brain Res 209: 401–407, 2011). With regards to warning stimuli, we chose to use cute images (exhibiting infantile features) during a SART, as previous literature indicates cute images cause participants to engage attention. If viewing cute things makes the viewer exert more attention than normal, then exposure to cute stimuli during the SART should improve performance if SART performance is a measure of perceptual coupling. Reliable warning cues were shown to reduce both response time and errors of commission, and increase errors of omission, relative to unreliable warning cues. Cuteness of the warning stimuli, however, had no significant effect on SART performance. These results suggest the importance of strategic factors in SART performance, not increased attention, and add to the growing literature which suggests the SART is not a good measure of sustained attention, vigilance or perceptual coupling.

Cyber Threats Facing Autonomous and Connected Vehicles: Future Challenges

Vehicles are currently being developed and sold with increasing levels of connectivity and automation. As with all networked computing devices, increased connectivity often results in a heightened risk of a cyber security attack. Furthermore, increased automation exacerbates any risk by increasing the opportunities for the adversary to implement a successful attack. In this paper, a large volume of publicly accessible literature is reviewed and compartmentalized based on the vulnerabilities identified and mitigation techniques developed. This review highlighted that the majority of studies are reactive and vulnerabilities are often discovered by friendly adversaries (white-hat hackers). Many gaps in the knowledge base were identified. Priority should be given to address these knowledge gaps to minimize future cyber security risks in the connected and autonomous vehicle sector.

Go-stimuli proportion influences response strategy in a sustained attention to response task

The sustained attention to response task (SART) usefulness as a measure of sustained attention has been questioned. The SART may instead be a better measure of other psychological processes and could prove useful in understanding some real-world behaviours. Thirty participants completed four Go/No-Go response tasks much like the SART, with Go-stimuli proportions of .50, .65, .80 and .95. As Go-stimuli proportion increased, reaction times decreased while both commission errors and self-reported task-related thoughts increased. Performance measures were associated with task-related thoughts but not task-unrelated thoughts. Instead of faster reaction times and increased commission errors being due to absentmindedness or perceptual decoupling from the task, the results suggested participants made use of two competing response strategies, in line with a response strategy or response inhibition perspective of SART performance. Interestingly, performance measures changed in a nonlinear manner, despite the linear Go proportion increase. A threshold may exist where the prepotent motor response becomes more pronounced, leading to the disproportionate increase in response speed and commission errors. This research has implications for researchers looking to employ the SART and for more applied contexts where the consequences of response inhibition failures can be serious.

The effect of task-relevant and irrelevant anxiety-provoking stimuli on response inhibition

The impact of anxiety-provoking stimuli on the Sustained Attention to Response Task (SART; Robertson, Manly, Andrade, Baddeley, & Yiend, 1997), and response inhibition more generally, is currently unclear. Participants completed four SARTs embedded with picture stimuli of two levels of emotion (negative or neutral) and two levels of task-relevance (predictive or non-predictive of imminent No-Go stimuli). Negative pictures had a small but detectable adverse effect on performance regardless of their task-relevance. Overall, response times and rates of commission errors were more dependent upon the predictive value (relevance) of the pictures than their attention-capturing nature (i.e., negative valence). The findings raise doubt over whether anxiety improves response inhibition, and also lend support to a response strategy perspective of SART performance, as opposed to a mindlessness or mind-wandering explanation.

The Configural Properties of Task Stimuli do Influence Vigilance Performance

Abstract Sixty-one participants performed a sustained attention task in which they were required to respond to a critical signal requiring feature discrimination. Three separate groups performed the task with different global display configurations. The local feature elements (directional arrow shapes) were displayed on either a circle, a circle broken apart or a reconnected figure. For two of the groups, the entire display consisted of a clear global shape (circle and reconnected), and for one of the groups, the display had no discernible global element (broken circle) despite the critical signal being the same for all the groups. Analyses of hit rate and A′ scores indicated that the broken circle group had impaired performance compared to the global figure groups. A configural superiority effect was found in which performance was improved by having a global shape property to the entire display. These results provide a behavioural base for further research utilizing measures of cerebral activation, as cerebral activity during vigilance tasks may be dependent on both task difficulty and hierarchical aspects of the display. The configurable or hierarchical aspects of vigilance displays may be critical in understanding sustained attention performance and its hemispheric lateralization.

Friendly Fire and the Proportion of Friends to Foes

Losses of inhibitory control may be partly responsible for some friendly fire incidents. The Sustained Attention to Response Task (SART; Robertson, Manly, Andrade, Baddeley, & Yiend, 1997) may provide an appropriate empirical model for this. The current investigation aimed to provide an ecologically valid application of the SART to a small arms simulation and examine the effect of different proportions of enemy to friendly confederates. Seven university students engaged in a small arms simulation where they cleared a building floor using a near-infrared emitter gun, tasked with firing at confederates representing enemies and withholding fire to confederates representing friends. All participants completed three conditions which were differentiated by the proportion of enemies to friends present. As hypothesized, participants failed to withhold responses more often when the proportion of foes was higher, suggesting that a prepotent motor response routine had developed. This effect appeared to be disproportionately more substantial in the high foe condition relative to the others. Participants also subjectively reported higher levels of on-task focus as foe proportions increased, suggesting that they found this more mentally demanding. Future research could examine closer the nature of the performance reductions associated with high proportions of foes, as it appears that this is more complex than a simple linear relationship.

The role of calmness in a high-Go target detection task

Individual differences (e.g., extroversion) have been noted to influence performance on sustained attention tasks (Davies & Parasuraman, 1982). It has been proposed that the sustained attention to response task (SART) is a valid measure of lapses in attention and has been extensively used in attention studies (Manly, Robertson, Galloway, & Hawkins, 1999; Robertson, Manly, Andrade, Baddeley, & Yiend, 1997). In the current investigation we test whether SART is a measure of sustained attention versus a measure of motor control. Additionally, we tested how individual differences using an abridged version of the Big Five personality traits scale related to SART performance. Two-hundred and ninety-six university students completed a SART and the Big Five scale. The behavioral results revealed a negative correlation between errors of commission and response time which is indicative of a speed-accuracy trade-off. The individual difference results revealed that those who report themselves higher on the calmness trait (non-neurotic) make less errors of commission (inappropriate response) and have slower response times. However, mediation regression analysis revealed that the relationship between the calmness individual difference and commission errors may be mediated by response time. Collectively, the SART may be a better measure of response inhibition than sustained attention and SART performance can be influenced by individual differences which influence the speed-accuracy trade-off.