The mission of C-SHOP is to be the premier national research center and clearinghouse for the innovative development, evaluation, distribution, and application of human performance assessment technology.

The mission elements of the center include:

1. Identifying internal (especially biological/anatomical) and external factors that mediate human operator performance, especially those factors that improve or degrade human performance capability.

2. Refining existing tests and developing innovative tests for performance assessment (and self-assessment) in order to enhance and facilitate individual and team performance.

3. Developing revolutionary tests that provide countermeasures for such factors as fatigue or sleep loss to enhance or extend performance capabilities, thereby increasing mission effectiveness.

4. Applying advanced computer technology and innovative testing methodology to the development of pioneering assessment techniques, especially for DOD and medical applications.

Computer-based Performance Assessment
During the last two decades, the introduction of personal computers has brought about many advances in science and technology. Among those advances has been the use of computers to test human skills and abilities. Early computer versions of traditional skill and ability tests soon evolved into more advanced computer-based test systems that incorporated numerous tests assessing a broad range of human performance capabilities.

Computer-based test systems have proven essential in job screening and selection, in general medical applications in neuropsychology and disease assessment, and in assessing real-world influences on human performance. These risk factors include fatigue, drugs, shift work, sleep loss, alcohol, heat stress, and space flight.

The development of computer-based test systems has expanded the ability to conduct research far beyond what traditional approaches would have provided and thereby has advanced our knowledge of human performance at both basic and applied levels.