Characterizing the Effect of Videophone Conversations on Intersection Driving Performance

The present study examined the efficacy of videophone conversations for enhancing conversation partner situational awareness and mitigating cell phone distraction during intersection drives. Younger and older drivers drove through simulated intersections in four conditions: undistracted, with an in-car passenger, with a remote partner who could see the driver and a subset of the driving scene via a videophone, and with a remote partner on a cell phone. Relative to the cell phone condition, passenger and videophone conversations enhanced situational awareness and mitigated distraction. Younger and older drivers showed similar benefits, although there were age-related costs to driving performance overall. Videophone information offers a simple and promising potential strategy to enhance partner situational awareness during cell phone conversations, even when the conversation partner can see only a subset of the driving scene

Training and Transfer of Training in Rapid Visual Search for Camouflaged Targets

Previous examinations of search under camouflage conditions have reported that performance improves with training and that training can engender near perfect transfer to similar, but novel camouflage-type displays [1]. What remains unclear, however, are the cognitive mechanisms underlying these training improvements and transfer benefits. On the one hand, improvements and transfer benefits might be associated with higher-level overt strategy shifts, such as through the restriction of eye movements to target-likely (background) display regions. On the other hand, improvements and benefits might be related to the tuning of lower-level perceptual processes, such as figure-ground segregation. To decouple these competing possibilities we had one group of participants train on camouflage search displays and a control group train on non-camouflage displays. Critically, search displays were rapidly presented, precluding eye movements. Before and following training, all participants completed transfer sessions in which they searched novel displays. We found that search performance on camouflage displays improved with training. Furthermore, participants who trained on camouflage displays suffered no performance costs when searching novel displays following training. Our findings suggest that training to break camouflage is related to the tuning of perceptual mechanisms and not strategic shifts in overt attention

Flight Envelope Information-Augmented Display for Enhanced Pilot Situation Awareness

This paper presents an interface system display which is conceived to improve pilot situation awareness with respect to a flight envelope protection system developed for a mid-sized transport aircraft. The new display is designed to complement existing cockpit displays, and to augment them with information that relates to both aircraft state and the control automation itself. In particular, the proposed display provides cues about the state of automation directly in terms of pilot control actions, in addition to flight parameters. The paper also describes a forthcoming evaluation test plan that is intended to validate the developed interface by assessing the relevance of the displayed information, as well as the adequacy of the display layout

Voluntary Saccade Training Protocol in Persons With Parkinson’s Disease and Healthy Adults

Background: Voluntary saccade function gradually decreases during both the progression of Parkinson’s disease (PD) and neurologically healthy adult aging. Voluntary saccades display decreased length and increased saccade latency, duration, and the number of compensatory saccades in aging and PD. Saccades serve as the key eye movement for maintaining salient features of the visual environment on the high visual acuity fovea of the retina. Abnormal saccade behavior has been associated with freezing of gait in PD. We have not identified any studies that have investigated improvement in voluntary saccade function using voluntary saccade training.Objective: We report an experimental protocol that tests a training paradigm following the principle of specificity to improve voluntary saccade velocity and amplitude, while decreasing latency and the number of compensatory saccades.Methods: Persons with PD (n = 22) and persons with no known neurological disorders (n = 22) between the ages of 40 and 65 years will be recruited. In a randomized-block study design, all participants will perform voluntary saccades to targets in eight cardinal and intercardinal directions. In each of the eight sessions during the four-week intervention period, participants will train at three target amplitudes. Participants will perform 40 trials for each amplitude block, consisting of five randomly presented repetitions for each direction. Voluntary and reflexive saccades will be recorded pre- and post-intervention, along with clinical mobility assessment using the Movement Disorder Society Unified Parkinson’s Disease Rating Scale. Mobility scores, the amplitude, latency, and duration of the first saccade, and the number of saccades to reach the fixation target will be analyzed using an ANOVA of mixed effects.Discussion: This protocol holds promise as a potential method to improve voluntary saccade function in persons with PD. Should persons with PD not improve on any outcome following the intervention, this lack of response may support the use of saccade assessment as a response biomarker for the diagnosis of PD.Trial Registration: This protocol was retrospectively registered at ISRCTN (ISRCTN.com) since July 25, 2018. The first participant was recruited March 12, 2016. The protocol identifier is 17784042.Descriptive Title: A two-arm, pre/post-protocol to compare the effects of a four-week voluntary saccade training intervention in persons with Parkinson’s disease and healthy adults aged forty years or older

CHARACTERIZING THE EFFECT OF VIDEOPHONE CONVERSATIONS ON INTERSECTION DRIVING PERFORMANCE

Summary: The present study examined the efficacy of videophone conversations for enhancing conversation partner situational awareness and mitigating cell phone distraction during intersection drives. Younger and older drivers drove through simulated intersections in four conditions: undistracted, with an in-car passenger, with a remote partner who could see the driver and a subset of the driving scene via a videophone, and with a remote partner on a cell phone. Relative to the cell phone condition, passenger and videophone conversations enhanced situational awareness and mitigated distraction. Younger and older drivers showed similar benefits, although there were age-related costs to driving performance overall. Videophone information offers a simple and promising potential strategy to enhance partner situational awareness during cell phone conversations, even when the conversation partner can see only a subset of the driving scene

Measuring The Useful Field Of View During Simulated Driving With Gaze-Contingent Displays

Objective: We aimed to develop and test a new dynamic measure of transient changes to the useful field of view (UFOV), utilizing a gaze-contingent paradigm for use in realistic simulated environments. Background: The UFOV, the area from which an observer can extract visual information during a single fixation, has been correlated with driving performance and crash risk. However, some existing measures of the UFOV cannot be used dynamically in realistic simulators, and other UFOV measures involve constant stimuli at fixed locations. We propose a gaze-contingent UFOV measure (the GC-UFOV) that solves the above problems. Methods: Twenty-five participants completed four simulated drives while they concurrently performed an occasional gaze-contingent Gabor orientation discrimination task. Gabors appeared randomly at one of three retinal eccentricities (5°, 10°, or 15°). Cognitive workload was manipulated both with a concurrent auditory working memory task and with driving task difficulty (via presence/absence of lateral wind). Results: Cognitive workload had a detrimental effect on Gabor discrimination accuracy at all three retinal eccentricities. Interestingly, this accuracy cost was equivalent across eccentricities, consistent with previous findings of €general interference€ rather than €tunnel vision.€ Conclusion: The results showed that the GC-UFOV method was able to measure transient changes in UFOV due to cognitive load in a realistic simulated environment. Application: The GC-UFOV paradigm developed and tested in this study is a novel and effective tool for studying transient changes in the UFOV due to cognitive load in the context of complex real-world tasks such as simulated driving

Training and transfer of training in rapid visual search for camouflaged targets.

Previous examinations of search under camouflage conditions have reported that performance improves with training and that training can engender near perfect transfer to similar, but novel camouflage-type displays [1]. What remains unclear, however, are the cognitive mechanisms underlying these training improvements and transfer benefits. On the one hand, improvements and transfer benefits might be associated with higher-level overt strategy shifts, such as through the restriction of eye movements to target-likely (background) display regions. On the other hand, improvements and benefits might be related to the tuning of lower-level perceptual processes, such as figure-ground segregation. To decouple these competing possibilities we had one group of participants train on camouflage search displays and a control group train on non-camouflage displays. Critically, search displays were rapidly presented, precluding eye movements. Before and following training, all participants completed transfer sessions in which they searched novel displays. We found that search performance on camouflage displays improved with training. Furthermore, participants who trained on camouflage displays suffered no performance costs when searching novel displays following training. Our findings suggest that training to break camouflage is related to the tuning of perceptual mechanisms and not strategic shifts in overt attention

Inverting the Human/Automation Equation to Support Situation Awareness and Prevent Loss of Control

Despite the contributions of automation to aviation safety and efficiency, the problems associated with technology-centered rather than human-centered automation are well known: decreased pilot situation awareness, deterioration of manual piloting skills, difficulties pilots experience when trying to jump into the loop when needed, and so forth. We present a prototype architecture for human-automation interaction that reverses their traditional roles: in our design, the automation looks over the shoulder of the pilot and jumps into the loop when needed rather than the other way around to prevent aircraft loss-of-control (LoC). The architecture exploits the LoC prevention algorithm proposed by Wilborn and Foster (2004). This quantitative definition uses a set of five two-dimensional envelopes relating to critical flight parameters that account for aircraft flight dynamics, aerodynamics, structural integrity, and flight control use. The LoC algorithm is used to both present the pilot with a graphical cockpit display depicting aircraft state in relation to these safety envelopes in passive mode (i.e., depicting behavior-shaping constraints), and also to compensate for ineffective pilot inputs that would cause aircraft LoC in active mode. The prototype system has been implemented in our flight simulation lab and the details underlying the design will be presented. We conclude by describing the design of an experiment we are using to evaluate this human-automation interaction design concept and its implementation

Mean accuracy across pre and post –training on untrained camouflage test displays for the camouflage and non-camouflage training groups as a function of target presence at set sizes 3 (A) and 5 (B).

<p>Mean accuracy across pre and post –training on untrained camouflage test displays for the camouflage and non-camouflage training groups as a function of target presence at set sizes 3 (A) and 5 (B).</p

Mean accuracy across training session 5 and post –training on untrained camouflage test displays for the camouflage and non-camouflage training groups as a function of target presence at set sizes 3 (A) and 5 (B).

<p>Mean accuracy across training session 5 and post –training on untrained camouflage test displays for the camouflage and non-camouflage training groups as a function of target presence at set sizes 3 (A) and 5 (B).</p