Christopher K. McClernon

Stress Training Enhances Pilot Performance During a Stressful Flying Task

This study investigated whether stress training introduced during the acquisition of simulator-based flight skills enhances pilot performance during subsequent stressful flight operations in an actual aircraft. Thirty participants with no previous flying experience were assigned either to a stress-trained treatment group or a control group. Stress training consisted of pairing skill acquisition in a flight simulator with stress coping mechanisms in the presence of a cold pressor. Control participants received identical skill acquisition training but without stress training. Performance was then compared between groups during flight in a Piper Archer aircraft. Participants who received flight simulator stress training demonstrated better performance in a stressful flying task than those in the control group. The results of this study indicate that stress training during the acquisition of flight skills may enhance pilot performance in stressful operational flight and therefore, might mitigate the contribution of pilot stress to aircraft mishaps.

Towards a Sensitive Measure of Situation Awareness in Adaptively Automated Systems

The objective of this research was to assess the effectiveness of the Situation Awareness Global Assessment Technique (SAGAT) as an indicator of automation state changes in adaptive automation (AA) of a complex, dynamic control task. An air traffic control (ATC)-related simulation was developed to present automation of four different information processing (IP) functions, including information acquisition, information analysis, decision making, and action implementation, as well as to simulate a completely manual control condition. Eight participants operated the ATC simulation under the five conditions. SAGAT data revealed only a general effect of automated versus manual control, but no significant effects of the modes of AA on SA. These results suggested that SAGAT was not a sensitive measure in the ATC-related task. Consequently, a modified SAGAT measure is proposed with relevance weighting of environmental stimuli to promote sensitivity and reliability of measurement of SA in the target domain.

Multimodal Mobile Technology to Aid in Remote Guidance from Subject Matter Expert

Battlefield Airmen, such as paraescuemen, are highly trained operators with a wide breadth of knowledge, however it is impossible to train for expertise or all situation. Given that their missions are very dynamic and time sensitive it is critical to gain access to domain experts to ensure mission success. Real-time communication to distributed Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) would supplement the information these Airmen need to carry out their mission. The rapid advancements in mobile technologies which combines a multitude of multimodal collaborative tools into a single device opens the door to improved distributed collaboration and remote guidance between the SME and the worker in the field. The use of these collaborative tools extends beyond the battlefield to first responders, telemedicine, and repair technicians. To be effective these tools need to increase the flow of information to accomplish complex tasks quicker, with more accuracy, and less workload than with standard audio communication alone.

Vigilance Tasks: Unpleasant, Mentally Demanding, and Stressful Even When Time Flies

Objective: To determine whether perceived time progression (PTP) moderates participants’ negative reactions to vigilance tasks. Background: Vigilance tasks are rated by participants to be unenjoyable and as having high levels of workload and stress. Based on the adage, “You are having fun when time flies,” we tested the possibility that accelerating PTP might reduce these negative experiences. Method: Two studies were performed, involving a long 30-min and a short 12-min vigil. We manipulated participants’ PTP by creating a mismatch between their expectations about how long they would perform the task and the actual time that they were engaged. Results: PTP was significantly faster for participants who were led to expect that the vigilance task would last longer than it did relative to those led to expect that task duration would be shorter than it actually was and for controls for whom task duration was equal to the expected duration. However, accelerating PTP had no effect in either experiment on undesirable reactions to the vigilance tasks. Participants uniformly rated both tasks as unenjoyable, as having a high level of workload, and as stressful. Apparently, vigilance isn’t fun even when time flies. Conclusion: Our findings greatly underscore the depth to which negative subjective reactions are embedded in the nature of vigilance tasks and therefore that these tasks can have potentially serious costs to participants in terms of health, safety, and productivity. Application: These costs must be considered at the operational level.

Short Vigilance Tasks are Hard Work Even If Time Flies

Vigilance research has found that observers find the task to be unpleasant and mentally demanding (Warm, Finomore, Vidulich, & Funke, 2015). However sustained attention plays a critical role in numerous operational settings where human operators must monitor automated human-machine systems in the event of potential problems. The current study extended the work from Dillard and his colleagues (Dillard, Warm, Funke, Vidulich, Nelson, Eggemeier, et al., 2013) who explored if there are other dimensions that might affect the workload associated with performing a vigilance task. The area that they explored was the temporal context of the vigilance task on its effects on task performance and perceived mental workload. Borrowing from a temporal manipulation procedure developed by Sackett and colleagues (Sackett, Meyvis, Nelson, Converse & Sackett, 2010) in which they manipulated perceived time progression (PTP) of the participant while they performed a cognitive task. Sackett et al., (2010) manipulated the PTP by developing their studies to deceive the participant into thinking the task they were performing was longer or shorter than the actual time. Upon completion of the task, participants filled out questionnaires related to the hedonic and temporal evaluation of the task. Participants that were told the task was longer than they actually participated for (time flies conditions) rated times as flying and the task more as more enjoyable.

Helmet Mounted Display Layouts: Detection and Shooting Performance for Dismounted Operators

Head mounted displays (HMDs) are being explored as an alternative means of displaying relevant information to dismounted operators. The goal of this project was to examine different visual display concepts and evaluate participant’s attention allocation to information presented on their HMD. Additionally, their ability to detect potential threats in the environment was also evaluated. This information will help revamp the design of information displays for HMDs. The task in this study required participants to monitor their HMD for critical alerts and respond accordingly while also making shoot/no shoot decisions to threats in their environment. We hypothesized that as information is presented in different layouts on the HMD, it will reduce the participants’ ability to detect real world events. Accuracy of the shoot/no shoot decisions was collected along with accuracy of detection of information on the HMD. We found that shooting performance was not affected between the three HMD layouts however information detected on the HMD was worst when all information was in the center of the HMD. The data from this study will be used to help develop intelligent visual displays used by Battlefield Airmen to accomplish their mission.

Human Factors and the United States Military: A 75-Year Partnership

For nearly 75 years, the United States military has partnered with human factors researchers and practitioners to improve its effectiveness by designing better systems and contributing to a better understanding of human-system performance. Aviation, for example, has been one of several domains to reap numerous benefits from this partnership. Still, there is an enormous amount of research requiring human factors expertise in the years to come. This panel will discuss the current state and benefits of military human factors research and identify areas of future collaboration.

Evaluation of Digital Checklists for Command and Control Operations

Checklists are a critical component of most any military operation and both the construction of and presentation of checklists can affect the performance and efficiency of these operations. The purpose of this research project is to compare methods for displaying and executing checklists in a command and control operation to increase both performance and efficiency. The NORAD/NORTHCOM Command Center (N2C2) uses a paper checklist system to facilitate responding to any number of disasters, to include air catastrophes. This project investigated the potential effectiveness of a digital system that could take the place of the paper system that is currently being used. A between groups experimental design was used to analyze the relative effectiveness of each method. Each group of subjects was introduced to a timed task on different checklist systems and asked to complete an Air Force Academy Command Center checklist as accurately and as quickly as possible. Performance and subjective assessments of each system were analyzed and compared. The data showed that a linear digital checklist takes a longer amount of time than both a paper checklist and hierarchical digital checklist. In addition, the subjective data showed that the hierarchical system and paper system were easier to use and navigate than the linear system.

Infrasonic Measures as an Index of Workload

This study investigated whether sub-auditory, infrasonic measures of vocal cord microtremors are sensitive to workload manipulations in a collaborative command and control task. Research participants performed 16 hours of simulated military command and control scenarios during which time task demand and access to collaborative tools were manipulated. NASA-TLX scores were used to assess subjective workload while infrasonic measures of vocal cord undulations were used as an objective measure of workload. The results of this study suggest that during high task demand trials infrasonic measures increased. In addition, during trials with access to collaborative tools that have previously been found to decrease subjective workload, infrasonic measures also decreased. Subjective workload scores and infrasonic measures were also found to correlate during trials. These results provide promising empirical evidence for the efficacy of this non-intrusive, non-invasive measure of operator workload.