Publications

Dornburg, Courtney S.; Hendrickson, Stacey M.; Forsythe, James C.; Bauer, Travis L.; Davidson, George S.

Abstract not provided.

Dornburg, Courtney S.; Adams, Susan S.; Forsythe, James C.; Davidson, George S.

The present paper explores group dynamics and electronic communication, two components of wicked problem solving that are inherent to the national security environment (as well as many other business environments). First, because there can be no ''right'' answer or solution without first having agreement about the definition of the problem and the social meaning of a ''right solution'', these problems (often) fundamentally relate to the social aspects of groups, an area with much empirical research and application still needed. Second, as computer networks have been increasingly used to conduct business with decreased costs, increased information accessibility, and rapid document, database, and message exchange, electronic communication enables a new form of problem solving group that has yet to be well understood, especially as it relates to solving wicked problems.

Adams, Susan S.; Davidson, George S.; Dornburg, Courtney S.; Forsythe, James C.

An experiment is proposed which will compare the effectiveness of individual versus group brainstorming in addressing difficult, real world challenges. Previous research into electronic brainstorming has largely been limited to laboratory experiments using small groups of students answering questions irrelevant to an industrial setting. The proposed experiment attempts to extend current findings to real-world employees and organization-relevant challenges. Our employees will brainstorm ideas over the course of several days, echoing the real-world scenario in an industrial setting. The methodology and hypotheses to be tested are presented along with two questions for the experimental brainstorming sessions. One question has been used in prior work and will allow calibration of the new results with existing work. The second question qualifies as a complicated, perhaps even wickedly hard, question, with relevance to modern management practices.

Davidson, George S.; Dornburg, Courtney S.; Adams, Susan S.; Hendrickson, Stacey M.; Bauer, Travis L.; Forsythe, James C.

An experiment was conducted comparing the effectiveness of individual versus group electronic brainstorming in order to address difficult, real world challenges. While industrial reliance on electronic communications has become ubiquitous, empirical and theoretical understanding of the bounds of its effectiveness have been limited. Previous research using short-term, laboratory experiments have engaged small groups of students in answering questions irrelevant to an industrial setting. The current experiment extends current findings beyond the laboratory to larger groups of real-world employees addressing organization-relevant challenges over the course of four days. Findings are twofold. First, the data demonstrate that (for this design) individuals perform at least as well as groups in producing quantity of electronic ideas, regardless of brainstorming duration. However, when judged with respect to quality along three dimensions (originality, feasibility, and effectiveness), the individuals significantly (p<0.05) out performed the group working together. The theoretical and applied (e.g., cost effectiveness) implications of this finding are discussed. Second, the current experiment yielded several viable solutions to the wickedly difficult problem that was posed.

Dornburg, Courtney S.; Davidson, George S.; Forsythe, James C.

A web-based brainstorm was conducted in the summer of 2007 within the Sandia Restricted Network. This brainstorming experiment was modeled around the 'yellow sticky' brainstorms that are used in many face-to-face meetings at Sandia National Laboratories. This document discusses the implementation and makes suggestions for future implementations.

2005 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems, IROS

Dixon, Kevin R.; Lippitt, Carl E.; Forsythe, James C.

A classification system is developed to identify driving situations from labeled examples of previous occurrences. The purpose of the classifier is to provide physical context to a separate system that mitigates unnecessary distractions, allowing the driver to maintain focus during periods of high difficulty. While watching videos of driving, we asked different users to indicate their perceptions of the current situation. We then trained a classifier to emulate the human recognition of driving situations using the Sandia Cognitive Framework. In unstructured conditions, such as driving in urban areas and the German autobahn, the classifier was able to correctly predict human perceptions of driving situations over 95% of the time. This paper focuses on the learning algorithms used to train the driving-situation classifier. Future work will reduce the human efforts needed to train the system. © 2005 IEEE.

Forsythe, James C.; Forsythe, James C.; Speed, Ann S.; Lippitt, Carl E.; Schaller, Mark J.; Xavier, Patrick G.; Thomas, Edward V.; Schoenwald, David A.

This report documents work undertaken to endow the cognitive framework currently under development at Sandia National Laboratories with a human-like memory for specific life episodes. Capabilities have been demonstrated within the context of three separate problem areas. The first year of the project developed a capability whereby simulated robots were able to utilize a record of shared experience to perform surveillance of a building to detect a source of smoke. The second year focused on simulations of social interactions providing a queriable record of interactions such that a time series of events could be constructed and reconstructed. The third year addressed tools to promote desktop productivity, creating a capability to query episodic logs in real time allowing the model of a user to build on itself based on observations of the user's behavior.

Forsythe, James C.; Forsythe, James C.; Bernard, Michael L.; Xavier, Patrick G.; Abbott, Robert G.; Speed, Ann S.; Brannon, Nathan B.

This project is being conducted by Sandia National Laboratories in support of the DARPA Augmented Cognition program. Work commenced in April of 2002. The objective for the DARPA program is to 'extend, by an order of magnitude or more, the information management capacity of the human-computer warfighter.' Initially, emphasis has been placed on detection of an operator's cognitive state so that systems may adapt accordingly (e.g., adjust information throughput to the operator in response to workload). Work conducted by Sandia focuses on development of technologies to infer an operator's ongoing cognitive processes, with specific emphasis on detecting discrepancies between machine state and an operator's ongoing interpretation of events.

Hart, William E.; Forsythe, James C.

The authors describe a naturalistic behavioral model for the simulation of small unit combat. This model, Klein's recognition-primed decision making (RPD) model, is driven by situational awareness rather than a rational process of selecting from a set of action options. They argue that simulated combatants modeled with RPD will have more flexible and realistic responses to a broad range of small-scale combat scenarios. Furthermore, they note that the predictability of a simulation using an RPD framework can be easily controlled to provide multiple evaluations of a given combat scenario. Finally, they discuss computational issues for building an RPD-based behavior engine for fully automated combatants in small conflict scenarios, which are being investigated within Sandia's Next Generation Site Security project.