Simulated, Sustained-Combat Operations in the Field Artillery Fire Direction Center (FDC): A Model for Evaluating Biomedical Indices,

In evaluating conditions which affect human performance, the scientific literature indicates the importance of task, personnel, and organizational variables. These include task complexity, feedback, pacing, level of training, intrinsic task interest, experience, motivation, and social factors. Such variables are considered critical determinants of performance capability under a variety of conditions. In the military community, concerns are often expressed as to the generality and predictive validity of past studies which have not included variables inherent in many military tasks. To address these issues and provide a framework for communicating research results to the military community, the Field Artillery fire direction center FDC was selected by the US Army Research Institute of Environmental Medicine USARIEM as a model team for study. It was postulated that these issues could be addressed in a laboratory simulation which would use actual Army teams performing their normal functions. This would permit control and replication of environmental and situational conditions and measurement and correlation of mission effectiveness, behavior and biological processes. Author