Air traffic controllers’ visual scanning, aircraft selection, and comparison strategies in support of conflict detection

Author(s):  
Ziho Kang ◽  
Ellen J. Bass ◽  
Douglas W. Lee
Author(s):  
Roger W. Remington ◽  
James C. Johnston ◽  
Eric Ruthruff ◽  
Miri Gold ◽  
Maria Romera

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jimmy Y. Zhong ◽  
Sim Kuan Goh ◽  
Chuan Jie Woo ◽  
Sameer Alam

Abstract With a focus on psychometric assessment, the current study investigated the extent to which spatial orientation ability (SOA), as conceptualized in the spatial cognition and navigation literature, predicted air traffic conflict detection performance in a simulated free route airspace (FRA). Within a FRA, airspace users have the flexibility to plan flights by selecting preferred routes between predefined waypoints. Despite such benefits, FRA implementation can introduce conflicts that are geometrically complex, and of which would require a high level of SOA engagement. Based on a sample of 20 young adults who have the prospect to become air traffic controllers (ATCOs), we found that response time-based performance on a newly developed computerized spatial orientation test (SOT) predicted time to loss of minimum separation (tLMS)-based performance on a conflict detection task to a moderately large extent under scenarios with high air traffic density. We explained these findings in light of similar or overlapping mental processes that were most likely activated optimally under task conditions featuring approximately equal numbers of outcome-relevant stimuli. We also discussed the potential use of the new SOT in relation to the selection of prospective ATCOs who can demonstrate high levels of conflict detection performance in FRA during training simulations.


Author(s):  
O. M. Reva ◽  
V. V. Kamyshin ◽  
S. P. Borsuk ◽  
V. A. Shulhin ◽  
A. V. Nevynitsyn

The negative and persistent impact of the human factor on the statistics of aviation accidents and serious incidents makes proactive studies of the attitude of “front line” aviation operators (air traffic controllers, flight crewmembers) to dangerous actions or professional conditions as a key component of the current paradigm of ICAO safety concept. This “attitude” is determined through the indicators of the influence of the human factor on decision-making, which also include the systems of preferences of air traffic controllers on the indicators and characteristics of professional activity, illustrating both the individual perception of potential risks and dangers, and the peculiarities of generalized group thinking that have developed in a particular society. Preference systems are an ordered (ranked) series of n = 21 errors: from the most dangerous to the least dangerous and characterize only the danger preference of one error over another. The degree of this preference is determined only by the difference in the ranks of the errors and does not answer the question of how much time one error is more dangerous in relation to another. The differential method for identifying the comparative danger of errors, as well as the multistep technology for identifying and filtering out marginal opinions were applied. From the initial sample of m = 37 professional air traffic controllers, two subgroups mB=20 and mG=7 people were identified with statisti-cally significant at a high level of significance within the group consistency of opinions a = 1%. Nonpara-metric optimization of the corresponding group preference systems resulted in Kemeny’s medians, in which the related (middle) ranks were missing. Based on these medians, weighted coefficients of error hazards were determined by the mathematical prioritization method. It is substantiated that with the ac-cepted accuracy of calculations, the results obtained at the second iteration of this method are more ac-ceptable. The values of the error hazard coefficients, together with their ranks established in the preference systems, allow a more complete quantitative and qualitative analysis of the attitude of both individual air traffic controllers and their professional groups to hazardous actions or conditions.


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