Human Factors Certification of Advanced Aviation Technologies

Proceedings of the Human Factors Certification of Advanced Aviation Technologies Conference held at the Chateau de Bonas, near Toulouse, France, 19-23 July 1993

Authority Management and Conflict Solving in Human-Machine Systems

This paper focuses on vehicle-embedded decision autonomy and the human operator’s role in so-called autonomous systems. Autonomy control and authority sharing are discussed, and the possible effects of authority conflicts on the human operator’s cognition and situation awareness are highlighted. As an illustration, an experiment conducted at ISAE (the French Aeronautical and Space Institute) shows that the occurrence of a conflict leads to a perseveration behavior and attentional tunneling of the operator. Formal methods are discussed to infer such attentional impairment from the monitoring of physiological and behavioral measures and some results are given

Eliciting expert knowledge to inform training design

To determine the elicitation methodologies best placed to uncover and capture the expert operator’s reflective cognitive judgements in complex and dynamic military operating environments (e.g., explosive ordinance disposal) in order to develop the specification for a reflective eXplainable Artificial Intelligence (XAI) agent to support the training of domain novices. Approach: A bounded literature review of the latest developments in expert knowledge elicitation was undertaken to determine the ’art-of-the-possible’ in respects to uncovering an expert’s cognitive judgements in complex and dynamic environments. Candidate methodologies were systematically and critically reviewed in order to identify the most promising methodologies for uncovering expert situational awareness and metacognitive evaluations in pursuit of actionable threat mitigation strategies in high-risk contexts. Research outputs are synthesized into an interview protocol for eliciting and understanding the in-situ actions and decisions of experts in high-risk, complex operating environments. Practical implications: Trainees entering high-risk operating environments can benefit from exposure to expert reflective strategies whilst learning the trade. Typical operator training focuses on technical aspects of threat mitigation but often overlooks reflective self-evaluation. The present study represents an initial step towards determining the feasibility of designing a reflective XAI agent to augment the performance of trainees entering high-risk operations. Outputs of the expert knowledge elicitation protocol documented here shall be used to refine a theoretical framework of expert operator judgement, in order to determine decision support strategies of benefit to domain novices

Project Manager Insights: An Analysis of Career Progression

The project manager is key to the success of any project. But the path to becoming a successful project manager is ill defined. In this study, the authors analyzed interview results of 87 project managers’ responses to questions associated with entry into the field, career progression, and advice for the new project manager, seeking to better understand practicing project manager career progression. Qualitative analysis techniques were used to identify recurring themes from the interview summaries. The themes and the resulting conceptual framework provide evidence that supports the development of successful project manager career path. Further, the results suggest individual project management competencies in soft skills as a key enabler of project execution

Problem-Solving Behaviours, Organisational Forms and the Complexity of Tasks

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Aerospace medicine and biology: A continuing bibliography with indexes (supplement 327)

This bibliography lists 127 reports, articles and other documents introduced into the NASA Scientific and Technical Information System during August, 1989. Subject coverage includes: aerospace medicine and psychology, life support systems and controlled environments, safety equipment, exobiology and extraterrestrial life, and flight crew behavior and performance

Flight crew aiding for recovery from subsystem failures

Some of the conceptual issues associated with pilot aiding systems are discussed and an implementation of one component of such an aiding system is described. It is essential that the format and content of the information the aiding system presents to the crew be compatible with the crew's mental models of the task. It is proposed that in order to cooperate effectively, both the aiding system and the flight crew should have consistent information processing models, especially at the point of interface. A general information processing strategy, developed by Rasmussen, was selected to serve as the bridge between the human and aiding system's information processes. The development and implementation of a model-based situation assessment and response generation system for commercial transport aircraft are described. The current implementation is a prototype which concentrates on engine and control surface failure situations and consequent flight emergencies. The aiding system, termed Recovery Recommendation System (RECORS), uses a causal model of the relevant subset of the flight domain to simulate the effects of these failures and to generate appropriate responses, given the current aircraft state and the constraints of the current flight phase. Since detailed information about the aircraft state may not always be available, the model represents the domain at varying levels of abstraction and uses the less detailed abstraction levels to make inferences when exact information is not available. The structure of this model is described in detail

Project manager insights: An analysis of career progression

The project manager is key to the success of any project.  But the path to becoming a successful project manager is ill defined.  In this study, the authors analyzed interview results of 87 project managers’ responses to questions associated with entry into the field, career progression, and advice for the new project manager, seeking to better understand practicing project manager career progression.  Qualitative analysis techniques were used to identify recurring themes from the interview summaries. The themes and the resulting conceptual framework provide evidence that supports the development of successful project manager career path. Further, the results suggest individual project management competencies in soft skills as a key enabler of project execution.

Facilitating the Transition from Military Instructor to Academic Educator: Cognitive Apprenticeship in Teacher Induction at the United States Air Force Academy

This article examines teacher induction in the military undergraduate education context. The U.S. Air Force Academy relies on approximately 520 military and civilian instructors to educate nearly 4000 future military officers each year. These educators must be highly skilled and unquestionably capable in their abilities to teach these future leaders. Many of these instructors derive from highly technical active duty operational career fields (such as pilot, missile operator, etc.). This article reveals how Collins’, Brown’s, and Newman’s (1989) theory of cognitive apprenticeship is manifested within teacher induction experiences at the U.S. Air Force Academy. Using a qualitative multiple-case study approach, this research integrated data from observations, interviews, and participant journals to reveal how the six methods of cognitive apprenticeship (modeling, coaching, scaffolding, articulating, reflecting, and exploring) are facilitated in the individual operator-to-educator transition experience. The findings from this study inform faculty orientation and faculty development policies and processes within the U.S. Air Force Academy and bear implications for civilian post-secondary educator induction processes as well

The Proceedings of the International Civil Aviation English Association (2018) Conference

The 2018 International Civil Aviation English Association (ICAEA)1 hosted its annual conference at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University2 in Daytona Beach, Florida, USA. The conference, entitled “Building on the ICAO LPRs– Communication as a Human Factor: New Perspectives on Aviation English Training and Testing,” explored issues beyond the ICAO Language Proficiency Requirements (LPRs) including: incorporating communication strategies into best practices for training and testing, the effect of language and culture on communication as a human factor, considerations for future policy developments in language and communication. The event featured plenary presentations, Q&A panels, interactive panel presentations, practical workshops, and poster sessions. With more than 120 participants from 35+ countries, this was one of ICAEA’s most internationally-attended recent events. Attendees included representatives from airlines, flight training organizations (FTOs), air navigation service providers (ANSPs), civil aviation authorities (CAAs), universities, and training and testing providers from all over the world. These proceedings feature seven articles written by eight of the conference’s presenters, summarizing their practical experiences and research findings which were shared at the conference. This publication is recommended to anyone interested in aeronautical communication