ABSTRACT
In the development of complex systems, it is tempting to assume human performance will be constant across time and conditions. Both practical experience and a wealth of scientific research clearly illustrate that human performance declines under the stress of excessive workload, heightened emotions, fatigue, and other conditions. As a result, system failure may follow from the failure of humans to perform within acceptable boundaries, and catastrophic failure may occur as the consequences of human failures propagate through a system. It is a noteworthy development that, over the past decades, consideration of human factors has generally become a customary component of the engineering design process. Valuable steps have been taken with respect to human-machine interface design, training and support, and procedures and policies. However, these are relatively modest measures. They largely achieve their success through administrative constraints, standardization, and accommodation of the masses. Gains in human performance capabilities beyond those attainable with current measures will require a more dynamic human-machine interaction, in which the machine has an awareness of the cognitive state of the operator and actively adapts to the operator. Such systems are the subject of this chapter and represent a next step in the transition from today’s humanmachine interfaces to cognitive systems that do more than avoid impediments to operator cognitive processes, but augment those cognitive processes producing enhanced human performance under stress.
