Cognition Group AATT Research

Personnel

Projects Listed by RTOP Element

• 538-04-23 - Human Factors & Operations

  Human Factors Advisory System (HFAS) (milestone 4.0.1)

  Description

  The goals of HFAS are twofold. In the near-term the project seeks to provide designers of AATT DSTs with access to human factors guidelines and principles relevant to the human-centered design of automated systems and information presentation. Initial efforts will focus on compiling existing guidelines, extracting relevant information from them, and making them available to designers through an interactive world wide web page. The web page will begin as a condensed text presentation. Future versions will incorporate examples, simulations, or other presentation modes that have been shown to enhance pedagogical value. In addition, HFAS scientists will maintain close contact with developers to ensure the information is in a form suitable for their needs. Far term HFAS efforts will directed at providing tools for automated detection of specific design problems. While automatic design evaluation is not currenty feasible, it may be possible to detect specific features of a task description that should be brought to the designers attention. For example, it should be possible to use formal descriptions of a task to flag cases of hidden system states, or excessive memory demands. Such flagging need not be perfect to be useful.

  February Accomplishments

  • Acquired recent FAA Human Factors Design Guide
  • Continued review of on-line HCI guidelines
  • Acquired hardware and software for web site on usability
  • Continued review of usability issues with conflict alerts
  • Completed review of usability issues with color

  March Accomplishments

  • WWW Page Constructed
  • Began design of field study to assess how human factors guidance is used in design. Results will be used to determine effective delivery systems for hf guidance.

  April Accomplishments

  None.

  May Accomplishments

  • Designed organization and content of web page
  • Hired summer student to code web page

  COTR on AATT NRA efforts (milestone 3.5.6)

  Description.

  The goal of these grant efforts is to provide design engineers with approximate models of cockpit operations that will facilitate detection of system design features that may contribute to human error.

  February Accomplishments

  • Honeywell (Riley), completed
  • Lockheed-Martin (Nelson), new start

  March Accomplishmets

  None.

  April Accomplishmets

  None.

  May Accomplishmets

  None.

  Model of Human Decision Making (milestone 3.5.8)

  Description

  The goal is to understand the nature of competitive decisions by airline or air traffic personnel. The approach is to apply formal models of decision making derived from the Theory of Signal Detection. Observations of relevant operations will be aimed at identifying incentive on operators. The model is expected to be useful in predicting how human operators respond to group situations both competitive and cooperative, and how they adapt to shared responsibilities created by changes in work group structure or the introduction of automation.

  February Accomplishments

  • Initiated grant to Technion University (Gopher & Erev)

  March Accomplishments

  • Technion grant approved
  • Consulted with Judith Orasanu on incentives on airline operatons center personnel.
  • Consulted with Amy Pritchett (GIT) on source of pilot non-compliance with TCAS alerts.
  • Began examination of air-based conflict resolution proposals.

  April Accomplishments

  None.

  May Accomplishments

  • Final NASA-HQ approval of grant
  • Began selection of candidate scenarios

  Technical Support Activities

  February

  • Consulted for the MIDAS project's human model redesign
  • Participated in NASA-FAA Free Flight Human Factors coordination workshop
  • Consulted with Greg Pisanich, Tom Kozon, and Kevin Gregory concerning AATT HF statistical analysis software and hardware requirements
  • Consulted with Greg Pisanich on facilities development
  • Consulted with Wim den Braven concerning statistical analaysis of FAST field-study data
  • Participated in MIDAS technical review
  • Provided HF support for N218 accident investigation
  • Participated in NAS-ONR technical discussion re: human-automation issues in reduced-manpower Navy
  • Coordinated Ames-IBM Almaden liaison for IT COE

  March

  None.

  April

  None.

  May

  None.

• 538-04-24 - Terminal/Surface Systems & Operations

  Observation, Analysis, and Modeling of Airport Departures Delays (milestone 4.0.4)

  Description

  In collaboration with SMA and the Expedited Departure Project in CTAS we are examining the source of current departure delays. The goal is to understand the nature of departure delays so that (1) improvements in airport efficiency can be planned and evaluated and (2) the impact of anticipated increases in arrival rates due to CTAS can be predicted. SMA has characterized many of the delays at ramp and taxi ways. This project will integrate that analysis with an analysis of runway and airspace constraints. Observations of airport operations combined with model and analytic techniques in operations research form the technical basis of the effort. Airports will be chosen so reflect differences in geometry that may contribute to throughput. The work is being handled as a grant to MIT. In addition, it is expected that the Cognition Simulation System at NASA-ARC/AFH will be used to model and simulate departures.

  February Accomplishments

  • Negotiated a combined EDP / SMA grant to MIT (Odoni) to investigate current bottlenecks in departure in anticipation of increased arrival rates.
  • Coordinated activites with CTAS EDP development and participated in EDP planning meetings.
  • Met with Prof. Feron (MIT) and Brian Glass to discuss ground ops and their contribution to departure delays.

  March Accomplishments

  • MIT Grant Approved
  • Arranged observations of tower operations at Logan Airport and FEDEX operations at Memphis. Activities coordinated with MIT and SMA.

  April Accomplishments

  None.

  May Accomplishments

  • Grant awarded
  • Observed Logan Airport Tower operations
  • Visited Volpe Labs
  • Met with MIT collaborators to plan grant activities
  • Observed FedEx operations at Memphis
  • Observed Memphis Tower operations

• 538-04-25 - Enroute Systems & Operations

  Assessing Sector Controller Situation Awareness under Simulated Free-Flight Conditions (milestones 5.0.2 & 5.0.3)

  Description

  Free-flight refers to a range of changes in airspace operations that remove constraints on flight paths imposed by current air traffic control operations. One result of the relaxation of route constraints is that traffic through a given sector could become more variable. Instead of aircraft proceeding on a few limited well-defined routes, aircraft will be free to choose their preferred path. As a consequence of the greater variability in traffic patterns, the visual depictions of traffic on radar displays will be less structured than at present. Research indicates that this lack of structure could degrade situation awareness, making it more difficult to locate potential conflicts. Structure has been shown to facilitate information acquisition. We are investigating the effects of eliminating constraints on (1) routes and (2) altitude restrictions on controllers ability to detect conflicts. Conflict detection is a proxy for general situation awareness. We are also examining the performance consequences of the following traffic factors: (1) number of aircraft, (2) time to conflict, (3) conflict angle, (3) convergence-divergence, and (4) distribution of aircraft. Empirical tests are being conducted with experienced, retired controllers using discrete trial presentations. Planned extensions include the use of active controllers and continuous traffic patterns.

  February Accomplishments

  • Completed second free flight experiment testing controller situation awareness under four conditions: (1) altitude and route restrictions, (2) altitude restrictions only, (3) route restrictions, and (4) no altitude or route restrictions (free flight). This experiment used a conflict-prediction aide. Results showed some increase in conflict detection time caused by removal of altitude restrictions, but no measurable impairment from removal of routes. It appears that, under the conditons tested, removal of routes produced benefits from reducing congestion and reduced overlapping of screen icons that was sufficient to offset any cognitive problems caused by lack of visual structure (milestone 5.0.2)
  • Recruited and hired programmer to support enhanced experiments allowing controllers to reroute aircraft (milestone 5.0.3).
  • Status: Two experiments have examined the role of visual structure on controller detection of traffic conflicts with relaxations of current constraints. Neither experiment shows large negative effects under free-flight conditions. Controllers report high workload under free-flight.

  March Accomplishments

  • Completed design of continuous traffic flow experiment.
  • Began programming continuous traffic flow experiment.

  April Accomplishments

  • Continued work on continuous traffic experiment.

  May Accomplishments

  • Continued work on continuous traffic experiment.

• Related Papers & Reports

  February

  • Managing Decision Resources in Plan Execution (Freed/Remington), accepted for presentation at 1997 International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence.
  • Some Principles and a Pragmatic Approach (Freed/Shafto), accepted for presentation at the 4th Eurographics Conference on the Design, Specification, and Verification of Interactive Systems.
  • Predicting Habit-Capture Errors in Complex Human-Machine Environments (Freed/Remington), submitted to 1977 Conference of the Cognitive Science Society.
  • Canonical Correlation Analysis of Data on Human-Automation Interaction (Shafto/Degani/Kirlik), submitted to the 1997 Conference of the HFES
  • Process Algebra and Human-Machine Modeling (Shafto/Degani), accepted by 1997 Conference on Cognitive Technology
  • Attentional Limitations in Dual-Task Performance (Pashler/Johnston), accepted as book chapter in Attention (Pashler, ed).
  • Perceptual Problems in Dual-Task Performance (Johnston), presented at Carmel XV Cognitive Neurology Meeting
  • Selectivity in Attentional Capture (Folk/Remington), Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception & Performance ,(in press).

  March

  None.

  April

  • Can New Objects Override Attentional Control Settings? (Folk/Remington), Perception & Psychophysics, (submitted).

  May

  None.