Can a glass cockpit display help (or hinder) performance of novices in simulated flight training?

The effect of flight phase on electrodermal activity and gaze behavior: A simulator study

Current advances in airplane cockpit design and layout are often driven by a need to improve the pilot's awareness of the aircraft's state. This involves an improvement in the flow of information from aircraft to pilot. However, providing the aircraft with information on the pilot's state remains an open challenge. This work takes a first step towards determining the pilot's state based on biosensor data. We conducted a simulator study to record participants' electrodermal activity and gaze behavior, indicating pilot state changes during three distinct flight phases in an instrument failure scenario. The results show a significant difference in these psychophysiological measures between a phase of regular flight, the incident phase, and a phase with an additional troubleshooting task after the failure. The differences in the observed measures suggest great potential for a pilot-aware cockpit that can provide assistance based on the sensed pilot state.

Providing choice of feedback affects perceived choice but does not affect performance

Background

Autonomy or choice can lead to improved learning in various educational domains. The purpose of this online study was to examine whether giving participants a choice regarding the frequency of their received feedback (either after each individual trial or after a block of trials) in a computerized alternate task-switching task, will affect their performance.

Methods

Participants (n = 148) were randomly assigned to three groups: choice group (n = 49), online feedback group (n = 51), and summary feedback group (n = 48). From those three groups we created two groups: a choice group and a no-choice group (n = 49 in each group). All participants performed eight familiarization trials, a pre-test of 24 trials, five blocks of 24 trials for practice, and a post-test of 24 trials. After completing the task, the participants were asked about their perceived feeling of choice and completed the short form of the International Positive and Negative Affect Schedule.

Results

The participants in the choice group had higher perceived choice compared with the participants in the no-choice group (8.41 vs 5.47 out of 10, respectively). However, this higher perceived choice did not materialize into better performance during practice or in the post-test.

In plane sight: Inattentional blindness affects visual detection of external targets in simulated flight

Aviation places significant demands on pilots' perceptual and attentional capacities. The avoidance of other objects both on the ground and in the air is critical to safe flight. Research on automobile driving has revealed the occurrence of 'inattentional blindness' (IB) whereby objects clearly located within the visual field may not detected when drivers are concurrently engaged in another attention capturing task such as a cellphone conversation. Almost no comparable research has been conducted within the aviation domain despite the significance of both ground-based and mid-air collisions. The present study was designed to investigate the effects of diverting attentional resources away from the primary task of safely flying a simulated light aircraft from takeoff to cruising. Flight naïve students were trained to proficiency in a flight-simulator and flew two simulated flights with and without a competing attentional task. Detection of a variety of objects placed in the background was measured. The results showed that when distracted by an engaging cellphone conversation novice pilots failed to detect many of the objects located within the visual scene. Recognition accuracy was greater when pilots' attention was not diverted elsewhere. There was a reduction in time spent looking at some key flight instruments but not on others. Inattentional blindness poses significant flight safety risks and further research into both the stimulus and perceiver characteristics that promote or reduce inattentional blindness would be of significant benefit to aviation safety.

Autonomy support and preference-performance dissociation in choice-reaction time tasks

The purpose of the current study was threefold: (a) to examine the effects of participants having the autonomy to choose the practice order of two reaction time (RT) tasks - a choice-RT task and a Simon task - on performance, (b) to examine whether one order of practice is better than the other, and (c) to examine whether participants might choose a practice order that hinders their performance. The study was conducted online and participants completed the tasks on their own computer. Fifty-nine participants were randomly assigned into three groups: (a) autonomy - participants chose which task they would like to practice first, (b) choice-first - participants practiced the choice-RT task first, and (c) Simon-first - participants practiced the Simon task first. Out of these three groups we created an autonomy group (n = 17) and a no-autonomy (yoked) group (n = 17). All participants performed eight familiarization trials of each task, practiced 160 trials (8 blocks × 20 trials) of each task, and performed a post-test of 20 additional trials of each task after a three-minute rest. The main findings were that (a) participants in the autonomy group had faster RTs compared with participants in the no-autonomy group, (b) performing the choice-RT task first led to faster RTs compared with performing the Simon task first, and (c) nine of the 17 participants in the autonomy group chose to practice the Simon task first. The findings of this study suggest that providing participants with autonomy can lead to improved performance. However, there may be a dissociation between participants' preference of practice order and their performance.

The influence of pilot's attention allocation on instrument reading during take-off: The mediating effect of attention span

The aim of this study was to examine the relationship among attention span, instrument reading, and eye movement mode. Sixteen pilots participated in procedural tests for attention span and instrument reading ability while completing simulated flight take-offs. Different instrument types corresponded to different reaction times - as response time increased, presentation time decreased. It can also be seen from the attention distribution of the instrument area in take-off that different instruments receive different attention resources. Breadth and attention span not only have a direct impact on the ability to read the table but also have a mediating effect on eye movement pattern during flight. The study found a direct relationship between attention span and instrument reading and also verified the impact of the two on attention allocation during take-off. The results suggest that integration training for attention ability with instrument reading may enable more efficient pilot performance.

Preference-Performance Dissociation in Golf Putting

The purpose of the current study was to examine the effectiveness of providing autonomy to learners and the phenomenon of preference-performance dissociation on a closed, self-paced motor task – putting in golf, when using different placements of a visual aid (a large circle) around a golf hole. Seventy-six participants were assigned to four experimental groups: (a) a visual aid placed behind the hole (V-behind group), (b) a visual aid placed in front of the hole (V-in-front group), (c) a visual aid placed around the hole (V-around group), and (d) a visual aid placed according to the participant’s preference (V-pref group). Participants performed five pre-trials, 50 training putts from a distance of 2 m, a retention task (12 putts) from a distance of 2 m, and a transfer task (12 putts) from a distance of 2.5 m. The retention putts and transfer putts were performed 48 h after the training putts. The participants’ subjective assessment of the helpfulness of the circle was also measured. It was found that in the retention task, putting consistency was lower in the V-in-front group compared to the V-around and V-pref groups. However, the subjective assessment of the helpfulness of the circle was higher in the V-in-front group. In addition, the low consistency of the V-in-front group was alleviated in the participants in the V-pref group who chose to place the circle in front of the hole. In contrast, the subjective assessment of the helpfulness of the circle was low in the V-in-front group. These findings suggest that while providing autonomy – that is, when the participant is able to choose for him/herself – can improve motor learning, there may be a dissociation between an individual’s subjective assessment and the actual helpfulness of a visual aid. This dissociation may be termed preference-performance dissociation, and coaches and instructors who teach closed, self-paced motor skills should be aware of the fact that when providing learners with the autonomy to choose a practice aid in order to improve their skills, some may not choose the aid that is effective for them.

Research Article

In this study, we demonstrate the effects of anxiety and cognitive load on eye movement planning in an instrument flight task adhering to a single-sensor-single-indicator data visualisation design philosophy. The task was performed in neutral and anxiety conditions, while a low or high cognitive load, auditory n-back task was also performed. Cognitive load led to a reduction in the number of transitions between instruments, and impaired task performance. Changes in self-reported anxiety between the neutral and anxiety conditions positively correlated with changes in the randomness of eye movements between instruments, but only when cognitive load was high. Taken together, the results suggest that both cognitive load and anxiety impact gaze behavior, and that these effects should be explored when designing data visualization displays.