Submarine Sensemaking: Understanding and Supporting the Cognitive Work of Submarine Commanders

Problem Statement and Objectives

Submarine Commanding Officers (COs) need display systems designed to support and enhance their ability to make command decisions. After an initial cognitive task analysis study involving extensive interviews and observations of current COs, Cognitive Solutions Division (formerly Klein Associates Division) of ARA was asked to support the development and evaluation of technology insertion for fast attack control room systems.

Some findings of our research:

• The legacy system provided little support for pattern recognition. The system provided unfiltered data, did not highlight important information,
  and provided inadequate support for integrating information from
  multiple sources.
  
• While previous systems historically provided insight into the data processes and increased the team's understanding, the system being evaluated provided little support for mental simulation. This resulted in a visible lack of support of the COs projective and diagnostic needs.
  
• These shortcomings were linked to cognitive challenges witnessed and expressed in after-event-interviews. Of particular concern, in complex situations where the COs experience is most important, the system failed to highlight critical information when the COs needed it most.

Results and Benefits

Klein Division of ARA proposed six initial design directions to be implemented in decision support displays in the control room. Three of these dealt with understanding the current situation, and three were aimed at supporting, planning, and projecting into the future. Two of these directions are being incorporated into the 2007 Advanced Processing Build software upgrade for Los Angeles class submarines and will have a direct effect on the ability of submarine commanders to operate more effectively. Klein Division of ARA has helped collect and analyze data in the January 2007, August 2007, and January 2008 Submarine Watch Section Task Analysis events. The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory-led events baselined crew performance in a challenging scenario. Later, the new 2007 technology was installed in the simulator and the team ran the same scenario to gather quantitative, in-context metrics to determine return on investment. Although many different groups collected data during these exercises, it permitted Klein Division to expand our cognitive analysis beyond the CO to the entire control room crew. (delete: although the focus was on performance of the AN/BYG-1 tactical command system)

Periscope sweep of outside picture

Related

• Decision Support