ABSTRACT
The idea of using psychophysiological measures to improve human performance through a tighter coupling of operators and their systems has come a long way since initial work in the 1990s. Research sponsored by DARPA’s Augmented Cognition program has greatly expanded efforts to develop systems that can detect an individual’s cognitive state and manipulate task parameters to overcome perceptual, attentional, and working memory bottlenecks. The goal of the present paper is to discuss several hurdles that must be overcome if the biocybernetic approach is to move from laboratory demonstrations to the field. These include efforts to validate the approach, establish the magnitude of effects, gain a better understanding of underlying constructs, and the need to distinguish between task-related and task-unrelated thoughts. Finally, there is the notion that augmentation is good. However, research that addresses human interaction with highly automated systems has shown that the benefits of automation are often accompanied by novel, unexpected, and undesirable consequences. Thus, a system that augments cognitive functioning must be evaluated within the total context it is used and its potential advantages must be weighed against its potential liabilities, both anticipated and unanticipated.
