Improving Passing Lane Safety and Efficiency for Alaska’s Rural Non‐divided Highways

INE/AUTC 14.0

Effect of Pain and Task Load on Flying Performance

An operationally-significant number of Griffon aircrew in the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) develop chronic neck pain; however, it is unclear how this chronic pain affects their ability to accomplish their missions. Extant literature on pain and human performance has found that pain can negatively affect tasks constrained by short-term memory and attention switching. We sought to test whether pain has similar effects on personnel piloting helicopters in simulation. Twenty-three RCAF personnel flew a simulated Griffon helicopter through waypoints along a target path. We were particularly interested in the effects of three variables: a) the presence or absence of induced thermal pain, b) the presence or absence of a secondary engine monitoring task requiring sustained attention, and c) the experience level of the pilots. The results suggest that pain can interfere with flight performance, particularly for less experienced pilots engaged in multiple tasks over more extended time durations

Fault diagnosis with multi-state alarms in a nuclear power control simulator

This research addresses how alarm systems can increase operator performance within nuclear power plant operations. The experiment examined the effect of two types of alarm systems (two-state and three-state alarms) on alarm compliance and diagnosis for two types of faults differing in complexity. We hypothesized three-state alarms would improve performance in alarm recognition and fault diagnoses over that of two-state alarms. We used sensitivity and criterion based on Signal Detection Theory to measure performance. We further hypothesized that operator trust would be highest when using three-state alarms. The findings from this research showed participants performed better and had more trust in three-state alarms compared to two-state alarms. Furthermore, these findings have significant theoretical implications and practical applications as they apply to improving the efficiency and effectiveness of nuclear power plant operations

EXPLORING THE POTENTIAL OF SHORT-TIME FOURIER TRANSFORMS FOR ANALYZING SKIN CONDUCTANCE AND PUPILLOMETRY IN REAL-TIME APPLICATIONS

The development of real-time predictors of mental workload is critical for the practical application of augmented cognition to human-machine systems. This paper explores a novel method based on a short-time Fourier transform (STFT) for analyzing galvanic skin conductance (SC) and pupillometry time-series data to extract estimates of mental workload with temporal bandwidth high-enough to be useful for augmented cognition applications. We tested the method in the context of a process control task based on the DURESS simulation developed by Vincente and Pawlak (1994; ported to Java by Cosentino,& Ross, 1999). SC, pupil dilation, blink rate, and visual scanning patterns were measured for four participants actively engaged in controlling the simulation. Fault events were introduced that required participants to diagnose errors and make control adjustments to keep the simulator operating within a target range. We were interested in whether the STFT of these measures would produce visible effects of the increase in mental workload and stress associated with these events. Graphical exploratory data analysis of the STFT showed visible increases in the power spectrum across a range of frequencies directly following fault events. We believe this approach shows potential as a relatively unobtrusive, low-cost, high bandwidth measure of mental workload that could be particularly useful for the application of augmented cognition to human-machine systems

Peripherally-Located Virtual Instrument Landing Displays

We examined how the location and spatial extent of a peripherally-located virtual instrument landing system (ILS) head-up display (HUD) affects landing precision. Our experiment compared three spatial formats of a peripherally-located virtual ILS HUD: a) a large-format display located within rectangular regions defined relative to the center of the HUD, with the lateral flight indicator subtending +/-5 to 62.5° by +/-0 to 16.875° (HxV) and the vertical flight command indicator subtending +/-0 to 45° by +/-6.875 to 16.875° (HxV); b) near-peripheral displays comprised of roughly the inner half of the large format display; and c) far-peripheral displays, comprised of the remaining outer half. We found that restricting display locations and extents to either the near or far periphery provided landing precision statistically equivalent to the largeformat displays, which suggests that HUD clutter could be reduced by moving virtual ILS displays into the far periphery without negatively impacting landing precision

Effect of Pain and Task Load on Flying Performance

An operationally-significant number of Griffon aircrew in the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) develop chronic neck pain; however, it is unclear how this chronic pain affects their ability to accomplish their missions. Extant literature on pain and human performance has found that pain can negatively affect tasks constrained by short-term memory and attention switching. We sought to test whether pain has similar effects on personnel piloting helicopters in simulation. Twenty-three RCAF personnel flew a simulated Griffon helicopter through waypoints along a target path. We were particularly interested in the effects of three variables: a) the presence or absence of induced thermal pain, b) the presence or absence of a secondary engine monitoring task requiring sustained attention, and c) the experience level of the pilots. The results suggest that pain can interfere with flight performance, particularly for less experienced pilots engaged in multiple tasks over more extended time durations

FAULT DIAGNOSIS WITH MULTI-STATE ALARMS IN A NUCLEAR POWER CONTROL SIMULATOR

This research addresses how alarm systems can increase operator performance within nuclear power plant operations. The experiment examined the effect of two types of alarm systems (two-state and three-state alarms) on alarm compliance and diagnosis for two types of faults differing in complexity. We hypothesized three-state alarms would improve performance in alarm recognition and fault diagnoses over that of two-state alarms. We used sensitivity and criterion based on Signal Detection Theory to measure performance. We further hypothesized that operator trust would be highest when using three-state alarms. The findings from this research showed participants performed better and had more trust in three-state alarms compared to two-state alarms. Furthermore, these findings have significant theoretical implications and practical applications as they apply to improving the efficiency and effectiveness of nuclear power plant operations