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UTA examines risks of GPS reliance in military
Psychology researchers to study how reliance on navigation technology affects military readiness
Steven Weisberg, assistant professor of psychology (left), and Hunter Ball, associate professor of psychology.
In today’s technology-driven world, it’s easy to rely on a smartphone’s GPS to get across town. But what happens when it stops working? That question is at the center of new research at The University of Texas at Arlington.
Understanding how to navigate without digital tools can be challenging for anyone, but it is especially critical for soldiers operating in high-stakes military environments. Psychology professors Steven Weisberg and Hunter Ball will launch a one-year, $199,940 study on Aug. 1 aimed at better understanding how reliance on navigation technologies impacts decision-making, performance and preparedness in real-world military scenarios, particularly when those systems are disrupted or unavailable.
Their findings could help inform future military training strategies. The research is supported by the Alliance of Hispanic Serving Research Universities’ ASCEND Research and Leadership Program and funded through a Department of Defense-aligned initiative.
“We’re trying to understand the costs of navigating with support and without it,” Dr. Weisberg said. “If we can always tell people where to go, that sounds great until they have to navigate on their own. This project looks at those tradeoffs.”
Weisberg is a leading expert on spatial navigation, examining how cognitive training can improve navigation and memory skills. Dr. Ball specializes in memory and attention, with a focus on how people make decisions to offload cognitive processes onto external tools to enhance task performance and free mental capacity for other activities.
“With advances in technology, we don’t have to rely as much on our own memory. We can offload information onto the environment—like using a calendar, setting reminders or taking photos to reference later,” Ball said. “The issue is what happens when that technology fails. If you never actually learned the information yourself, you may not be able to retrieve it.”
In military contexts, Ball added, soldiers often navigate unfamiliar terrain, relying on GPS systems or coordinated guidance. However, those systems can fail or become disrupted.
“If you know something might fail, you may actually change your behavior on the front end to account for that,” Ball said.
Reviewers identified the proposal as “highly competitive and well-aligned with the [ASCEND] program’s goals,” including its focus on graduate student development. Weisberg and Ball each have one assigned graduate researcher—Zoe Cronin and Connor Dupre, respectively—for this project.
“This is a major training opportunity. Zoe and Connor will learn how to produce science on a deadline, work as part of a team and engage with Department of Defense–style research expectations,” Weisberg said. “It’s training I never got … having that experience early in their careers is enormously valuable.”
Added Ball: “Through this collaboration, Connor will gain experience with technologies like virtual reality, which I don’t specialize in. That gives him new skills that will make him more competitive in the job market.”
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