The Mind as a Target: Psychological Operations and Data Fusion Technology

Abstract

Psychological Operations (PSYOP) involve actions taken to change the perceptions and ultimately the behavior of a particular foreign audience. The conduct of PSYOP requires an accurate understanding of the targeted audience and the means of influencing that audience in terms of specific goals and objectives. To accomplish this challenging category of operations directed at the minds of the target audience, PSYOP planners need access to cultural, sociopolitical, and current-event/situation data. In addition to the need for this information to be accurate, there is the critical need for the information to be updated as close to real-time as possible. While there are initiatives underway that address these needs, a new potential may be found in the field of data fusion. The process of collection of multiple sources of data, and the correlation and combination of the data to model the target audience, is a form of data fusion. This paper introduces the discipline of PSYOP, the critical needs for data within the process of target audience analysis (TAA), and insight as to where automated data fusion processes might play a role in future PSYOP planning systems.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Jan 01, 2001
Accession Number
ADA400090

Entities

People

  • John Muirhead

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • C4I
  • Materials and Manufacturing Processes

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Air Force
  • Air Intelligence
  • Command And Control
  • Data Fusion
  • Decision Support Systems
  • Force Protection
  • Government (Foreign)
  • Information Operations
  • Information Warfare
  • Language
  • Military Operations
  • New York
  • Perception
  • Psychological Operations
  • Psychological Phenomena And Processes
  • Psychology
  • Security

Readers

  • Organizational Process Management (OPM).
  • Organizational Psychology.
  • Systems Analysis and Design