Approved For Release 2001/03/07
: CIA-RDP96-00789R002200100001-6
Approved For Release 2001/03/07
: CIA-RDP96-00789R002200100001-6
Approved For Release 2001/03/07
: CIA-RDP96-00789R002200100001-6
III REMOTE ACTION TRAINING SESSIONS
a.
Training Sessions with Modified Screening Device
The modified screening device (MSD) proved of great service in the RA training
process.
The feedback characteristics (audible “click” feedback, with the click rate tied to
the output of the selectable crystal channel)
are very suitable for RA training, because
feedback from the noise floor of the system
is available.
Some 50 training sessions were held
using this device, and the participants seemed to enjoy using
it.
The MSD
is very sensitive to sound and vibration and the two channels are not well
matched in sensitivity.
As a result, the sessions using this device cannot be used for formal
data recovery.
When the device
is used in the same room as the participant,
slight
movements or noises create measurable outputs from the device.
When used in a separate
room,
slight outputs are generated by distant doors being slammed, or movement of the
participant or experimenter in the adjacent room may create small outputs.
The MSD could rather easily be revised to provide a more artifact-free response;
it
is
suggested that improvement would be a very worthwhile investment.
If the present light plastic
enclosure were replaced with a massive
airtight glass cover,
if the cabling were replaced with a
much longer cable of a more compliant type, and
if a vibration-resistant mounting were
developed and a sound-attenuating shield assembled around
it, the device would provide an
excellent training facility for beginning RA trainees.
b.
Training Sessions with Twenty-Tone Device
About 20 training sessions were held using the twenty-tone device (TTD)
, which was
built in England, and which provided the model for the design of the evaluation device (ED)
feedback system.
The TTD employs one piezoelectric crystal sensor strip, that
is mounted
near
its preamplifier, that
is connected by cable to the separate main signal processing unit.
The TTD provides a white noise feedback signal from near the noise floor to a fixed lower
threshold.
From the fixed lower threshold to a selectable upper threshold, the device
Approved For Release 2001/03/07
: CIA-RDP96-00789R002200100001-6
Approved For Release 2001/03/07
: CIA-RDP96-00789R002200100001-6
produces 20 tones of the tempered musical scale.
Participant response to the feedback
characteristics of the TTD has been universally very positive.
The TTD was designed to be used in conjunction with a stereo cassette tape recording
system, one stereo channel being dedicated to the device, the other to a microphone placed
in the vicinity of the sensor, which
is normally mounted remotely from the TTD main signal
processing unit.
Scoring
is normally done by an automatic instrumental analysis of the tape
sections on which candidate events are recorded.
In the training sessions under review, the TTD was used as a supplement to the twin
sensor device.
Because
it was used on this informal,
irregular basis, formal data were not
collected.
c.
Training Sessions with Evaluation Device
Although the EDs did not function correctly when
first received, they were used
for
about a week before being returned for modification, because
it took a week for the problems
to become clearly identified. They were then modified and returned to service on
September 1986.
Counting
all sessions,
including those when the EDs were not functioning
satisfactorily, some 30 training sessions were held using the EDs.
Because the EDs do not provide satisfactory audio feedback,
especially at subthreshold
levels, two feedback devices were configured (from previously constructed equipment) that
provide click-rate feedback from the ED noise
floor.
The addition of this extra feedback
channel was very much appreciated by participants, because they and the experimental team
had experienced a great deal of frustration caused by the lack of feedback from the EDs,
especially in the
first phase of their usage when the feedback algorithm was based on peak
detection.
Unfortunately, although some participants had reached the stage of just starting to
function effectively with the MSD in the next room, the frustrations and generally negative
effect caused by the EDs when they
first arrived seriously affected the RA performance of
all
of the participants.
The
ability to create ostensible distant effects was seemingly lost by the
individuals who had previously exhibited this capacity with the MSD.
It
is arguable that the
RA performance of some participants has
still not
fully recovered from this setback.
This
incident must be regarded as an important lesson for the JFK research team.
Instrumentation
Approved For Release 2001/03/07
: CIA-RDP96-00789R002200100001-6
Approved For Release 2001/03/07
: CIA-RDP96-00789R002200100001-6
must be released for use with participants only after
it has been proven
fully functional and
after the operators have received sufficient training.
Participants varied greatly in their response to the rather noisy printers functioning during
the
trial period,
so the download capability of the Model 102 computers used as terminals
proved to be a crucial
facility for those participants who would otherwise have found the noise
intolerable.
The ED systems have been used in three configurations:
(1) the “Open”
(O)
condition,
in which the front window
is
left open;
(2) the “Closed”
(C) condition,
in which the front
window
is secured; and
(3) the “Next Room” (NR)
condition,
in which the system was placed
in a room adjacent to the participant.
The NR condition was dropped after
it was found that the participants’ RA performance
had regressed as a result of the instabilities and frustrations of the early phase of ED usage, so
that they could no longer produce effects
in adjacent rooms.
In the O condition,
artifacts
caused by acoustic events
(principally speech)
are readily recorded
at low threshold settings
(10).
In the C condition, acoustic
artifacts of above threshold magnitude are seldom
produced by normal speech.
Because many sessions were held in the O condition, and some
sessions with other equipment were of necessity interleaved with the ED sessions, formal data
are not available
for the ED training sessions held
at JFK.
Some sessions were held under
the C condition in which over-threshold
(threshold of
10)
events were obtained.
d.
Criteria for Continuance of Training
Originally, the decision regarding the continuance of participant training after the three
preliminary sessions was planned to be based on a formal and invariant criterion applied to
the performance reached by participants in
these sessions.
However, the use of three
different and essentially noncomparable training devices in the early training phases
(unmodified screening device, modified screening device, and twenty-tone device),
necessitated by the delay in the delivery of the evaluation devices made
it impossible to apply
a formal criterion.
The criterion used was that the participant’s trainer had to be convinced that the
participant had produced at least two events that were highly suggestive of Piezo-RA before
further training.
Because every participant met this criterion,
all were retained.
Approved For Release 2001/03/07
: CIA-RDP96-00789R002200100001-6