Lelyn D. Saner

Learning to Stand in the Other's Shoes: A Computer Video Game Experience of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict

We examined the role of experience, religion, and political affiliation in learning to resolve a conflict through the video game, PeaceMaker, which simulates the Israeli–Palestinian conflict by modeling the factors contributing to it. The hypothesis was that practice in the video game would diminish the initial effects of religious views and political affiliations on how people resolve the conflict within the game. Students played several rounds of PeaceMaker and responded to questions about their religious and political beliefs. Results revealed an improvement in students’ game scores and a reduction in the correlations between scores and religion, political affiliation, and game performance across games played. Results suggest that the understanding of the conflict that is provided by the game simulation combined with practice may make it possible to reduce personal bias and learn to stand in another’s shoes when engaging in conflict resolution exercises.

Predicting Shared Situation Awareness in Teams: A Case of Differential SA Requirements

In this paper, we report our efforts at developing a valid approach for measuring and predicting shared situation awareness (SA) in teams performing in complex operational environments. Participants were assigned to one of 4 teams (Navy, Army, Special Operations, or Joint Service) and completed a simulated military rescue operation training exercise. We developed procedures to measure the degree of shared SA between team members and to improve the accuracy of shared SA scores. The measures were then used to evaluate five potential predictors of shared SA (experience similarity, shared task knowledge, cognitive workload similarity, communication distance, organizational hub distance). We examined the relationship of these factors to specific queries that assessed different types of SA information requirements. Results indicated that four factors had significant relationships with shared SA, but that the factors related to each query changed in relation to the type of SA assessed by the query. We discuss the implications of these results for predicting shared SA under different situational conditions.

Characterizing cybersecurity jobs: applying the cyber aptitude and talent assessment framework

Characterizing what makes cybersecurity professions difficult involves several components, including specifying the cognitive and functional requirements for performing job-related tasks. Many frameworks that have been proposed are focused on functional requirements of cyber work roles, including the knowledge, skills, and abilities associated with them. In contrast, we have proposed a framework for classifying cybersecurity jobs according to the cognitive demands of each job and for matching applicants to jobs based on their aptitudes for key cognitive skills (e.g., responding to network activity in real-time). In this phase of research, we are investigating several cybersecurity jobs (such as operators vs. analysts), converting the high-level functional tasks of each job into elementary tasks, in order to determine what cognitive requirements distinguish the jobs. We will then examine how the models of cognitive demands by job can be used to inform the designs of aptitude tests for different kinds of jobs. In this poster, we will describe our framework in more detail and how it can be applied toward matching people with the jobs that fit them best.

Assessing Aptitude and Talent for Cyber Operations

In a world of rapidly evolving technology, it is an increasingly complex task to protect the integrity of information and security of infrastructural systems. Doing so demands a skilled workforce, which can only be assured with careful testing and selection of cyber operations specialists. We are conducting research to develop a cyber aptitude testing battery to improve selection and placement processes, but one of the biggest challenges lies in concisely characterizing the space of work roles. In this paper, we review some prior approaches to defining cyber work roles and describe our current approach to doing so at a more detailed level.