Foundations of Augmented Cognition. Directing the Future of Adaptive Systems

Abstract

DoD investments into cyber threat defense are ongoing; however, little attention is paid to training personnel to detect and prevent threats to cyber networks that come from internal sources. Supervisors need to know what behavioral signs to watch for that might indicate an employee intends to commit an insider crime. Monitoring employee workstations is proving an ineffective means of determining insider threats. Training is needed to provide examples of the numerous ways cyber threats are achieved. An interactive role-play game environment may provide an appropriate instructional delivery system to train supervisors. Such a training system should employ instructional support features, aids, and feedback to the trainer and the trainee. The training system should also provide adaptive learning pathways to facilitate accelerated learning where individual assessments show mastery of specific content. Creating such a system not only requires appropriate training materials, but also a means to assess the systems efficacy. Augmented cognition methods and techniques for evaluating the cognitive state of a learner provide a real-time, objective means of evaluating training delivery and content. In this paper we discuss our efforts to assess learner engagement using psychophysiological measures. © 2011 Springer-Verlag.