CAMBRIDGE, Mass., Nov. 17, 2011-- The Intelligence Advanced Research Projects
Activity (IARPA), through an Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) contract, has
awarded Raytheon BBN Technologies a $10.5 million multi-year contract under the
Sirius program. BBN is a wholly owned subsidiary of Raytheon Company (NYSE:
RTN). The goal of the Sirius program is to develop serious games that result in
better decision-making by teaching participants to recognize and mitigate the
effects of their own biases when analyzing information used to make decisions.
Under the contract, Raytheon BBN will develop game-based training methods and
training systems to improve such decision-making by focusing on reducing biases.
The team -- which includes game designers, cognitive psychologists, and experts
in intelligence analysis and in measuring game-player engagement -- will design
a relevant and engaging game that is based on an international detective theme,
blending best research and practices in bias-mitigation with best practices in
game-based teaching. The training system will focus on six specific types of
bias that frequently affect decision-making adversely:
- Confirmation bias -- the tendency to search for or interpret
information in a way that confirms preconceptions.
- Blind spot bias -- being less aware of one's own cognitive biases
than those of others.
- Fundamental attribution error -- over-emphasizing personality-based
or character-based effects on behavior.
- Anchoring bias -- relying too heavily on one trait or one piece of
information.
- Representative bias -- judging the likelihood of a hypothesis by its
resemblance to immediately available data.
- Projection bias -- assuming others share one's current feelings,
values or thinking.
Alice Leung, Ph.D. and Sirius co-principal investigator at Raytheon BBN,
said, "This program is a perfect opportunity for us to apply our expertise in
creating effective and engaging training to a very challenging problem. The
ability to recognize biases and reduce their effects on human information
analysis could lead to better decision-making in a wide variety of critical
areas."
"Additionally," said Talib Hussain, Ph.D. and Sirius co-principal
investigator at Raytheon BBN, "the team will advance the science of game-based
training by examining how various game design decisions impact training
effectiveness. This forward-looking aspect of the Sirius program is very
important because it will help us identify a more reliable set of design
principles to build games that are effective for training a broad range of
skills in the future."
About Raytheon
Raytheon Company, with 2010 sales of $25 billion, is a technology and
innovation leader specializing in defense, homeland security and other
government markets throughout the world. With a history of innovation spanning
89 years, Raytheon provides state-of-the-art electronics, mission systems
integration and other capabilities in the areas of sensing; effects; and
command, control, communications and intelligence systems, as well as a broad
range of mission support services. With headquarters in Waltham, Mass., Raytheon
employs 72,000 people worldwide. For more about Raytheon, visit us at www.raytheon.com and follow us on Twitter at
@Raytheon.
Media Contact:
Joyce Kuzmin
617.873.8120
pr@bbn.com
SOURCE Raytheon Company
