The Effect of Information Display Formats on Helicopter Pilots' Target Acquisition and Flying Performance

Cognitive load theory for training health professionals in the workplace: A BEME review of studies among diverse professions: BEME Guide No. 53

“…Two HPE studies found lower CL during interpretation of clinical information when data were presented graphically rather than numerically, including arterial blood gas data (Doig et al 2011) and critical care patient data (Workman et al 2007). Dominessy documented similar findings among helicopter pilots; in that study, the method of presenting tactical information impacted CL; CL was highest when displayed as text, midlevel when displayed as numeric, and lowest when displayed in graphical format (Dominessy et al 1991). Two studies found that more intuitive formatting of clinical reminders (Saleem et al 2007) and order sets (Avansino and Leu 2012) in electronic health records could reduce CL (again extraneous load was implied); in the former study, learnability was improved, and in the latter, performance was improved.…”

“…non-essential elements of a learning setting requiring attention and mental effort). As shown in classroom-based research, the design of tools and technology that learners interact within workplaces were found to contribute to extraneous load (Dominessy et al 1991;Saleem et al 2007;Workman et al 2007;Shachak et al 2009;Doig et al 2011;Avansino and Leu 2012). One study also discussed the physical environment as a source of extraneous load (Tremblay et al 2017).…”

“…Many non-HPE studies evaluated operation of large vehicles (aircraft, helicopters, and ships). The aims of these studies were diverse and included: descriptively comparing CL and performance by level of training (Crosby and Parkinson 1979); testing whether cockpit innovations (such as method or formatting of information display) impacted CL or performance (Dominessy et al 1991;Cummings and Smith 2009); comparing simulated and actual operation of the vehicles (Dahlstrom and Nahlinder 2009); determining the relative levels of CL during particular flight or navigation segments (Murai et al 2010;Hsu et al 2015); and determining whether increased CL was associated with increased errors (Morris and Leung 2006). Two studies of military and police personnel examined whether format of training (virtual, live, or mixed) (Maxwell and Zheng 2017), or additional training (situational awareness training) (Saus et al 2006) impacted CL and performance.…”

Design for Tactical Situation Awareness Display

“…Also, any display aids to be included in the TSD are made available to the pilot. The TSD used for this study is based on the situation display developed at the Army's Human Engineering Laboratory (HEL) and documented in Dominessy, et al (1991) The TSD was developed to provide Army helicopter pilots tactical information to help them locate targets while simultaneously flying the vehicle. Our focus is on the bottom display, which differentiates rotorcraft from fixed-wing aircraft by use of an overbar, and which provides a heading vector and track number for each object p displayed.…”