One significant concern that pilots have about cockpit auditory warnings is that the signals presently used lack a sense of priority. The relationship between auditory warning sound parameters and perceived urgency is, therefore, an important topic of enquiry in aviation psychology. The present investigation examined the relationship among subjective assessments of urgency, reaction time, and brainwave activity with three auditory warning signals. Subjects performed a tracking task involving automated and manual conditions, and were presented with auditory warnings having various levels of perceived and situational urgency. Subjective assessments revealed that subjects were able to rank warnings on an urgency scale, but rankings were altered after warnings were mapped to a situational urgency scale. Reaction times differed between automated and manual tracking task conditions, and physiological data showed attentional differences in response to perceived and situational warning urgency levels. This study shows that the use of physiological measures sensitive to attention and arousal, in conjunction with behavioural and subjective measures, may lead to the design of auditory warnings that produce a sense of urgency in an operator that matches the urgency of the situation.
Synthetic vision displays utilize computer generated imagery derived from an onboard database of terrain, obstacle, and airport information to provide pilots with an unobstructed view of the world ahead. A major goal of these displays is to reduce low visibility related aviation accidents such as CFIT. In addition to improving pilot performance, synthetic vision displays may also affect pilot situation awareness. Prototype synthetic vision displays were examined in a high-resolution graphics simulation facility at NASA Langley Research Center. Two display sizes, two fields of view, and the presence of a tunnel guidance system were manipulated to investigate the effects on pilot performance and situation awareness. Use of a tunnel guidance system improved pilot performance and lowered reported mental workload. Participants reported lower workload and increased situation awareness with the smaller display size. There were no profound performance differences as a function of display size. Implications of retrofitting synthetic vision displays into existing aircrafts is discussed.
This poster describes a method of investigating operator alertness through brainwave recordings, specifically the event-related potential (ERP), during a flight simulation experiment. Previous research has used the ERP to monitor operator state during a task, and has identified prominent features in the ERP waveform that are associated with task-irrelevant auditory probe tones which can index subject alertness (Makeig et al., 1992). The primary goal of this method was to explore the possibility that the ERP can gauge the readiness state of a pilot prior to an emergency situation. In the experiment, subjects were instructed to ignore the probe tones which were perceptible above ambient cockpit noise, but were not intrusive to their task. Early sensory components of the ERJ? which reflect sensory/perceptual processing were examined. Results showed that Pl-N1 and Nl-P2 peak amplitude differences were attenuated (p < .Ol) prior to the aircraft malfunction as compared to their baseline measurement, and that P2 peak amplitude was enhanced (p < .05) during baseline measurement for those subjects in an artificial intelligence fault detection system condition as compared to those subjects in the standard aircraft caution and warning system condition.The display of summary information to the commander during combat is an important requirement for future mobile command and control systems. Configural displays use emergent properties of shape and proportion to represent the state of real world processes. The purpose of the present experiment was to investigate configural concepts for the display of complex tactical situations. We developed configural display concepts that used the vertical axis to depict the temporal location of maneuver units as they progressed towards their military objectives. This was contrasted with the horizontal axis which depicted overall combat effectiveness. Both indices used the difference between planned and actual states to form rectangular representations of the current tactical situation. Seventeen Army officers made tactical decisions and situation assessments under different display conditions. Decisions using the configural display were both faster and more accurate than decisions based on conventional graphical and alphanumeric formats.Based on these results, we developed more complex configural representations. These displays depict historical trends and future extrapolations of movement rate and combat effectiveness for each of the commander's units. We concluded that complex configural representations are an efficient means of giving division and corps commanders a readily understandable mosaic of the overall battlefield situation. We also concluded that more research was needed to understand the individual contributions and interrelationship of the various coding schemes such as color and shape to the overall effectiveness of the configural formats.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.
hi@scite.ai
10624 S. Eastern Ave., Ste. A-614
Henderson, NV 89052, USA
Copyright © 2024 scite LLC. All rights reserved.
Made with 💙 for researchers
Part of the Research Solutions Family.