US study to explore how GPS dependence affects soldiers' decision-making

A team of psychologists at the University of Texas at Arlington is set to investigate whether dependence on GPS and other navigation technologies could impair soldiers' cognitive abilities when those systems become unavailable.

The yearlong, $200,000 study, funded by the U.S. Department of Defence through a sub-grant, will use virtual reality simulations to compare how participants navigate and recall their surroundings with and without digital navigation aids, Military Times writes.

The research will be led by Steven Weisberg and Hunter Ball, associate professors of psychology at the university. The findings could help inform the design of military computer interfaces and improve personnel assignments based on how individuals interact with technological support.

"If you're fostering a scenario in which people are overrelying on things, they might not be able to use their own cognition when the time comes for them to do so, and so we want to identify ... the specific design features that help out with that," Ball said.

"We also want to identify — more long-term — individual differences. If I'm someone who has really low cognitive ability, I might always be relying on that external [guidance] source, and that's going to be really good for me, but I'm going to suffer really bad whenever that goes down."

Ball said understanding these cognitive differences could help commanders make more effective role assignments.

The study, scheduled to begin on August 1, will involve undergraduate volunteers navigating a virtual city using desktop and head-mounted virtual reality systems.

"We're using that environment to see how well people can remember routes and buildings and landmarks while they have access to certain kinds of navigation support," Weisberg said. "And then we viciously take it away from them."

Researchers will analyze participants' performance after navigation aids are removed, measuring how well they remember routes, landmarks and other features of the environment. Eye-tracking technology will also be used to determine what participants spend the most time observing.

Beyond navigation, the researchers believe the project could demonstrate the broader value of virtual reality for behavioral research and military training.

"We can apply this into these more in-depth and applied settings. We can do the real-world training, we can have soldiers go through this training with the virtual headsets and navigating in these environments and understanding what things might actually look like," Ball said.

"But we have to first understand what are the cognitive mechanisms under there, and that's what we're trying to figure out at this point."

The study is expected to conclude next year, with a final report due by next summer. The researchers hope to secure additional funding for future work examining how military teams process information from multiple data sources and how eye-tracking data can improve understanding of what personnel observe, retain and remember.

By Sabina Mammadli