Thesis advisor: Pamela J. Grace / Significance/Background: Surrogate decision-makers (SDMs) take part in 1.5 million end-of-life (EOL) decisions per year. Most find the role burdensome, often do not make decisions concordant with patients' wishes, and many suffer negative psychological aftereffects. Specific Aims: 1) Identify and describe the psychological processes of recent SDMs for adults at EOL in the intensive care unit (ICU) and 2) develop a theoretical model of SDMs' psychological processes. Methods/Analysis: Descriptive, multiple case study research design using a cognitive task analysis (CTA) interviewing approach. Participants completed an in-depth semi-structured CTA interview and a demographic form. Verbatim transcribed interviews were encoded and analyzed until theoretical saturation was met. Results: Nineteen SDMs (female=11) with a mean age of 59 years (± 11) who made decisions for patients (mean age, 67±13 years) who died in the ICU completed interviews. Data analysis yielded 27 psychological processes representing the hypothesized theoretical links amongst 20 individual psychological concepts. The PREDICAMENTS model (Psychology, Reasoning, and Ethics Demonstrated In Choices about the Acceptability of Medical Treatments and Patient Conditions Encountered in Life Threatening Situations) of surrogate decision-making was assembled from these psychological processes and concepts. The model depicts a complex web of psychological processes wherein SDMs ultimately express acceptance or rejection of medical treatments and/or the patient's physical condition based on their perception of the acceptability (or lack thereof) of medical treatments and/or the patient's physical condition. Conclusions: The PREDICAMENTS model offers an initial picture of the underlying psychological processes operating in SDMs decision-making. Implications for Practice and Research: The PREDICAMENTS model can be used to assess and understand SDMs' thought processes, emotions, and ethical concerns. Further research is needed to test and corroborate constructs and linkages in this model with the aim of developing decision support interventions. Ethicists need to discuss the implications of this descriptive theoretical model for the normative ethical standards expected of SDMs. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2013. / Submitted to: Boston College. Connell School of Nursing. / Discipline: Nursing.

Designs of human-computer systems intended for time-critical multitasking can benefit from an understanding of the human factors that support or limit multitasking performance and a detailed account of the human-machine interactions that unfold in a given task environment. An integrated, computational cognitive model can test and provide such an understanding of the human factors related to multitasking and reveal the dynamic interactions that occur in the task at the level of hundreds of milliseconds. This dissertation provides such a detailed computation model of human multitasking, built for a time-critical, multimodal dual task experiment and validated by the eye tracking data collected from the experiment. This dissertation also develops new approaches to conducting cognitive modeling, which enable efficient and systematical exploration of multitasking strategies, as well as principled model comparisons. The dual task experiment captures many key aspects of real-world multitasking scenarios such as driving. In the experiment, the participant interleaved two tasks: one requires tracking a constantly-moving target with a joystick, and the other requires keying-in responses to objects moving across a radar display. Peripheral visibility and auditory conditions of the experiment were manipulated to assess the influence of peripheral visual information and auditory information on multitasking performance. Detailed eye tracking data were collected, and this dissertation presents a detailed analysis of this set of data, which provides the bases for model development and validation. The cognitive model presented in this dissertation, built based on the Executive Processes-Interactive Control cognitive architecture, accurately accounted for the eye movement data and other behavioral data of each participant using systematic explorations of task strategies and parameters configured for each individual participant. A parallelized cognitive modeling system was developed to accommodate the much increased computational demand of strategy exploration and individualized model building. New model comparison techniques were proposed to determine which strategy best accounts for the empirical data. Payoff analyses were applied, and they revealed people’s tendency to locally optimize task performance based on task payoff as well as instantaneous feedback. The results point to new approaches for building a priori models that predict multitasking performance. This dissertation includes previously published coauthored material.

This work was possible through the support of my personal and professional families. Personally, my husband Brad was my continual encourager through each phase of this journey. This accomplishment is as much his as mine. Also, through this process I feel I have matured at the hands of the Lord through His careful, peaceful leading within the many nuanced steps of completing the doctoral program. Professionally, the ladies forming my doctoral committee have been more than advisors, but mentors. Their thoughtful counsel helped me feel capable throughout the many phases of becoming a researcher and scholar, yet they offered insight always with attention to the aspects of life that keep us whole outside of our work

Context: Today there are a lot of different kinds of game engines to choose from, but is one of these engines more suitable for a developer with a beginners' experience in game development? Objective: This is something we explore in order to help teachers choose a suitable engine for teaching game development to beginners.In this study, two teams of two persons each compare two of these engines, Godot and Unity. Method: We conducted a study, consisting of six iterations, to observe the development of a prototype game using the two engines. We collected data during the development of the game using a think-aloud protocol and a questionnaire, and after the development using a questionnaire that included the SUS scale for assessing the overall usability of the game engines. Results: The Godot engine have been focused on completing their documentation and the documentation is somewhat directed to more experienced developers. In comparison the Unity engine got more solutions outside of the documentation and also got their own special guides towards beginners.Although Godot engine got a more simpler GUI which will be easier at first but as the tasks became more difficult this became more of a disadvantage and some solutions were not found easily among the documentation. In comparison the Unity engine got more menus and can seem a lot to a beginner but became to be more helpful the harder the tasks became and even though most solutions were not found among the documentation, there were enough information from other sources to solve all problems with an easy search.Neither of the engines provided with a lot of helpful information within the tool, although the Godot engine had some cases where the tool would let the developers know a certain component was needed. Conclusion: Our main conclusion is that Godot is a good entry point into game development but as the tasks gets more difficult students would need the teacher’s help in order to solve the tasks as easy as with Unity. In contrast, Unity starts more difficult but as tasks gets more difficult Unity have more solutions online, which makes it more suitable if students are to develop on their own.\\This study is rather small with only four participants and this limits the results, for future studies it would be best to have more participants. Keywords: Cognitive task analysis, game developer experience, Godot, Unity, game engine, usability

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Construction project performance and worker productivity are often tied to the availability and effective presentation of information, tools, materials, and equipment. While advancements in technology have improved much of the processes on a construction project, the medium of information dissemination at the construction work face has consistently relied on the use of two dimensional drawings and specifications. Industry initiatives are driving increased collaboration through three dimensional BIM (Building Information Modeling) models. However, the added dimension partially loses its effect when presented on a two dimensional computer monitor. Other computer forms of presentation intended for mobility (PDAs, laptops, and tablets) can be difficult to use in the field due to glare, durability in a harsh working environment, and the required skill level for effective use. Three dimensional (3D) physical printers now provide the capability to develop scaled and color models of a project directly from a BIM model. 3D physical printers represent a potential transformative change of providing engineering information to construction crews, but how to develop 3D models that leverage the cognitive benefits of viewing engineering information in a physical 3D form is unknown. The primary contribution to the overall body of knowledge of this dissertation is to scientifically examine the effect that different engineering information mediums have on an individual’s cognitive ability to effectively and accurately interpret spatial information. First, the author developed a robust scientific experiment for construction practitioners and students to complete. This experiment included outcomes measures on mental workload, cognitive demand, productivity, efficiency, demographics, and preferences. After collecting data, the author analyzed the outcomes through a series of statistical analyses to measure the differences between groups and quantify the affect and relationship among key variables. From the results, there are statistically significant improvements in productivity and efficiency of practitioners and students when using a physical model compared to two dimensional drawings and a three dimensional computer model. In addition, the average cognitive demand for a physical model was lower than the average cognitive demand for two dimensional drawings and three dimensional computer model.

Research on task-based language teaching (TBLT) offers a large body of evidence suggesting that cognitive task complexity influences learners’ language production and development. Studies that investigate task complexity, however, provide contradictory results on the way different linguistic aspects of performance are affected by the manipulation of cognitive task complexity. The empirical study presented in this degree project aimed to investigate the effect of task complexity on the accuracy, complexity and fluency in learners ́ written performance. An additional goal of the study was to examine whether proficiency level would mediate the effects of cognitive task complexity. In order to explain the influence of cognitive task complexity on linguistic performance two theoretical models are used and discussed, namely Skehan’s Limited Attention Capacity Hypothesis (Skehan 2015) and Robinson’s Cognition Hypothesis (Robinson 2001, 2011, 2015). In order to answer the research questions guiding the study, 71 Swedish high school students of Spanish performed a simple or a more cognitively complex version of a written task. Results showed that increasing task complexity had a positive effect on the fluency, accuracy, and complexity of the participants ́ written performance, and that these effects were greater among the high proficiency participants’ productions. These results offer valuable implications for syllabus and task designers, language teachers and examiners, as well as second and foreign language researchers.

Studien belyser flygtrafikledningssystemet Mil i-ATC och flygledares upplevelser av systemet och larmhanteringen. Arbetet genomfördes på uppdrag av Combitech med syfte att undersöka och skapa förståelse för hur flygledare interagerar med systemet och fattar beslut i samband med inkommande larm. För att fånga användarens perspektiv genomfördes två observationer och tolv semistrukturerade intervjuer med erfarna flygledare, och för att analysera data tillämpades metoderna Cognitive Task Analysis (CTA) och Tematisk analys. Resultatet av CTA presenterades i form av ett flödesschema, vilket tillsammans med den tematiska analysen och tidigare forskning bidrog till en diskussion kring vidmakthållande ur ett användarperspektiv samt framtagandet av förbättringsförslag.Resultatet indikerade att det är en komplex uppgift att designa användargränssnitt för ett system som kantas och är beroende av användares egna erfarenheter och bedömningar. Larmtext i kombination med färgkodning visade sig vara ett effektivt verktyg för att ge användaren en snabb överblick och bedöma allvarlighetsgraden av ett inkommande larm. En risk som identifierades var fenomenet Cry Wolf, där flygledare tenderade att underskatta allvarlighetsgraden vid upprepade larm inom korta tidsintervaller. Förslag på åtgärder för att undvika risken för Cry Wolf-fenomenet är att skapa en lista för långtidskvittering samt implementera en ny larmsignal för kritiska larm. Vid implementering av nya funktioner är det av yttersta vikt att genomföra noggranna tester för att undvika tvetydigheter och alternativa tolkningar av informationen som presenteras. Felaktig eller otydlig design kan orsaka problem, och eftersom människan är en essentiell del inom flygledning är det nödvändigt och betydelsefullt att utveckla system som betraktar människan som en del av systemet, med syfte att förebygga mänskligt felhandlande.

<div>Stability of motor performance is important for voluntary movement control, but it should not be maximized to the exclusion of all else. To transition to a new task, the current task must be destabilized. When expecting to switch tasks, people are known to reduce their stability prior to initiating the change. Here, we determine if the observed stability modulation is influenced by the expectation of future movement, is a relic of the movements performed in the recent past, or is a consequence of both those processes. Furthermore, this work explores the relation between stability modulation observed in isometric finger force production tasks to cognitive flexibility and clinical measures of manual dexterity. Stability modulation can be viewed as a motor response to the recognition of altered environmental demands or internally generated desires to change body movements or postures. Therefore, it is hypothesized that cognitive flexibility – the efficacy of cognitive processing – will relate to stability modulation. Finally, it is hypothesized that the motor adjustments in response to changing task/environment demands will correlate with clinical tests of manual dexterity that involve placing pegs into holes.</div><div>Twenty-two young-adult participants (age 21.05 +/- 0.44 years) completed tasks in the three domains. The Grooved Pegboard and NIH 9-Hole tests of manual dexterity measured their manual function by time to complete the tests. Cognitive flexibility was measured by a task-switching task which required adjusting to a changing set of rules, and the reaction time and accuracy costs of task-switching were recorded. Lastly, participants’ stability of performance in an isometric finger-pressing task was assessed using the uncontrolled manifold analysis and root-mean-square error (RMSE) in the performance. Participants produced pressing forces with four fingers to match a single total force targets presented as feedback on a computer screen. In the ‘Steady’ task, target remained motionless. In the ‘Future Effects’ task, the target remained motionless for several seconds and then began moving. The ‘Past Effects’ task comprised of a dynamic initial portion followed by a stationary target. Lastly, the ‘Combined’ task had a constant force section flanked on either side by epochs of target movement. </div><div>The RMSE results confirmed the existence of stability modulation and established that this is driven by the expectation of future movement, and not by the history of previous movements. The Steady and Past Effects tasks exhibited higher stability than the Future Effects and Combined tasks. The stability estimates obtained from the uncontrolled manifold analysis showed similar trends. Cognitive flexibility (quantified as global accuracy cost) correlated with stability modulation indicating that individuals who show greater cognitive flexibility tend to demonstrate greater stability modulation. However, an association between stability modulation and clinical pegboard tests of manual function were not observed. This may possibly be due to the homogeneity of the test sample, or because the finger-force-production task and pegboard task measure disparate aspects of manual function. </div><div><br></div>

<div>In 2019, cyber security is considered one of the most significant threats to the global economy and national security. Top U.S. agencies have acknowledged this fact, and provided direction regarding strategic priorities and future initiatives within the domain. However, there is still a lack of basic understanding of factors that impact complexity, scope, and effectiveness of cyber defense efforts. Computer security incident response is the short-term process of detecting, identifying, mitigating, and resolving a potential security threat to a network. These activities are typically conducted in computer security incident response teams (CSIRTs) comprised of human analysts that are organized into hierarchical tiers and work closely with many different computational tools and programs. Despite the fact that CSIRTs often provide the first line of defense to a network, there is currently a substantial global skills shortage of analysts to fill open positions. Research and development efforts from educational and technological perspectives have been independently ineffective at addressing this shortage due to time lags in meeting demand and associated costs. This dissertation explored how to combine the two approaches by considering how human-centered research can inform development of computational solutions toward augmenting human analyst capabilities. The larger goal of combining these approaches is to effectively complement human expertise with technological capability to alleviate pressures from the skills shortage.</div><div><br></div><div>Insights and design recommendations for hybrid systems to advance the current state of security automation were developed through three studies. The first study was an ethnographic field study which focused on collecting and analyzing contextual data from three diverse CSIRTs from different sectors; the scope extended beyond individual incident response tasks to include aspects of organization and information sharing within teams. Analysis revealed larger design implications regarding collaboration and coordination in different team environments, as well as considerations about usefulness and adoption of automation. The second study was a cognitive task analysis with CSIR experts with diverse backgrounds; the interviews focused on expertise requirements for information sharing tasks in CSIRTs. Outputs utilized a dimensional expertise construct to identify and prioritize potential expertise areas for augmentation with automated tools and features. Study 3 included a market analysis of current automation platforms based on the expertise areas identified in Study 2, and used Systems Engineering methodologies to develop concepts and functional architectures for future system (and feature) development.</div><div><br></div><div>Findings of all three studies support future directions for hybrid automation development in CSIR by identifying social and organizational factors beyond traditional tool design in security that supports human-systems integration. Additionally, this dissertation delivered functional considerations for automated technology that can augment human capabilities in incident response; these functions support better information sharing between humans and between humans and technological systems. By pursuing human-systems integration in CSIR, research can help alleviate the skills shortage by identifying where automation can dynamically assist with information sharing and expertise development. Future research can expand upon the expertise framework developed for CSIR and extend the application of proposed augmenting functions in other domains.</div>