Building Laboratories Without Limits: Bringing Behavioral and Neurophysiological Measurement to Real and Virtual Environments
Abstract
Humans live in a rich, vibrant, and dynamic world that both elicits and affords behavior, not only within the environment, but also with other human beings. Until recently, it has been particularly challenging to obtain state of the art measures of behavioral and neurophysiological activity in natural environments (i.e., outside of laboratory conditions). As a result, researchers have been forced to constrain much of their work to traditional low-fidelity lab-based studies and often evaluate behavior of participants working in isolation, a stark contrast to what a typical Department of Defense (DoD) operator encounters in the field where they typically work with other human operators or machines (e.g., manned-unmanned teams; MUM-T). Here we propose a concerted effort to tear down the wall between lab-based behavioral and neurophysiological research and the real world by employing the latest generation of ambulatory behavioral and neurophysiological measurement tools to study humans where they exist: either in the physical world itself or in very close approximations to it. Importantly, our work will consider not only humans acting in isolation, but also in small groups as they do in a range of situations, including many that are relevant to military contexts. To do so, we propose the formation of a new living laboratory we call IMMERSE (Ideas for Merging Measures in Enhanced Reality and Social Environments), in which researchers will use an array of virtual reality, augmented reality, mobile eye tracking, ambulatory EEG, and ambulatory physiological recording systems to solve real-world problems. Critically, all of these systems can be combined to provide multiple measures of human performance (e.g., brain activity, physiological arousal, eye gaze) in virtual and real-world settings, creating a host of new and unparalleled capabilities for University of Central Florida (UCF) researchers interested in solving practical, real-world problems important to DoD. The equipment purchased through this grant will allow for naturalistic studies related to brain-computer interfaces, human-robot teams, human-human teams, cybersecurity, augmented displays, adaptive performance, and assessment of posttraumatic stress disorder. Additionally, given UCFÕs 66,000 students, opportunities for utilizing the proposed equipment for educational purposes abound. To leverage these possibilities, we will team with UCF STEM - the overarching home for campus-wide STEM education programs at UCF - to offer a host of new STEM education opportunities for high-school students, UCF undergraduate students, and K-12 teachers. Combined, our laboratory without limits can have substantial and sustained impacts on both DoD relevant research and STEM education for years to come.
Document Details
- Document Type
- DoD Grant Award
- Publication Date
- Aug 19, 2019
- Source ID
- W911NF1910442
Entities
People
- Mark Neider
Organizations
- Army Contracting Command
- Office of the Secretary of Defense
- University of Central Florida