Automation Etiquette in the Augmented Cognition Context

Neurophysiologically triggered adaptive assistance offers many advantages over traditional approaches to automation. These systems offer the promise of leveraging the strengths of humans and machines-- augmenting human performance with automation specifically when human abilities fall short of the demands imposed by task environments. However, by delegating critical aspects of complex tasks to autonomous automation components, these systems run the risk of introducing many of the problems observed in traditional human-automation interaction contexts. This paper describes steps taken to mitigate the possibility of introducing these problems in the context of an augmented cognition system to help dismounted soldiers perform taxing cognitive tasks. It describes specific design decisions that address many of the concerns raised by automation researchers, and presents a summary of performance results that support the overall efficacy of implemented measures