Neurocognitive Engineering for Systems’ Development - Neurotechnology in National Security and Defense - page 35

neurocognitive strengths in those domains where effective technological solutions
cannot be attained. In this way, human-system performance can be maximized to
meet the challenges of a complex, dynamic, and ever-changing security environment.
In this chapter, we discuss an approach to materiel development utilizing cognitive
engineering supported by neuroscience, that is, neurocognitive engineering . We use as
an illustrative example the problem space of the information-intensive security envi-
ronment and the widely accepted approach to addressing its challenges, namely, deci-
sion superiority and information dominance that can be enabled through advanced
information networks. We argue that traditional approaches to addressing the cognitive
needs of systems development will not be met by traditional methods and that adopting
tools and approaches from neuroscience provides opportunities to enable neurocogni-
tive engineering to demonstrably improve systems designs, both within this context
and more generally across human-technology interactions. Finally, we discuss sev-
eral challenges, wherein a neurocognitive engineering approach has the potential for
improving soldier, system, and integrative soldier-system performance.
THE INFORMATION-INTENSIVE SECURITY ENVIRONMENT
As information technologies have proliferated over the past several decades, it has
become widely believed that information and its use on the battlefield is vital to the
success of our armed forces; that is, “superiority in the generation, manipulation, and
use of information,” or “information dominance,” is critical to enabling military dom-
inance (Libicki 1997). Winters and Giffin (1997) assume an even more aggressive
position, defining information dominance as a qualitative, rather than simply quantita-
tive, superiority that provides “overmatch” for all operational possibilities, while at
the same time denying adversaries equivalent capabilities. As reported in Endsley and
Jones (1997), each of the major branches of the armed forces has embraced the critical
importance of information dominance on the future battlefield.
A more recent elaboration on the concept of information dominance is the notion
of “decision superiority”: the process of making decisions better and faster than
adversaries (Office of the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff 2004). Decision
superiority is one of the seven critical characteristics of the future joint force (Office
of the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff 2004). It rests upon a paradigm of infor-
mation dominance to provide the capabilities to acquire, process, display, and dis-
seminate information to decision makers at every echelon across the force.
THE CAPABILITIES OF THE INFORMATION AGE
Technological capabilities to process, store, transmit, and produce information have
increased remarkably. As reported by Chandrasekhar and Ghosh (2001), progress
in information and communications technologies over the past 40 years has been
truly remarkable. For example, between the early 1970s and late 1990s, there was a
greater than 10,000-fold increase in the number of transistors that could be placed
on a computer chip; a 5,000-fold decrease in the cost of computing power; a 4,000-
fold decrease in the cost of data storage, and a 1,000,000-fold decrease in the cost to
transmit information. Other authors have produced similar, but varying, estimates of