[Federal Register Volume 85, Number 202 (Monday, October 19, 2020)]
[Notices]
[Pages 66311-66312]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2020-23093]


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DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE

Department of the Army

[Docket ID: USA-2020-HQ-0015]


Proposed Collection; Comment Request

AGENCY: U.S. Army Research Institute for the Behavioral and Social 
Sciences (ARI)

ACTION: Information collection notice.

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SUMMARY: In compliance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, the 
U.S. Army Research Institute for the Behavioral and Social Sciences 
announces a proposed public information collection and seeks public 
comment on the provisions thereof. Comments are invited on: Whether the 
proposed collection of information is necessary for the proper 
performance of the functions of the agency, including whether the 
information shall have practical utility; the accuracy of the agency's 
estimate of the burden of the proposed information collection; ways to 
enhance the quality, utility, and clarity of the information to be 
collected; and ways to minimize the burden of the information 
collection on respondents, including through the use of automated 
collection techniques or other forms of information technology.

DATES: Consideration will be given to all comments received by December 
18, 2020.

ADDRESSES: You may submit comments, identified by docket number and 
title, by any of the following methods:
    Federal eRulemaking Portal: http://www.regulations.gov. Follow the 
instructions for submitting comments.
    Mail: The Department of Defense (DoD) cannot receive written 
comments at this time due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Comments should be 
sent electronically to the docket listed above.
    Instructions: All submissions received must include the agency 
name, docket number and title for this Federal Register document. The 
general policy for comments and other submissions from members of the 
public is to make these submissions available for public viewing on the 
internet at http://www.regulations.gov as they are received without 
change, including any personal identifiers or contact information.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: To request more information on this 
proposed information collection or to obtain a copy of the proposal and 
associated collection instruments, please write to the U.S. Army 
Research Institute for the Behavioral and Social

[[Page 66312]]

Sciences, 6000 6th Street, Fort Belvoir, VA 22060, ATTN: Dr. Alisha 
Ness, or call 703-545-2398.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 
    Title; Associated Form; and OMB Number: ARI Game Evaluation; OMB 
Control Number 0702-XXXX.
    Needs and Uses: This information collection will follow best 
practices in assessment development by collecting feedback about the 
ease of use, clarity, and usability from individuals who complete the 
Systems Thinking Abilities game and by collecting demographic 
information about those individuals to ensure they are similar to the 
intended end users. The game players are freelance workers from 
Amazon's Mechanical Turk (MTurk) site who will be paid to play the 
Systems Thinking Abilities game and respond to the questions included 
in this information collection. Participants will be master Amazon 
MTurk workers (workers that demonstrate excellence in a range of MTurk 
tasks) with a minimum age of 18 years old and a maximum age of 55 years 
old with normal color vision. Participants will be located in the 
United States and high school graduates. Respondents will not be sent 
invitations to participate, instead they can sign up to participate 
through the MTurk website. Each participant will complete the Systems 
Thinking Abilities game, the evaluation questions and the demographic 
information using his or her computer from a location of his or her 
choice. The ARI Game Evaluation Form will be linked through the MTurk 
site and responses will be entered and returned online. Once 
participants complete their assigned section(s) they will be paid for 
their time through MTurk. Data will be analyzed following completion of 
data collection activities.
    Evaluation Questions: Participants will respond to a series of 
multiple choice and open-ended questions to capture their experience 
with the Systems Thinking Abilities game. These questions are included 
on the ARI Game Evaluation Form. The collected data will be retrieved 
and processed by Personnel Decisions Research Institutes (PDRI), a 
contractor working for ARI. Summary statistics will be generated and 
the open-ended feedback will be content coded. The information 
collected on participant feedback will be used to identify 
modifications needed to the software to improve the clarity or ease of 
use. Findings will be documented in a technical report.
    Demographic Questions: Participants will complete questions through 
an online survey format regarding demographics and background 
experiences. Demographic questions include age, gender, ethnicity, 
race, education attainment, and experience questions related to past 
experience with computer technology. These questions are included on 
the ARI Game Evaluation Form. The collected data will be retrieved and 
processed by PDRI. The demographic information will be documented in a 
technical report describing the initial testing.
    Affected Public: Individuals or households.
    Annual Burden Hours: 23.3.
    Number of Respondents: 100.
    Responses per Respondent: 1.
    Annual Responses: 100.
    Average Burden per Response: 14 minutes.
    Frequency: One-time collection.
    The U.S. Army Research Institute for the Behavioral and Social 
Sciences (ARI) is developing an innovative game-based assessment to 
evaluate an individual's systems thinking abilities. Systems thinking 
is important for job success in areas such as cyber security, 
engineering, and mission planning. As an assessment, the Systems 
Thinking Abilities game needs to be evaluated to ensure it measures 
what is intended and relates to performance in jobs that require 
systems thinking. This Information Collection will follow best 
practices in assessment development by collecting feedback about the 
ease of use, clarity, and usability from individuals who complete the 
Systems Thinking Abilities game and by collecting demographic 
information about those individuals to ensure they are similar to the 
intended end users.

    Dated: October 14, 2020.
Morgan E. Park,
Alternate OSD Federal Register Liaison Officer, Department of Defense.
[FR Doc. 2020-23093 Filed 10-16-20; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3710-08-P