Basic Research

ARI's Basic Research Program focuses on combinations of the training, leadership, and personnel requirements of the future. The Basic Research Office maintains close contact with ARI's applied researchers and other relevant agencies within the Army. These contacts help to define issues that require fundamental research, to ensure that the basic research program is coordinated across Services, and to facilitate the transition of basic research results to applied programs for eventual use by the operational Army.

Training for Speed and Knowledge
Basic research in this area is developing concepts and methods for training complex tasks and for sustaining complex task performance. Assessing the cognitive impact on the human of Future Force technology requirements arising from digital systems, semi-automated systems, and robotic systems is part of this process. A new effort in this area will seek to understand the impact of voluminous, multi-modal data on human performance; then explore how individuals and teams might be trained to integrate and use this rapidly-presented data. Another project is experimenting with unique training principles and methods to improve interpersonal skills and team adaptability and performance. Successful projects will transition to our applied research program to test the principles and methods in Army training environments. The models and theories produced through this work will be useful in identifying individual differences in training and will facilitate practical, individualized, adaptive training methods for a wide range of tasks.

Assessing and Improving Leader Skills
Commensurate with the Future Force requirements for rapidly developing adaptable, flexible leaders, the basic research program in leader development is directed toward providing concepts and methods for accelerating leader development and understanding how to develop adaptability and flexibility in a manner that can be tested in the applied environment. One of our major efforts in this area is using the new so-called Theory of Practical Intelligence to develop new techniques for acquiring experience-based knowledge faster and earlier in the human development lifecycle. We are also committed to discovering and testing the basic cognitive principles that underlie effective leader-team performance. Understanding the dynamics of small group leadership in face-to-face and distributed team environments is another key effort of our current basic research program in leadership. For example, one of our research projects seeks to develop leadership techniques that foster interaction, communication, and trust in electronic environments. Another examines group behavior under the stress of performing in a metropolitan hospital shock trauma center when the lead surgeon is communicating with the group through video and voice transmission.

Personnel Issues for the New Century
Identifying and measuring the aptitudes and skills that are projected to be required for effective human performance as the Army transforms to the Future Force is a major theme of this basic research effort. As part of this process, we are devising methods that can assess such attributes as persistency and dependability, describe how these attributes develop, and measure their contribution to performance and job tenure. For example, we have begun a new effort to assess individual adaptability and flexibility as aptitudes that can be measured across job domains. Other research efforts are exploring the sociological and psychological factors that could influence recruitment and retention; understanding how various social structures, such as the family, and population demographics influence Army performance; and investigating the conditions under which turnover hinders or helps team performance. Although turnover can be harmful, for example, when a team loses a productive member and must expend time and energy training a replacement; turnover can also be helpful, as when a team loses an unproductive member and gains a replacement with valuable knowledge. We anticipate that results from these research efforts will make important contributions to understanding and improving organizational effectiveness.

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