STEUER ENT
RESEARCH ON HUMAN FACTORS IN IMAGE INTERPRETER SYSTEMS
Existing knowledge of the basic Psychological factors underlying
image interpretation is severely limited. This limitation becomes in-
creasingly critical with the advent of new imagery collection techniques,
and the intensified requirement for rapid interpretation. The Personnel
Research Branch of the Department of the Army is engaged in a long-range
study to develop techniques and procedures to improve the Processing and
interpretation of intelligence obtained from aerial images.
The purposes of the present Research Study are: (1) to outline
the research program and objectives of the PRB task, "Psychological
Factors in Image Interpretation," (2) to present objective indexes of
photointerpreter performance that have been devised, including the ac-
curacy and completeness of the information extracted, and (3) to indi-
cate the extent of improvement in photointerpreter output that can re-
sult as a function of such human factors considerations as assignment
of personnel and change of work procedures.
BACKGROUND
An extensive exploratory analysis was conducted to define image in-
terpretation problems which would clearly focus on the Army's needs and
which, at the same time, would be amenable to research attack. The ex-
ploratory study itself consisted of two major phases. The first phase
was a review of the pertinent literature in image interpretation. The
second phase was an interview survey of knowledgeable individuals (both
military and civilian) in the area of image interpretation. A state-
ment of the military requirements in image interpretation and the for-
mulation of the research program in this area was a direct outgrowth of
these visits and surveys.
Until recently the photointerpreter was confronted only with the
problem of interpreting large scale, high.quality, conventional black-
and-white photographs. Today, and in the near future, he will also be
required to interpret radar and infrared imagery, fleeting images, TV,
and small scale and degraded images. This increase in imagery types
and sources has inevitably increased the range of image quality, some of
which is quite poor. But good or poor, the imagery obtained through
these media is placed before the interpreter who is asked to extract
information very rapidly to aid in making important decisions.
AREAS OF RESEARCH IN IMAGE INTERPRETATION
In planning the research, the psychological requirements have been
broken into two broad and general problem areas. The first problem area
is concerned with the nature of the information extraction process.
Archives 6
