Past research concerning decision support tools has primarily focused on either false-alarm prone (FP) or miss-prone (MP) automation. Some studies have explored performance disparities of binary versus likelihood alarm technology (BAT vs. LAT) but only in FP automation. The goal of this study was to explore differential effects of alarm technology and FP vs. MP automation on human decision-making accuracy. Onehundred university students performed a low-fidelity uninhabited aerial vehicle flight simulation, composed of two primary flight tasks and an automation-aided secondary weapon-deployment task. As expected, participants' decision-making accuracy was highest when using LAT, specifically with FP prone automation. These findings provide support for incorporating LAT into FP prone automation to enhance human decisionmaking accuracy.
Alarms are implemented into automated systems to focus human operators' attention on potentially problematic conditions. Some automated alarm systems are false-alarm prone (FP) and others are missprone (MP) due to the nature of their setting and designer-imposed parameters. Binary alarm technology (BAT) and likelihood alarm technology (LAT) represent two methods of alarm implementation. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the differential effects of LAT combined with FP vs. MP automation on human decision-making accuracy and bias. This study utilized a 2 times 2 between-groups experimental design. Alarm technology (BAT vs. LAT) and type of automation (FP vs. MP) were systematically manipulated as independent variables. Decision-making accuracy and bias served as dependent measures. This experiment provides evidence for the advantages of LAT used in FP automation over alternative alarm configurations. Results supported hypotheses regarding a predicted interaction of alarm technology and type of automation for both decision-making accuracy and bias. FP automation with LAT elicits urgency-based responses that reduce bias toward false alarms and significantly increase overall decision making accuracy. This alarm configuration may best be applied to similar diagnostic tasks performed with unmanned aerial vehicle displays and aircraft flight decks.
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