Developing a Formal Model of Human Memory in a Simulated Air Traffic Control Conflict Detection Task

Abstract

This paper describes the development of a formal model of conflict detection in a simulated air traffic control task. The model assumes that people rely on information from two sources when performing conflict detection tasks: perceptual cues, and memory for prior examples. The architecture of the memory system is based on Hintzman's (1986) Minerva 2 model, which is a multiple trace model of episodic and semantic memory. The model was able simulate the performance of naïve experimental participants on a conflict detection task. Aspects of human data that were simulated included differential effects of item repetition on reaction times and false alarm rates during training, and positive and negative transfer from prior examples at test.