Human factors in cued target acquisition

Target acquisition in military and industrial settings is often augmented by a cueing system, whereby a computer gives advice that can be accepted or rejected by the human observer. Two human actors issues involved with the use of such cuers are: 1) how to present the cue to the observer, and 2) to what degree will the observer use or rely upon the provided information, particularly in cases where the cuer is not wholly reliable. In this paper, we consider both of these issues. Infrared military-type images that were overlaid with cues to suggest target presence were presented to six groups of observers. The observers were informed that the cues were not always correct. We presented several different cue interfaces to our observers. When questioned, the observers indicated a preference for particular cue types. Overall, the observers' opinions about the cue types were reflected in their acquisition results. Observer performance was higher when cued than when not cued. Although the cues were effective, different cue reliability levels did not influence the results to a large degree.