Training: Neural systems and intelligence applications

Kay M. Stanney, PhD, Kelly S. Hale, PhD, Sven Fuchs, Angela Baskin, Chris Berka

Synesis: A Journal of Science, Technology, Ethics, and Policy 2011; 2:T38-44

Advances in modeling and simulation can now substantially improve intelligence training. To maximize the benefit of such advanced training systems, analysts and trainees must be equipped with tools that measure, diagnose, and mediate intelligence operations training exercises. When training foraging skills, neurotechnology can be used to monitor an analyst’s processing of data sources, diagnose how well relevance factors are determined and ‘nuggets’ are formulated, and initiate mediation when inadequacies are revealed. Neurotechnology could also be used to train sense-making skills by testing the quality and correctness of analyst decisions and facilitating the cognitive nuances inherent to individuals during the analytic sense-making process. This article discusses possible use of neurotechnology for measurement, diagnosis, and mediation in both the bottom-up and top-down processing cycles of information analysis, and provides a case study that summarizes the implementation of one such tool – the Revolutionary Advanced Processing Image Detection (RAPID) system.

Key words: Information analysis, intelligence operations training, foraging, sense-making, neurotechnology, bottom-up processing, top-down processing, Revolutionary Advanced Processing Image Detection (RAPID) system.