Editorial: Military Human Performance Optimization: Contemporary Issues for Sustained and Improved Readiness

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-6
Author(s):  
Bradley C. Nindl ◽  
Heikki Kyröläinen
Keyword(s):  
Performance Optimization ◽  
Human Performance

Human Performance Optimization

Head Strong ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 78-98
Author(s):  
Michael D. Matthews
Keyword(s):  
Human Physiology ◽  
Performance Optimization ◽  
Human Performance ◽  
Substantial Reduction ◽  
Leader Development ◽  
Us Army ◽  
Military Forces ◽  
The Us ◽  
The Military ◽  
Near Future

Budgetary constraints and emerging advances in weapons technology have resulted in a substantial reduction in the sizes of contemporary military forces. The US Army, at less than 500,000 soldiers, is a fraction of its size of a generation ago, yet the demands for it to deploy in a variety of missions around the globe have only increased. This chapter reviews current and emerging strategies that may aid in optimizing soldier performance. Developments in human physiology, genetics, nutrition, neurotechnology, sleep, noncognitive amplifiers, and leader development are described. Currently available strategies are identified, as are approaches to human performance optimization that are likely to emerge in the near future. Extrapolations of human performance optimization protocols to other contexts beyond the military are considered.

The Warrior Model for Human Performance Optimization

2019 ◽  
Vol 27 (3) ◽  
pp. 99-106 ◽  
Author(s):  
Timothy C. Sell ◽  
Robert H. Lutz ◽  
Mallory S. Faherty
Keyword(s):  
Performance Optimization ◽  
Human Performance

scholarly journals A survey of mathematical models of human performance using power and energy

2019 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Vijay Sarthy M. Sreedhara ◽  
Gregory M. Mocko ◽  
Randolph E. Hutchison
Keyword(s):  
Performance Optimization ◽  
Human Performance ◽  
Critical Power ◽  
Physical Exertion ◽  
Individual Variability ◽  
Health Performance ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Power And Energy ◽  
Two Parameter ◽  
Individual Training

AbstractThe ability to predict the systematic decrease of power during physical exertion gives valuable insights into health, performance, and injury. This review surveys the research of power-based models of fatigue and recovery within the area of human performance. Upon a thorough review of available literature, it is observed that the two-parameter critical power model is most popular due to its simplicity. This two-parameter model is a hyperbolic relationship between power and time with critical power as the power-asymptote and the curvature constant denoted by W′. Critical power (CP) is a theoretical power output that can be sustained indefinitely by an individual, and the curvature constant (W′) represents the amount of work that can be done above CP. Different methods and models have been validated to determine CP and W′, most of which are algebraic manipulations of the two-parameter model. The models yield different CP and W′ estimates for the same data depending on the regression fit and rounding off approximations. These estimates, at the subject level, have an inherent day-to-day variability called intra-individual variability (IIV) associated with them, which is not captured by any of the existing methods. This calls for a need for new methods to arrive at the IIV associated with CP and W′. Furthermore, existing models focus on the expenditure of W′ for efforts above CP and do not model its recovery in the sub-CP domain. Thus, there is a need for methods and models that account for (i) the IIV to measure the effectiveness of individual training prescriptions and (ii) the recovery of W′ to aid human performance optimization.

Human Performance Optimization

2019 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Neuroscience ◽  
Performance Optimization ◽  
Human Performance ◽  
Performance Enhancement ◽  
High Stress ◽  
Ethical Considerations ◽  
Improve Performance ◽  
High Stakes ◽  
Desirable Outcome ◽  
Near Future

Advances in cognitive neuroscience, engineering, and related fields suggest new ways of optimizing human performance. Especially for organizations that operate in high-stakes, high-stress, and competitive settings, helping individual workers and teams improve and sustain performance represents a desirable outcome. Moreover, to the extent that strategies to improve performance allow individuals to grow and flourish, enhancing performance is also a desirable outcome for workers. This volume addresses state-of-the-art scientifically grounded approaches to optimizing human performance. Collectively, the topics addressed integrate performance optimization strategies across several disciplines that speak to performance enhancement. A common theme is the need to include ethical considerations in any decision to implement human performance optimization strategies. The book concludes with a summary and synthesis of currently attainable approaches to performance enhancement and approaches that may emerge in the near future based on further research and development.

Human Performance Optimization

2015 ◽  
Vol 29 ◽  
pp. S52-S56 ◽  
Author(s):  
Patricia A. Deuster ◽  
Francis G. OʼConnor
Keyword(s):  
Performance Optimization ◽  
Human Performance

scholarly journals Chunking as a rational strategy for lossy data compression in visual working memory

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthew R. Nassar ◽  
Julie C. Helmers ◽  
Michael J. Frank
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Visual Working Memory ◽  
Performance Optimization ◽  
Human Performance ◽  
Storage Capacity ◽  
Working Memory Capacity ◽  
Quantitative Description ◽  
Memory Task ◽  
Memory Capacity ◽  
Capacity Limitations

AbstractThe nature of capacity limits for visual working memory has been the subject of an intense debate that has relied on models that assume items are encoded independently. Here we propose that instead, similar features are jointly encoded through a “chunking” process to optimize performance on visual working memory tasks. We show that such chunking can: 1) facilitate performance improvements for abstract capacity-limited systems, 2) be optimized through reinforcement, 3) be implemented by center-surround dynamics, and 4) increase effective storage capacity at the expense of recall precision. Human performance on a variant of a canonical working memory task demonstrated performance advantages, precision detriments, inter-item dependencies, and trial-to-trial behavioral adjustments diagnostic of performance optimization through center-surround chunking. Models incorporating center-surround chunking provided a better quantitative description of human performance in our study as well as in a meta-analytic dataset, and apparent differences in working memory capacity across individuals were attributable to individual differences in the implementation of chunking. Our results reveal a normative rationale for center-surround connectivity in working memory circuitry, call for re-evaluation of memory performance differences that have previously been attributed to differences in capacity, and support a more nuanced view of visual working memory capacity limitations: strategic tradeoff between storage capacity and memory precision through chunking contribute to flexible capacity limitations that include both discrete and continuous aspects.

Head Strong

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael D. Matthews
Keyword(s):  
Performance Optimization ◽  
Human Performance ◽  
Vital Role ◽  
First Century ◽  
Military Psychology ◽  
Military Leaders ◽  
Sports Teams ◽  
Breaking News ◽  
New Material ◽  
The Military

Since the publication of the first edition of Head Strong: How Psychology Is Revolutionizing War in 2014, developments in military psychology have been rapid and important—so much so that this revised edition is necessary to accurately capture the vital role that psychology continues to play in twenty-first-century military success. The ideas contained in the first edition influenced emerging doctrine in the Army’s Human Dimension and informed military leaders around the globe of ways that psychological science and practice may be leveraged to improve combat effectiveness. Many of the predictions made in the first edition have come true, and new and exciting products of military psychology now offer novel ways of impacting military outcomes. This revised edition of Head Strong updates the 13 chapters included in the first edition with breaking news in military psychology and adds new material to augment those chapters. Two entirely new chapters are included in this edition. The first focuses on human performance optimization. It captures rapid developments in psychology, cognitive neuroscience, and other disciplines that may help the military optimize soldier and unit performance. The second dives deeply into character and discusses how to measure it, how to develop it, and how character plays a vital role in the performance of individual soldiers and their units. Like the other topics in Head Strong, these two new chapters have significant applicability to nonmilitary organizations including schools, corporations, and sports teams.

Optimizing Human Performance

2019 ◽  
pp. 1-7
Author(s):  
Michael D. Matthews ◽  
David M. Schnyer
Keyword(s):  
Performance Optimization ◽  
Financial Constraints ◽  
Human Performance ◽  
Employee Performance ◽  
Initial Study ◽  
Training Requirements ◽  
Mission Success ◽  
Worker Performance ◽  
Civilian Employees ◽  
The Military

In an increasingly complex and fast-paced world, organizations must develop strategies to enhance or optimize worker performance in order to achieve their goals. This is especially true, for example, in the military, where highly skilled and competent personnel are needed, and where, because of lengthy training requirements and financial constraints, getting the most out of its existing soldiers and civilian employees is critical to mission success. Therefore, in many ways the military serves as the best model to understand how humans, when required to go well beyond common capabilities, can optimally function in extreme circumstances. This chapter describes the origins of an Army study to investigate human performance optimization (HPO), the results of that initial study, and introduces the topics included in the current volume that speak to scientifically grounded strategies that may enable the Army and other organizations to optimize the cognitive, physical, and social aspects of employee performance. The topics included in this book are relevant to organizations and individuals that seek to remain competitive by achieving HPO.

scholarly journals Employing Human Performance Optimization Initiatives from Historically Black Colleges and Universities: The Case of the U.S. Military

2011 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 5-33
Author(s):  
G.L.A. Harris ◽  
Ayanna Shivers ◽  
Patricia Deuster
Keyword(s):  
African American ◽  
Historically Black ◽  
Performance Optimization ◽  
Human Performance ◽  
Black Colleges ◽  
Colleges And Universities ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Historically Black Colleges ◽  
Black Colleges And Universities ◽  
The U.S

Abstract To preemptively respond to the ever changing battlefield and in light of growing threats to national security, the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) and by extension the U.S. military, have developed human performance optimization (HPO) initiatives to improve warfighter performance for increasing mission readiness. African American officers, by way of the Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC) at Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), have long been and continue to be an important constituency for this strategy. Using the results of an online search via the Internet of HPO-like academic offerings at HBCUs, this paper proposes that the U.S. military could enhance its war fighting capability, and specifically that of its African American officers, for increased preparedness, increased performance and sustained and increased readiness by modeling HPO like programs at HBCUs. The authors examine similar efforts around the world, offer the potential benefits to be derived from expanded collaborations between the U.S. military and HBCUs and discuss the implications for the U.S. military and militaries within international communities, HBCUs and future research.

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