Field Evaluation in the Intelligence and Counterintelligence Context Workshop Summary (2010) / Chapter Skim
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4 Experiences in Other Countries
4 Experiences in Other Countries
Pages 49-58
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From page 49... ...
Some 15 years ago, Brander said, he was doing traditional human factors engineering, trying to understand and develop techniques to improve the performance of UK military personnel. But about 12 years ago he found the emphasis shifting, and now his focus is on their adversaries and potential adversaries within theatres of operation.
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From page 50... ...
In analyzing people at these various levels of aggregation, one can focus on such things as attitudes and opinions, cultural contexts, or the information environment in which the people function. Each of these foci requires expertise of a different sort -- psychology for the study of individuals, social psychology for the study of groups, anthropology for the study of cultural contexts, market research for the study of attitudes and opinions, and so on.
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From page 51... ...
And when they performed that analysis, they discovered four individuals for whom there was relatively little data collection but who appeared to be important facilitators according to the analysis. Thus, Brander said, the analysis enabled them to overcome some of the biases in the data collection and identify people who were of interest but who would not have stood out merely in terms of the amount of data collected.
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From page 52... ...
Generally speaking, one collects data for a particular reason, and that reason should be taken into account during the data collection. In this case, the group was interested in individuals who were playing a role as brokers between different organizations, and social network analysis allowed them to identify such individuals who would not otherwise have been noticed.
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From page 53... ...
"We use challenge functions and discussion peer review, formal review, logbooks, and table review," Brander said. "We try and track how our methods evolve over time and problems people have had with them so we can coursecorrect as we go along and evolve our methods." They also share approaches across the UK government behavioral science community as well as with their colleagues in allied countries, including the United States and various NATO countries.
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From page 54... ...
More generally, human factors as applied to analysis and assessment is inevitably largely qualitative, so the question is whether the same quantitative approaches to validation apply. "We use multidisciplinary, multimethodologies that seek to provide insight.
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From page 55... ...
When he first began speaking with the members from Chief of Defence Intelligence, which is the military intelligence organization that now funds two current TRIG projects, he found that he needed to establish "role clarity" concerning the functions that a behavioral science team might carry out. Some intelligence personnel thought his team might be providing behavioral analysis that would augment the agency's analyti cal capabilities.
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From page 56... ...
In one study, for instance, Mandel and other TRIG scientists taught the trainees an analytical method based on Bayesian reasoning. The group observed a significant increase in the accuracy and logical coherence of the trainees' judgments after just a brief training.
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From page 57... ...
Robert Fein, the mod erator, said that he had had the chance over the past couple of years to get to know Brander and some of his colleagues and had been impressed with how they pushed and developed qualitative methodologies. He asked Brander why the British had gone so far in the qualitative direc tion and how they avoided being preoccupied with the hard technology approaches to the social and behavioral sciences that are more common in the United States.
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From page 58... ...
Neil Thomason asked Brander what sorts of indicators exist for various social and behavioral features. Brander responded by discussing briefly what sorts of indicators one would use to measure social change.
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