Report on C4i Study: Using an Electronic C4i System to examine the effects of Information Source and Decay
Abstract
The motivation for the current study was provided by the previous examination of command technology. The main aim of the current study was to isolate the effects of information source type (whether information is Pushed to the commander, or Pulled by them) and information permanence (whether information remains available for the duration of the study or whether it is only available for a short time). This document reports on the results of this analysis.
The participants, who acted in the role of commander, were randomly assigned to one of four information source/decay conditions (Push Permanent, Push Temporary, Pull Permanent and Pull Temporary), therefore, this was a between subjects design. The specific task of the commander was to undertake a Battlefield Area Evaluation (BAE). The main output of the task was the commander’s (graphical) interpretation of the actual state of the Battle-space (a form of Situation Overlay). Information used in the construction of the Situation Overlay was extracted from the environment by three Field Agents.
The specific aims of the study were to ascertain whether there was any statistical association between information source type and decay on the outcome measures of: task completion time, situation overlay accuracy, situational awareness, mental workload, decision quality and depth of processing. The results of the analysis suggest that any effect of information source type and decay is largely confined to time, accuracy and SA (as were the main effects of the previous study). The permanence of information was revealed to be a more powerful factor than source type.
The experiment also revealed a number of further issues to be carried forward into future iterations of the Brunel Command system, for example, participants provided a great deal of feedback on current limitations and possible improvements to the system.
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