RoboLeader is an intelligent agent that has the capabilities of coordinating a team of ground robots and revising route plans for the robots based on battlefield intelligence. Specifically, RoboLeader can support dynamic re-tasking based on battlefield developments as well as coordination between aerial and ground robots in pursuit of moving targets. In the current study, we manipulated the level of automation for RoboLeader as well as the presence of a visualization tool (which informed the participants about their target entrapment performance) in the RoboLeader user interface. Results showed that RoboLeader (Fully Automated condition) was more effective in encapsulating the moving targets than were the human operators (when they were either without assistance from RoboLeader or when they were partially assisted by RoboLeader). Participants successfully encapsulated the moving targets only 63% of the time in the Manual condition but 89% of the time when they were assisted by RoboLeader. Those participants who play video games frequently demonstrated significantly better encapsulation performance than did infrequent gamers; they also had better situation awareness of the mission environment. Visualization had little effect on participants’ performance. Finally, participants reported significantly higher workload when they were in the Manual condition than when they were assisted by RoboLeader.

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A quantitative review of time pressure effects on human performance was conducted. One-hundred-twenty-five references were identified that met selection criteria. These studies provided 827 effect sizes. Analyses revealed an overall small but detrimental effect of time pressure on performance. However, moderator analyses indicated that the effect of time pressure varied as a function of task type and the measure of performance (accuracy vs. speed). As expected, time pressure facilitated speed but impaired accuracy for both perceptual and cognitive tasks. Although there were few studies available for motor tasks, evidence from the available studies indicated that time pressure reduced speed. Accuracy data were inconclusive. Across all analyses there was evidence of substantial variability across studies, indicating that other moderating variables may influence the performance effects of time pressure.

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