Enhancing Mitigation in Augmented Cognition

Abstract

In augmented cognition (AugCog), mitigation strategies are used as real-time intervention techniques that are triggered by the outcome of cognitive state assessment and context to significantly improve human-systems performance. Yet, no common ground has been established regarding best practices and what aspects to consider during implementation. This paper discusses mitigation strategies currently used in AugCog systems and provides insights into their strengths and weaknesses. An event-based conceptual framework is introduced that aids real-time mitigation strategy selection by linking system events to real-time cognitive state indicators, which together determine when, what, and how to mitigate. Insights from the implementation of this framework in an AugCog system designed to optimize situation awareness are presented, which support the architecture of the framework and identify further challenges to mitigation. Future work should focus on further validating the proposed framework and leveraging techniques from other domains (e.g., film, theater) to create more effective mitigation concepts in AugCog systems.