Abstract
This study is one in a series directed at developing guidelines for improving and standardizing future aircraft alerting systems. The objectives were to evaluate the concept of a time-critical warning display, and to investigate the impact of presentation media and display formats on pilot detection and response times. An analysis of variance design was used to evaluate: time-critical display location (within the pilot's primary or secondary field of view); presentation format (alphanumeric, graphic or combination alphanumericgraphic message); message content (status or guidance); and voice format (presence or absence of an accompanying voice message). The results indicate that pilots respond faster when a time-critical display is used. The data also shows that the fastest response times are obtained when graphic guidance information is provided within the pilot's primary field of view. Based on these results, preliminary guidelines were developed for incorporating time-critical warning displays into aircraft alerting systems, and recommendations were made for continuing research on time-critical warnings.
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