Human Performance in the Simulated Multiple Asset Routing Testbed (SMART): An Individual Differences Approach

We examined performance for a university population and military population in the Simulated Multiple Asset Routing Testbed (SMART). SMART is a testbed designed to be similar to the types of tasks future unmanned vehicle operators will perform. Specifically, participants were required to optimize route selections for unmanned aerial vehicles. Their goal was to obtain a maximum number of points, given the likelihood of finding their targets. Participants showed superior performance when provided with detailed icons that contained information relevant to the route selections, compared to a condition where this information was provided in a table format instead. Although the detailed icons improved performance, we found that working memory capacity (WMC) and numeracy were predictive of accuracy in SMART. These results suggest that individual differences in WMC and the ability to understand and manipulate numbers may play an important role in tasks that require one to weight and optimize multiple outcomes. We discuss the implications of these findings for tool design and job selection and training.