SBIR-STTR Award

The ACRA test battery has proven successful in several applications. However, new approaches to cognitive testing emphasize instruments that are targeted to the unique demands of specific jobs and missions. Further, the results of such approaches must allow operational planners to use them as diagnostic, predictive, and remedial tools to enhance or augment individual cognitive performance. In this effort, NTI, Inc. will enhance the existing ACRA battery by converting it into a flexible, user-friendly test system, and will significantly expand its operational applicability. This will be accomplished, first, by designing the installation of upgraded software into a portable, hand-held hardware system incorporating pre-analyses that will provide easier interpretation to the user and command personnel. Secondly, the entire system will be integrated within the proprietary Person-System-Mission (PSM) model that translates the individual’s scores on tests into estimates of their impact on specified military missions, and provides diagnostic and remedial clues regarding any observed decrement. Finally, the possibility of adding physiological measures to ACRA will be studied intensively, and the final design will accommodate a variety of physiological inputs. Results of Phase I will provide a well-defined architecture for Phase II development of the advanced and expanded system.

Keywords:
Cognitive Tests, Performance Testing, Modeling, Psm Model, T-Matrix, Performance Prediction

In Phase I, NTI conceptualized, designed, and demonstrated an enhanced Army Cognitive Readiness Assessment (ACRA) system that contained several innovations likely to revolutionize the way neurocognitive testing is carried out in the future. The initial effort expanded the number and range of ACRA tests, allowing application to all jobs and missions in DoD. A “test battery generator” was designed that will automatically select and configure the optimal set of tests probing an individual’s cognitive capacity to complete an assigned activity. This simplified and enhanced ACRA’s level of operational interpretation of warrior cognitive fightability never before possible. The system also incorporates unique analyses of test results based on the cognitive demands of any military mission or civilian job, yielding a quantitative index of the individual’s cognitive capacity to successfully meet those demands. Further, the enhanced system permits estimates of the effect of future work/rest schedules on this capacity, through models of sleep/fatigue and workload. Thus, the traditional static neurocognitive testing system is translated into a dynamic, predictive tool allowing the individual and/or command personnel to plan future operations. Finally, results are translated into easily interpreted graphic presentations allowing rapid assessment of individual or force status.

Keywords:
Performance Tests; Cognitive Capacity; Human Performance Models; Fatigue; Workload; Test Batteries; Physiological Measures; Neuropsychological Assessment