The Impact of Pilot Expertise and Action Planning on Future State Projection Ability

Abstract

The following research examined the impact of pilot expertise and action planning on the ability to project forward a future state of an aircraft. Seventy-seven novice and expert pilots were asked in multiple trials to choose control actions that would change a current flight state depicted by cockpit instruments into a goal flight state, and then to judge whether a subsequent display of cockpit instruments showed the future state of the aircraft relative to the stated goal. Control movement selection, a measure of action planning accuracy, and future state judgment accuracy were recorded. The results suggest that expert action planning is directly linked to an ability to project forward a future state. In contrast, novice ability to project forward is independent of action planning accuracy. The results are discussed in terms of the separability of Endsley's levels of situation awareness.

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