Air traffic controllers build up a comprehensive mental representation of the current traffic scenario, which is known as the ‘picture.’ This picture helps them ensure that aircraft are safely separated as they travel from one point to another in the airspace system. The maintenance of the picture is related to various strategies that controllers use to determine if a conflict exists between two aircraft. However, studies that deal with identifying such strategies are lacking. Therefore, the goal of this paper is to cohesively bring together the empirical literature that identifies these strategies and the instances in which they are used, to provide the reader with a basic set of strategies controllers use in conflict detection situations, and to discuss the application of such strategies in relates to controller training.
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