Using Emotional Intelligence in Training Crisis Managers: The Pandora Approach

  • Authors:

  • Lachlan Mackinnon;Liz Bacon;Gabriella Cortellessa;Amedeo Cesta

  • Affiliations:

  • School of Computing & Mathematical Sciences, Old Royal Naval College, University of Greenwich, London, UK;School of Computing & Mathematical Sciences, Old Royal Naval College, University of Greenwich, London, UK;Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche-Istituto di Scienze e Tecnologie della Cognizione, Rome, Italy;Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche-Istituto di Scienze e Tecnologie della Cognizione, Rome, Italy

  • Venue:
  • International Journal of Distance Education Technologies
  • Year:
  • 2013

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Abstract

Multi-agency crisis management represents one of the most complex of real-world situations, requiring rapid negotiation and decision-making under extreme pressure. However, the training offered to strategic planners, called Gold Commanders, does not place them under any such pressure. It takes the form of paper-based, table-top exercises, or expensive, real-world, limited-scope simulations. The Pandora project has developed a rich multimedia training environment for Gold Commanders, based on a crisis scenario, timeline-based, event network, with which the trainees and their trainer interact dynamically. Pandora uses the emotional intelligence of the trainees, through a behavioural modelling component, to support group dynamic and decision-making. It applies systemic emotional intelligence, based on inferred user state and rule-based affective inputs, to impact the stress levels of the trainees. Pandora can impose variable stress on trainees, to impact their decision-making, and model their behaviour and performance under stress, potentially resulting in more effective and realisable strategies.