Design and Validation of a Model for a Human's Functional State and Performance

This paper presents a computational model of the dynamics of a human's functional state in relation to task performance and environment. It can be used in intelligent systems that support humans in demanding circumstances. The model takes task demand and situational aspects as input and calculates internal factors related to human functioning, such as the experienced pressure, exhaustion, and motivation, and how they affect performance. Simulation experiments under different parameter settings pointed out that the model is able to produce realistic behavior of humans with different types of personalities. Moreover, by a mathematical analysis the equilibria of the model have been determined, and by automated checking a number of expected properties of the model have been confirmed. In addition to this "internal" validation of the model, an experiment has been designed for the purpose of external validation, addressing the estimation of aspects of the human process that are relevant for its practical application. Output from the experiment, like information about personality characteristics and performance quality, has been used to perform estimation of the parameters of the model. By the parameter estimation, a set of parameter values has been identified by which an adequate representation of a person's functional state when performing a task is achieved.

[1]  Lester Ingber,et al.  Simulated annealing: Practice versus theory , 1993 .

[2]  Patrick Brézillon,et al.  Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence , 1999 .

[3]  P A Hancock,et al.  Influence of task demand characteristics on workload and performance. , 1995, The International journal of aviation psychology.

[4]  J. Salgado.  The Five Factor Model of personality and job performance in the European Community. , 1997, The Journal of applied psychology.

[5]  Paul T. Costa,et al.  The Five-Factor Model of Personality and Its Relevance to Personality Disorders , 1992 .

[6]  C. L. Rose,et al.  The role of the Big Five personality factors in vigilance performance and workload , 2002 .

[7]  Levent Yilmaz,et al.  Validation and verification of social processes within agent-based computational organization models , 2006, Comput. Math. Organ. Theory.

[8]  Cleotilde Gonzalez,et al.  Task Workload and Cognitive Abilities in Dynamic Decision Making , 2005, Hum. Factors.

[9]  P. Hancock,et al.  A Dynamic Model of Stress and Sustained Attention , 1989, Human factors.

[10]  Jan Treur,et al.  Adaptation and Validation of an Agent Model of Functional State and Performance for Individuals , 2009, PRIMA.

[11]  Derrick J. Parkhurst,et al.  Modeling the role of salience in the allocation of overt visual attention , 2002, Vision Research.

[12]  Rianne van Lambalgen,et al.  Personalisation of Computational Models of Attention by Simulated Annealing Parameter Tuning , 2010, 2010 IEEE/WIC/ACM International Conference on Web Intelligence and Intelligent Agent Technology.

[13]  Robert Plomin,et al.  Genetics and general cognitive ability (g) , 2002, Trends in Cognitive Sciences.

[14]  David B. Kaber,et al.  The effects of level of automation and adaptive automation on human performance, situation awareness and workload in a dynamic control task , 2004 .

[15]  Gary Klein,et al.  The effect of acute stressors on decision making. , 1996 .

[16]  M. A. Recarte,et al.  Mental workload while driving: effects on visual search, discrimination, and decision making. , 2003, Journal of experimental psychology. Applied.

[17]  Ron Henderson,et al.  Electronic Performance Monitoring: A Laboratory Investigation of the Influence of Monitoring and Difficulty on Task Performance, Mood State, and Self-Reported Stress Levels , 2000 .

[18]  P. Hancock,et al.  Stress, Workload, and Fatigue , 2009 .

[19]  Peter-Paul van Maanen,et al.  Effects of Task Performance and Task Complexity on the Validity of Computational Models of Attention , 2008 .

[20]  Tibor Bosse,et al.  An Agent Model for a Human's Functional State and Performance , 2008, 2008 IEEE/WIC/ACM International Conference on Web Intelligence and Intelligent Agent Technology.

[21]  G. R. J. Hockey.  Compensatory control in the regulation of human performance under stress and high workload: A cognitive-energetical framework , 1997, Biological Psychology.

[22]  Mica R. Endsley,et al.  Toward a Theory of Situation Awareness in Dynamic Systems , 1995, Hum. Factors.

[23]  Eduardo Salas,et al.  Stress and human performance , 1996 .

[24]  J. A. Veltman,et al.  How to Manage Cognitive Task Load During Supervision and Damage Control in an All-Electric Ship , 2004 .

[25]  Tibor Bosse,et al.  Specification and Verification of Dynamics in Agent Models , 2009, Int. J. Cooperative Inf. Syst..

[26]  A. Buss,et al.  Personality Traits , 1973 .

[27]  Harold W. Sorenson,et al.  Parameter estimation: Principles and problems , 1980 .

[28]  David W. Hill,et al.  The Critical Power Concept , 1993, Sports medicine.