In May Cognitive Group met with peers to present “Uncertainties in complex dynamic environment”.

The presentation was connected with the review paper of Hasmik Atoyan recently accepted by JIPS (Journal d’Interaction Personne-Système). The paper is done in collaboration with Dr. Jean-Marc Robert (École Polytechnique de Montréal) and Dr. Jean-Rémi Duquet (Lockheed Martin Canada).

The paper is a part of Hasmik’s PhD research at École Polytechnique related to uncertainties in complex systems. Automation can expose and create several types of uncertainties, especially in dynamic complex environments.This subject has become a topic of interest for Hasmik during her work with new technologies being developed at Lockheed Martin Canada.

Poorly designed automation can increase uncertainties in the system. These uncertainties would create additional uncertainties in the operator’s mind and are likely to increase cognitive workload, reduce situation awareness, and affect human performance. The presentation of uncertain information to human operators in complex environments is a challenge.

Based on theoretical, empirical and analytical studies, Hasmik and her colleagues has developed human factors guidelines to help operators to cope with uncertainties and help designers to develop systems that could mitigate the impact of uncertainties on human performance.

The next step is to test operators’ reactions towards different formats of presentation of uncertain information as a function of their level of expertise, of the task being performed, of the application domain (e.g., defence, medicine, business, etc.). The next meeting on the progress of this research is scheduled for September, 2010.