Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2025

Abstract

This research is attempting to detect a loss of situational awareness (SA) in anaviation context, using the Detection Response Task (DRT). A survey phaserevealed current aviation personnel’s understanding of the construct of SA, how itis currently taught and assessed, and what are the observed indicators of a loss ofSA. The survey results validated the link between SA, cognitive capacity andworkload, and the cognitive and physical indicators of SA loss identified from theliterature review. This experimentation phase used the Modifiable MultitaskingEnvironment (ModME) software to simulate pilot workload and behaviour. Part ofthe ModME design incorporated a version of the DRT as a secondary task.Participants’ response times and accuracy to the aviation-contextualized DRT offera measure of cognitive load. Condition 1 manipulated workload through theprimary task (Object Tracking) using four difficulty levels with randomisedpresentation order and a secondary (Monitoring) task as the DRT. For Condition 2,further manipulation of workload was achieved by adding a tertiary task (AircraftCoordination - Projection). Response times and accuracy rates were recorded forall tasks. The results show the experiment methodology was sensitive tomanipulation of workload and validated the use of the DRT to measure cognitiveworkload in the simulated pilot multitasking context. These finding suggest that theDRT may be able to measure changes in cognitive load in pilots while executingtasks requiring situational awareness. Future experiments will attempt to linkcognitive performance and the detection of a loss of SA.

Comments

Presented at the 23rd International Symposium on Aviation Psychology, May 27-30, 2025, Hosted by Oregon State University

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