A new educational partnership agreement between the University of Cincinnati Psychology Department and the distinguished human factors research laboratory at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base will benefit business, industry and education. UC is now one of only four universities to have such an agreement with the Air Force Research Laboratory’s Human Effectiveness Directorate, joining the ranks of the University of Central Florida (which is known to house one of the most illustrious human factors programs nationally), George Mason University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).
The partnership with the UC Psychology Department, McMicken College of Arts and Sciences, and the Department of the Air Force, Air Force Research Laboratory, Human Effectiveness Directorate, Bio Sciences and Protection Division, Counter-Proliferation Branch (AFRL/HEPG) at Wright-Patterson AFB paves the way for the Air Force to loan equipment to UC psychology research labs as well as open teaching opportunities and lectures at UC for AFRL/HEPG personnel. In addition, UC psychology graduate students and faculty will participate in unique research projects at Wright-Patterson AFB.
"The Wright-Patterson research lab is the top human effectiveness laboratory in the Air Force – it’s the cream of the crop," says UC Psychology Professor Joel Warm. "This is a win-win agreement that achieves UC|21 goals of growing our research excellence. UC gets the benefit of utilizing valuable equipment and providing our students with tremendous professional training. The Air Force gets the benefit of carrying out their studies with our top research associates."
"AFRL’s Human Effectiveness Directorate at Wright-Patterson AFB has had a long and successful relationship with the University of Cincinnati," says W. Todd Nelson, Chief, Battlespace Accoustics Branch, Wright-Patterson AFB, who earned his doctoral degree in psychology from UC. "Over the years, we have co-sponsored and hosted some of UC’s top doctoral students in experimental psychology and human factors. We view this agreement as a way to continue and expand that relationship in a way that is mutually beneficial to all involved."
The collaboration may include, but is not limited to, the following research areas:
- Event management, command and control
- Cognitive science and engineering
- Computer graphics and real-time image generation
- Computer modeling and simulation
- Enhancement of human performance and performance prediction methods
- Other technology relatable to war-fighter interface improvements
Warm says previous research with the AFRL/HEPG has led to some key discoveries regarding sustained attention vigilance – performing a repetitive task over a long period of time – a job that challenges air traffic controllers, radar observers, fighter pilots and workers in industrial quality control. Warm says UC research, supported by equipment loaned from Wright-Patterson AFB, revealed why performance efficiency in these jobs can deteriorate over time.
"There’s the theory that because the task is repetitive and essentially non-changing, that the areas of the brain needed to maintain efficiency start to shut down and the worker becomes sleepy and loses alertness," Warm explains. "But through brain imaging equipment provided by the Air Force, we can see changes in blood flow and oxygen in the brain during the performance of a task. As a result, the blood flow data suggest that performance deteriorates not because the worker becomes sleepy, but rather because the worker used up brain assets needed to impact decisions and those assets are no longer available."
Warm says current research between UC and Wright-Patterson is exploring how fighter pilots can overcome GLOC – gravity-induced loss of consciousness when a fighter plane makes a sharp climb or sharp turn. Other research is investigating how to use brain activity to control computers, the measurement and evaluation of task-induced stress in the control of aircraft and team performance in the analysis and coordination of flight and mission control.