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Alastair is a Chartered Psychologist in the Centre for Human Sciences
(CHS), QinetiQ.
The themes of some of his recent publications and projects have
focused on short-term memory for verbal and spatial items, the impact
of articulatory suppression on short-term memory, and workload issues
arising from undertaking two tasks simultaneously.
Alastair works within the Human-Technologies Integration (HTI) team
in CHs The HTI group engages in research that examines the interaction
between humans and technologies. For the most part, the HTI group
assists in the design of future technologies through understanding
the limitations in human perception, memory, attention and decision-making.
In doing so, the HTI group helps to design technology systems that
complement and augment the cognitive processes that affect performance
of humans, individually and in teams. Projects undertaken by the
group have included the design of vehicle displays and controls
(including adaptive human-machine interactions), design and assessment
of decision-making visualisation tools, and investigation of situation
awareness and workload within dynamic environments.
Did I enjoy my Superhuman experience?
Beautiful Kent! I could think of worse places to spend a day in
the sun. Relax on a foldaway chair; 'Expert' emblazoned on the back
and a gin and tonic in hand, I thought. Rub my chin and answer the
occasional question between naps in a 30ft 'deluxe' trailer. That's
my sort of gig, I thought.
Factor 25: Check. Lemons: Check. Correct exit on the M20: Well. even
those that preach don't always practice. Getting lost on the way
to the hotel the night before the shoot should, in retrospect, have
been the first sign.
The second sign was a little more obvious: a 4.30am wake-up call. "What
should I wear?" I asked at breakfast. "Lose the tie",
came the reply.
What was left of my rose-tinted spectacles fell away finally when
I arrived on set and was handed a crash helmet and a packet of throat
lozenges. I realised then that the role of referee, which had been
written into the test well before the day of shoot, had not been
filled. This expert was going to spend most of his beautiful day
in Kent being thrown around in the back of a Jeep whilst shouting
commands to contestants over the noise of the engine.
The contestants had already been selected from thousands of people.
They had succeeded in occupations and previous Superhuman tasks
that I would have had to change my trousers even to consider. They
also showed considerable reserve to stop themselves taking objection
to all my shouting. This referee would like to apologise for any
offence taken and to take the opportunity to ask nicely that none
of said Superhuman fly over to his place and flex their spandex
in his face.
Did I enjoy the day?
Absolutely!
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