Defense Acquisition Research Journal Issue 95

Technology Trust

https://www.dau.edu

APPENDIX A Research Instrument

The investigators used secondary data collected by the U.S. Department of Defense. Data collection occurred in two phases. Phase one of the data collection was conducted in a controlled and distraction-free classroom environment and involved completion of a user survey by two randomly selected groups of active-duty military from within a single unit tasked with a high-risk mission. Both groups participated in separate morning sessions lasting 1 hour each. The second session started immediately following completion of the first session. Each group was provided with identical overviews of a high-risk military scenario that would be completed by deploying three technology systems rather than human operators. The independent variable “system presentation” was manipulated between the first and second groups. The second independent variable, “system control” was provided to all participants in the form of three separate technologies. Phase two of the experiment was conducted in the field and involved the hands-on testing of the three technologies introduced during the phase one survey. Phase two of the experiment was conducted 6 months after the classroom survey of phase one. A total of 15 participants were selected from the same military unit as in the phase one survey. This experiment was con ducted over a 12-day period. The first 3 days were reserved for training, and the subsequent 9 days were used to test the operational capabilities of the systems in the high-risk scenario presented in phase one. The day after the field experimentation concluded, all participants gathered in a controlled classroom environment to respond to the same user survey provided in phase one. The investigators used secondary data collected by the U.S. Department of Defense. That data collection activity was ruled not human subjects research by the governing Institutional Review Board (IRB) in accor dance with Secretary of the Navy Instruction (SECNAVINST 3900.39E), December 19, 2017. The data to which the Naval Postgraduate School (NPS) investigators have access do not contain data that are personally identi fiable. Therefore, the presented activity was deemed not human subjects research by NPS IRB.

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Defense ARJ, January 2021, Vol. 28 No. 1 : 2-39