How role assignment impacts decision-making in high-risk environments: Evidence from eye-tracking in aviation

Adequate monitoring of automated systems is an essential aspect of procedure compliance, protective behaviour, and appropriate decisions in ultra-safe environments. In the air transport industry, the distribution of roles in a flight crew – Pilot Flying vs. Pilot Monitoring – reflects the importance of this task. Little is known about how pilot role assignment impacts monitoring behaviour and subsequent decision-making. We designed a field study where 62 airline pilots equipped with portable eye-trackers had to make a dynamic decision during approach in the airline’s full-flight simulator. At a behavioural level, pilot role assignment (Pilot Flying vs. Pilot Monitoring) influenced decision time irrespective of rank (Captain vs. First Officer), with later decisions for the Pilot Monitoring. Eye-tracking results provided evidence that pilot role assignment rather than rank impacted fixations on choice-relevant information, with more fixations by the Pilot Monitoring. Overall, pilots’ fixations on choice-relevant information could predict decision-making. We discuss implications for the optimal combination of role assignment and hierarchical rank

Impulsivity modulates pilot decision making under uncertainty

Little is known whether intensive training and a highly-procedural environment can alleviate the influence of personality on decision making. Here, we address this issue by investigating the influence of impulsivity as personality factor on decision making among airline pilots. We showed that impulsivity modulated pilots’ indecisiveness in uncertain decision scenarios as well as pilots’ self-reported compliance to airline guidelines in real life. This result suggests that the personality factor impulsivity is a profound trait that continues to have an influence through intensive training and highly-procedural decision situations

Pilot Flying and Pilot Monitoring’s Aircraft State Awareness During Go-Around Execution in Aviation: A Behavioral and Eye Tracking Study

Objective: Examination of the performance and visual scanning of aircrews during final approach and an unexpected go-around maneuver. Background: Accident and incident analyses have revealed that go-around procedures are often imperfectly performed because of their complexity, their high time stress, and their rarity of occurrence that avails little time for practice. We wished to examine this experimentally and establish the frequency and nature of errors in both flight-performance and visual scanning. Method: We collected flight-performance (e.g., errors in procedures, excessive flight deviations) and eye-tracking data of 12 flight crews who performed final approach and go-around flight phases in realistic full-flight transport-category simulators. Results: The pilot performance results showed that two thirds of the crews committed errors including critical trajectory deviations during go-arounds, a precursor of accidents. Eye-tracking analyses revealed that the cross-checking process was not always efficient in detecting flight-path deviations when they occurred. Ocular data also highlighted different visual strategies between the 2 crew members during the 2 flight phases. Conclusion: This study reveals that the go-around is a challenging maneuver. It demonstrates the advantages of eye tracking and suggests that it is a valuable tool for the explicit training of attention allocation during go-arounds to enhance flight safety

Are pilots prepared for a cyber-attack? A human factors approach to the experimental evaluation of pilots' behavior

The increasing prevalence of technology in modern airliners brings not just advantages, but also the potential for cyber threats. Fortunately, there have been no significant attacks on civil aircraft to date, which allows the handling of these emerging threats to be approached proactively. Although an ample body of research into technical defense strategies exists, current research neglects to take the human operator into account. In this study, we present an exploratory experiment focusing on pilots confronted with a cyber-attack. Results show that the occurrence of an attack affects all dependent variables: pilots' workload, trust, eye-movements, and behavior. Pilots experiencing an attack report heavier workload and weakened trust in the system than pilots whose aircraft is not under attack. Further, pilots who experienced an attack monitored basic flying instruments less and their performance deteriorated. A warning about a potential attack seems to moderate several of those effects. Our analysis prompts us to recommend incorporating cyber-awareness into pilots' recurrent training; we also argue that one has to consider all affected personnel when designing such training. Future research should target the development of appropriate procedures and training techniques to prepare pilots to correctly identify and respond to cyber-attacks

Encoding decisions and expertise in the operator's eyes: Using eye-tracking as input for system adaptation

We investigated the possibility of developing a decision support system (DSS) that integrates eye-fixation measurements to better adapt its suggestions. Indeed, eye fixation give insight into human decision-making: Individuals tend to pay more attention to key information in line with their upcoming selection. Thus, eye-fixation measures can help the DSS to better capture the context that determines user decisions. Twenty-two participants performed a simplified Air Traffic Control (ATC) simulation in which they had to decide to accept or to modify route suggestions according to specific parameter values displayed on the screen. Decisions and fixation times on each parameter were recorded. The user fixation times were used by an algorithm to estimate the utility of each parameter for its decision. Immediately after this training phase, the algorithm generated new route suggestions under two conditions: 1) Taking into account the participant's decisions, 2) Taking into account the participant's decisions plus their visual behavior using the measurements of dwell times on displayed parameters. Results showed that system suggestions were more accurate than the base system when taking into account the participant's decisions, and even more accurate using their dwell times. Capturing the crucial information for the decision using the eye tracker accelerated the DSS learning phase, and thus helped to further enhance the accuracy of consecutive suggestions. Moreover, exploratory eye-tracking analysis reflected two different stages of the decision-making process, with longer dwell times on relevant parameters (i.e. involved in a rule) during the entire decision time course, and frequency of fixations on these relevant parameters that increased, especially during the last fixations prior to the decision. Consequently, future DSS integrating eye-tracking data should pay specific care to the final fixations prior to the decision. In general, our results emphasize the potential interest of eye-tracking to enhance and accelerate system adaptation to user preference, knowledge, and expertise

Momentary lapse of control: A cognitive continuum approach to understanding and mitigating perseveration in human error

Everyday complex and stressful real-life situations can overwhelm the human brain to an extent that the person is no longer able to accurately evaluate the situation and persists in irrational actions or strategies. Safety analyses reveal that such perseverative behavior is exhibited by operators in many critical domains, which can lead to potentially fatal incidents. There are neuroimaging evidences of changes in healthy brain functioning when engaged in non-adaptive behaviors that are akin to executive deficits such as perseveration shown in patients with brain lesion. In this respect, we suggest a cognitive continuum whereby stressors can render the healthy brain temporarily impaired. We show that the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex is a key structure for executive and attentional control whereby any transient (stressors, neurostimulation) or permanent (lesion) impairment compromises adaptive behavior. Using this neuropsychological insight, we discuss solutions involving training, neurostimulation, and the design of cognitive countermeasures for mitigating perseveration

L’influence de la personnalité, des habitudes, de la hiérarchie et du rôle sur la prise de décision en conditions réelles : application à la sécurité aérienne

Dans les secteurs d’activité où la sécurité est la priorité - de l’industrie nucléaire à la chirurgie en passant par l’aviation commerciale - des individus sont confrontés à des décisions critiques au sein d’environnements à la fois complexes, changeants et dynamiques. Pour faire face à ces situations et standardiser les pratiques, leurs activités reposent sur l’application de procédures (ensemble de règles), associées à un haut niveau d’entrainement. Le sujet de ce doctorat porte sur l’impact de facteurs psychologiques, tels que la personnalité, les habitudes, la hiérarchie et le rôle sur le processus de décision de ces individus en conditions réelles. L’étude est appliquée à l’aviation commerciale, et plus spécifiquement aux phases d’approche et d’atterrissage qui sont les plus critiques pour les équipages. La première étude, sous forme d’un questionnaire, montre que l’impulsivité – plus que les habitudes ou la hiérarchie – peut prédire l’adhésion d’un pilote de ligne aux procédures, et en particulier sa décision dans ces phases de vol. La seconde étude a recours au simulateur de vol pour observer le processus de décision au travers de deux scénarii réalistes et en situation dynamique. Sous forte pression temporelle, la hiérarchie et les habitudes, et non l’impulsivité, jouent un rôle clé et peuvent prédire la capacité des pilotes à changer de plan d’action. En revanche, en l’absence de pression temporelle, l’impulsivité redevient le facteur prépondérant. La dernière étude introduit la technologie « eye-tracking » et montre que le rôle – aspect lié au partage des tâches au sein de l’équipage (en plus de la hiérarchie) – interagit avec la hiérarchie pour influer sur la capacité d’acquisition des informations nécessaires à la prise de décision. On observe également que le niveau d’attention porté aux informations clés peut prédire la décision du pilote. L’ensemble de ces résultats illustre l’importance des facteurs psychologiques et leur influence sur la prise de décision dans un environnement de travail hautement normé. L’impulsivité demeure un trait de personnalité profond dont l’influence persiste même chez des opérateurs très entraînés. Néanmoins la hiérarchie et des habitudes peuvent modérer cet effet. Nous discuterons les implications futures de ces résultats, en particulier pour l’aviation commerciale.From nuclear power to medical surgery and commercial aviation, where safety is the priority, individuals have to make critical decisions in dynamic, uncertain and technical environments. In order to cope with complexity and unify behaviour, individuals have procedures (operating rules) while being highly trained. The research conducted during this PhD was aimed at investigating the influence of psychological factors such as personality, habits, hierarchy, and role on the decision-making of highly trained individuals in highly procedural real-life environments – illustrated via commercial aviation. The first questionnaire study showed that impulsivity – rather than habits and hierarchy – predicted airline pilots’ landing decisions and reported procedure compliance in real airline operations. The second study contrasted two low interdependence decision scenarios in a full-flight simulator. Hierarchy and habits – rather than impulsivity – predicted decisions to switch away from the default option under high time pressure. Under low time pressure, however, impulsivity – rather than hierarchy and habits – impacted default choices. Finally, a third study with eye-tracking showed that team role assignment – a particular aspect in flight crews in addition to formal hierarchy – interacted with hierarchy and was important for information acquisition during decision-making. Fixations on decision-relevant information predicted decision-making. Altogether, these findings shed light on the influential power of psychological factors on decision-making in highly procedural work environments. The results show that impulsivity is a profound personality trait that persists even in highly trained professionals within highly procedural environments. Yet, hierarchy and habits impact and alleviate the influence of impulsivity on decision-making between options with distinct temporal consequences. We discuss future implications of these results for highly trained individuals in highly procedural environments, in particular for commercial aviation

Pilot flying versus pilot monitoring: study of gaze allocation during dynamic and critical flight phases

International audienc

Symptomatic sacrococcygeal joint dislocation treated using closed manual reduction: A case report with 36-month follow-up and review of literature

Dislocation of the sacrococcygeal joint is a rare injury from trauma to the buttocks, most often from falling backwards. Standard of care for this injury has not been determined because it is rare. Left untreated this can cause coccydynia in the long-term. Here we present a case report to describe the treatment of an anterior sacrococcygeal dislocation with closed manual reduction. A 13-year-old female presented to the emergency department with buttock pain after slipping backwards down the stairs. On X-ray the coccyx was in bayonette apposition to the anterior distal sacrum and shortened by 6 mm. To manage the injury, closed manual reduction of the sacrococcygeal joint was performed. To our knowledge, this is the first successful case of sacrococcygeal dislocation treated with closed manual reduction, resulting in complete relief of symptoms at 36 months follow-up. Sacrococcygeal dislocations can be treated with closed manual reduction, resulting in lower morbidity and faster recovery compared to surgical treatment