Based on previous research showing the usefulness of spatial statistics in detecting randomness in the distribution of eye fixations, this study investigated the ocular behavior of professional pilots engaged in a simulated flight. The distribution of eye fixations was used as an indirect index of mental workload: Eye movements were recorded during the different phases (departure to landing) of a simulated flight and were analyzed using spatial statistics algorithms. Results showed sensitivity of spatial dispersion indices to variations in mental workload: higher during departure and landing, lower during climb and descend, and the lowest during the cruise phase. This finding provides additional evidence of the utility of fixations distribution as a real-time measure of mental workload and, consequently, as a trigger for adaptive automation.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
BeattyJ. (1982). Task-evoked pupillary responses, processing load, and the structure of processing resources. Psychological Bulletin, 91, 377–381.
2.
BellenkesA. H.WickensC. D.KramerA. F. (1997). Visual scanning and pilot expertise: The role of attentional flexibility and mental model development. Aviation Space and Environmental Medicine, 68, 569–579.
3.
BrookingsJ. B.WilsonG. F.SwainC. R. (1996). Psychophysiological responses to changes in workload during simulated air traffic control. Biological Psychology, 42, 361–377.
4.
BuneckeJ. L. (1987). Quantifying some information processing requirements of the pilot's instrument crosscheck. Proceedings of the Human Factors Society 31st Annual Meeting (pp. 1301–1305). Santa Monica, CA: SAGE Publications.
5.
ClarkP. J.EvansF. C. (1954). Distance to nearest neighbor as a measure of spatial relationships in populations. Ecology, 35, 445–453.
6.
ConteS.FerlazzoF.RenziP. (1995). Ultradian rhythms of reaction times in performance in vigilance tasks. Biological Psychology, 39(2), 159–172.
7.
DiezM.Boehm-DavisD. A.HansbergerJ. T.PinneyM. E.HansbergerJ. T.SchoppekW. (2001). Tracking pilot interactions with flight management systems through eye movements. Proceedings of the 11th International Symposium on Aviation Psychology. Columbus: The Ohio State University.
8.
Di NoceraF. (2003). On reliability and stability of psychophysiological indicators for assessing operator functional states. In HockeyG. R. J.GaillardA. W. K.BurovO. (Eds.), Operator functional state: The assessment and prediction of human performance degradation in complex tasks (pp. 162–173). Amsterdam: IOS Press.
9.
Di NoceraF.TerenziM.CamilliM. (2006). Another look at scanpath: Distance to nearest neighbour as a measure of mental workload. In de WaardD.BrookhuisK. A.ToffettiA. (Eds.), Developments in human factors in transportation, design, and evaluation (pp. 295–303). Maastricht, Netherlands: Shaker Publishing.
10.
EphrathA. R.ToleJ. R.StephensA. T.YoungL. R. (1980). Instrument scan — Is it an indicator of the pilot's workload? Proceedings of the Human Factors Society 24th Annual Meeting (pp. 257–258). Santa Monica, CA: SAGE Publications.
11.
GranholmE.AsarnowR. F.SarkinA. J.DykesK. L. (1996). Pupillary responses index cognitive resource limitations. Psychophysiology, 33, 457–461.
12.
HankinsT. C.WilsonG. F. (1998). A comparison of heart rate, eye activity, EEG and subjective measures of pilot mental workload during flight. Aviation Space and Environmental Medicine, 69, 360–367.
13.
HarrisR. L.GloverB. L.SpadyA. A. (1986). Analytic techniques of pilot scanning behavior and their application (Technical Paper No. 2525). Hampton, VA: NASA Langley Research Center.
14.
HartS. G.HauserJ. R.LesterP. T. (1984). Inflight evaluation of four measures of pilot workload. Proceedings of the Human Factors Society 28th Annual Meeting (pp. 945–949). Santa Monica, CA: SAGE Publications.
15.
HartS. G.StavelandL. E. (1988). Development of NASA-TLX (Task Load Index): Results of empirical and theoretical research. In HancockP. A.MeshkatiN. (Eds.), Human mental workload (pp. 139–183). Amsterdam: Elsevier Science/North Holland.
16.
HilburnB.JornaP. G.ByrneE. A.ParasuramanR. (1997). The effect of adaptive air traffic control (ATC) decision aiding on controller mental workload. In MoulouaM.KoonceJ. (Eds.), Human-automation interaction: Research and practice (pp. 84–91). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.
17.
IrwinD. E.ZelinskyG. J. (2002). Eye movements and scene perception: Memory for things observed. Perception & Psychophysics, 64, 882–895.
18.
ItohY.HayashiY.TsukuiI.SaitoS. (1990). The ergonomic evaluation of eye movement and mental workload in aircraft pilots. Ergonomics, 33, 719–733.
19.
KahnemanD. (1973). Attention and effort. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.
20.
KantowitzB. H.CasperP. A. (1988). Human workload in aviation. In WienerE.NagelD., (Eds), Human factors in aviation (pp. 157–187). San Diego, CA: Academic Press.
21.
KruizingaA.MulderB.de WaardD. (2006). Eye scan patterns in a simulated ambulance dispatcher's task. In de WaardD.BrookhuisK. A.ToffettiA. (Eds.), Developments in human factors in transportation, design, and evaluation (pp. 305–317). Maastricht, Netherlands: Shaker Publishing.
22.
LeeY. H.LiuB. S. (2003). Inflight workload assessment: Comparison of subjective and physiological measurements. Aviation Space and Environmental Medicine, 74, 1078–1084.
23.
MillerJ. M. (1973). Visual behavior changes of student pilots flying instrument approaches. Proceedings of the Human Factors Society 17th Annual Meeting (pp. 208–214). Santa Monica, CA: SAGE Publications.
24.
PelzJ. B.CanosaR. (2001). Oculomotor behavior and perceptual strategies in complex tasks. Vision Research, 41, 3587–3596.
25.
SalvucciD. D.GoldbergJ. H. (2000). Identifying fixations and saccades in eye-tracking protocols. In Proceedings of Eye Tracking Research and Applications Symposium (pp. 71–78). New York: ACM Press.
26.
ScerboM. W. (2001). Stress, workload, and boredom in vigilance: A problem and an answer. In HancockP. A.DesmondP. A. (Eds.), Stress, workload, and fatigue. Human factors in transportation (pp. 267–278). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.
27.
ScerboM. W.FreemanF. G.MikulkaP. J.ParasuramanR.Di NoceraF.PrinzelL. J. (2001). The efficacy of psychophysiological measures for implementing adaptive technology (Technical Paper No. 211018). Hampton, VA: NASA Langley Research Center.
28.
SmithK. J.ValentinoD. A.ArrudaJ. E. (2003). Rhythmic oscillations in the performance of a sustained attention task. Journal of Clinical and Experimental Neuropsychology, 25, 561–570.
29.
ToleJ. R.StephensA. T.VivaudouM.EphrathA. R.YoungL. R. (1983). Visual scanning behavior and pilot workload (NASA Contractor Report No. 3717). Hampton, VA: NASA Langley Research Center.
30.
UnemaP.PannaschS.JoosM.VelichkovskyB. M. (2005). Time-course of information processing during scene perception: The relationship between saccade amplitude and fixation duration. Visual Cognition, 12, 473–494.
31.
UngerleiderL. G.MishkinM. (1982). Two cortical visual systems. In IngleD. J.GoodaleM. A.MansfieldR. J. W. (Eds.), Analysis of visual behavior (pp. 549–586). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
32.
WickensC. D. (2002). Situation awareness and workload in aviation. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 11, 128–133.
33.
WilsonG. F. (2002). An analysis of mental workload in pilots during flight using multiple psychophysiological measures. International Journal of Aviation Psychology, 12, 3–18.
34.
WilsonG. F.FullenkampP.DavisI. (1994). Evoked potential, cardiac, blink, and respiration measures of pilot workload in air-to-ground missions. Aviation Space and Environmental Medicine, 65, 100–105.
