The negative impact of cognitive load, such as cell phone conversations, while driving is well established, but understanding the nature of this performance deficit is still being developed. To test the impact of load on awareness of different elements in a driving scene, memory for items within the environment was examined under load and no load conditions. Participants drove through two different scenarios in a driving simulator, were periodically interrupted by a pause in the driving during, and were asked questions regarding moving and stationary objects in the environment. Participants in the load condition drove while concurrently counting backwards by sevens. Results indicate that driving under load conditions led to diminished knowledge of moving, but not stationary, objects in the scene. This result suggests not all types of knowledge are equally impaired. Potential implications for current theories of cell phone use while driving and applied attention theory are discussed.
The Next Generation Air Transportation System (NextGen) will use advanced technologies and new concepts of operation to accommodate projected increases in air travel over the next few decades. Use of NextGen tools requires air traffic controllers (ATCos) to use different procedures than those required to manage NextGen-unequipped aircraft, and ATCos will need to integrate the 2 skill sets when managing a sector consisting of NextGen-equipped and unequipped aircraft. The goal of the present study was to determine the effectiveness of 2 procedures in the training of student controllers to manage both equipage types. We applied a variant of the part-whole training paradigm in the present study. Using a quasi-experimental design, we trained students from 2 different labs of an internship course to manage air traffic with potential NextGen tools concurrent with their traditional training (whole-task group) or after they had time to learn traditional air traffic management skills (part-whole group). Participants were then tested in their ability to manage a simulated sector consisting of different percentages of NextGen-equipped and unequipped aircraft at the mid-term and after the final week of their internship. Results showed that it is better to train students in manual ATCo skills before introducing NextGen tools, unless the students are of higher aptitude. For more skilled students, simultaneously introducing NextGen and manual tools into their curriculum had little negative impact.
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