scholarly journals Helicopter Pilots’ Tasks, Subjective Workload, and the Role of External Visual Cues During Shipboard Landing

2020 ◽  
Vol 14 (3) ◽  
pp. 242-257
Author(s):  
Martin Tušl ◽  
Giuseppe Rainieri ◽  
Federico Fraboni ◽  
Marco De Angelis ◽  
Marco Depolo ◽  
...  

Helicopter shipboard landing is a cognitively complex task that is challenging both for pilots and their crew. Effective communication, accurate reading of the flight instruments, as well as monitoring of the external environment are crucial for a successful landing. In particular, the final phases of landing are critical as they imply high workload situations in an unstable environment with restricted space. In the present qualitative study, we interviewed ten helicopter pilots from the Italian Navy using an applied cognitive task analysis approach. We aimed to obtain a detailed description of the landing procedure, and to identify relevant factors that affect pilots’ workload, performance, and safety. Based on the content analysis of the interviews, we have identified six distinct phases of approaching and landing on a ship deck and four categories of factors that may significantly affect pilots’ performance and safety of the landing procedure. Consistent with previous studies, our findings suggest that external visual cueing is vital for a successful landing, in particular during the last phases of landing. Therefore, based on the pilots’ statements, we provide suggestions for possible improvements of external visual cues that have the potential to reduce pilots’ workload and improve the overall safety of landing operations.

Author(s):  
Dev Minotra ◽  
Karen Feigh

The task of landing helicopters on ships is cognitively complex and is bounded by several limitations for safe operation. To design technologies to support helicopter pilots in shipboard operations, a better understanding of cognitive processes underlying helicopter piloting in shipboard landing maneuvers is required. Limitations in prior work on ship-based helicopter pilots motivate more studies to better understand how pilots compensate for difficulties associated with ship motion, air turbulence among other factors. We report a preliminary study that used the Applied Cognitive Task Analysis (ACTA) method. We interviewed three participants who have ground-based helicopter piloting experience. The results indicate that ACTA can be used in eliciting knowledge from helicopter pilots. However, we have identified several caveats with the use of the method for this application. The revised method will be used to interview helicopter pilots with shipboard landing experience. Our study has identified a number of cognitive elements in the task which are associated with task management, divided attention, and noticing anomalies.


Author(s):  
Adam F. Werner ◽  
Jamie C. Gorman

Objective This study examines visual, auditory, and the combination of both (bimodal) coupling modes in the performance of a two-person perceptual-motor task, in which one person provides the perceptual inputs and the other the motor inputs. Background Parking a plane or landing a helicopter on a mountain top requires one person to provide motor inputs while another person provides perceptual inputs. Perceptual inputs are communicated either visually, auditorily, or through both cues. Methods One participant drove a remote-controlled car around an obstacle and through a target, while another participant provided auditory, visual, or bimodal cues for steering and acceleration. Difficulty was manipulated using target size. Performance (trial time, path variability), cue rate, and spatial ability were measured. Results Visual coupling outperformed auditory coupling. Bimodal performance was best in the most difficult task condition but also high in the easiest condition. Cue rate predicted performance in all coupling modes. Drivers with lower spatial ability required a faster auditory cue rate, whereas drivers with higher ability performed best with a lower rate. Conclusion Visual cues result in better performance when only one coupling mode is available. As predicted by multiple resource theory, when both cues are available, performance depends more on auditory cueing. In particular, drivers must be able to transform auditory cues into spatial actions. Application Spotters should be trained to provide an appropriate cue rate to match the spatial ability of the driver or pilot. Auditory cues can enhance visual communication when the interpersonal task is visual with spatial outputs.


2011 ◽  
Vol 2011 ◽  
pp. 1-5 ◽  
Author(s):  
Atsushi Hirao

In avian mating systems, male domestic fowls are polygamous and mate with a number of selected members of the opposite sex. The factors that influence mating preference are considered to be visual cues. However, several studies have indicated that chemosensory cues also affect socio-sexual behavior, including mate choice and individual recognition. The female uropygial gland appears to provide odor for mate choice, as uropygial gland secretions are specific to individual body odor. Chicken olfactory bulbs possess efferent projections to the nucleus taeniae that are involved in copulatory behavior. From various reports, it appears that the uropygial gland has the potential to act as the source of social odor cues that dictate mate choice. In this review, evidence for the possible role of the uropygial gland on mate choice in domestic chickens is presented. However, it remains unclear whether a relationship exists between the uropygial gland and major histocompatibility complex-dependent mate choice.


2015 ◽  
Vol 2015 ◽  
pp. 1-10 ◽  
Author(s):  
Irina Chamine ◽  
Barry S. Oken

Objective. Stress-reducing therapies help maintain cognitive performance during stress. Aromatherapy is popular for stress reduction, but its effectiveness and mechanism are unclear. This study examined stress-reducing effects of aromatherapy on cognitive function using the go/no-go (GNG) task performance and event related potentials (ERP) components sensitive to stress. The study also assessed the importance of expectancy in aromatherapy actions.Methods. 81 adults were randomized to 3 aroma groups (active experimental, detectable, and undetectable placebo) and 2 prime subgroups (prime suggesting stress-reducing aroma effects or no-prime). GNG performance, ERPs, subjective expected aroma effects, and stress ratings were assessed at baseline and poststress.Results. No specific aroma effects on stress or cognition were observed. However, regardless of experienced aroma, people receiving a prime displayed faster poststress median reaction times than those receiving no prime. A significant interaction for N200 amplitude indicated divergent ERP patterns between baseline and poststress for go and no-go stimuli depending on the prime subgroup. Furthermore, trends for beneficial prime effects were shown on poststress no-go N200/P300 latencies and N200 amplitude.Conclusion. While there were no aroma-specific effects on stress or cognition, these results highlight the role of expectancy for poststress response inhibition and attention.


Author(s):  
Nada Zwayyid Almutairi ◽  
Eman Salah Ibrahim Rizk

This study explores interactive e-book cues and Information Processing Levels (IPL)’s effectiveness on Learning Retention (LR) and External Cognitive Load (ECL). 117 middle school pupils (MSP) were divided into six experimental groups based on their IPL and cues during the second term of the academic year 2019–2020. Visual Cues (VC)/Audiovisual Cues (VAC) and Auditory Cues (AC)/Audiovisual Cues (VAC) statistically varied in the Ie-book in LR test and ECL scale, same for the average scores when testing the LR in Science for MSP due to the difference between IPL for the DL. There is a statistically significant effect of cue types' interaction in Ie-book with IPL in ECL scale for MSP, at its highest peak in the case of the AVC with DL, followed by the interaction resulting from the VC with DL then AC with SL. Also, cues interaction in Ie-book with IPL immensely affect the LR test for MEP, which is at its highest peak in the case of the AVC with DL. The interactions between (DL–SL) and (AC–VC) seem to equally influence the ELC.


1993 ◽  
Vol 3 (3) ◽  
pp. 307-314 ◽  
Author(s):  
H. Mittelstaedt ◽  
S. Glasauer

This contribution examines the consequences of two remarkable experiences of subjects in weightlessness, 1) the missing of sensations of trunk tilt and of the respective concomitant reflexes when the head is tilted with respect to the trunk, and 2) the persistence of a perception of “up” and “down,” that is, of the polarity of the subjective vertical (SV) in the absence of, as well as in contradiction to, visual cues. The first disproves that the necessary head-to-trunk coordinate transformation be achieved by adding representations of the respective angles gained by utricles and neck receptors, but corroborates an extant model of cross-multiplication of utricular, saccular, and neck receptor components. The second indicates the existence of force-independent components in the determination of the SV. Although the number of subjects is still small and experimental conditions are not as homogeneous as desired, measurements and/or reports on the ground, in parabolic, and in space flight point to the decisive role of the saccular z-bias, that is, of a difference of the mean resting discharges of saccular units polarized in the rostrad and the caudad (±z-) direction.


1999 ◽  
Vol 9 (6) ◽  
pp. 445-451
Author(s):  
S. Di Girolamo ◽  
W. Di Nardo ◽  
A. Cosenza ◽  
F. Ottaviani ◽  
A. Dickmann ◽  
...  

The role of vision in postural control is crucial and is strictly related to the characteristics of the visual stimulus and to the performance of the visual system. The purpose of this investigation was to evaluate the effects of chronically reduced visual cues upon postural control in patients affected by Congenital Nystagmus (CN). These patients have developed since birth a postural strategy mainly based on vestibular and somatosensorial cues. Fifteen patients affected by CN and 15 normal controls (NC) were enrolled in the study and evaluated by means of dynamic posturography. The overall postural control in CN patients was impaired as demonstrated by the equilibrium score and by the changes of the postural strategy. This impairment was even more enhanced in CN than in NC group when somatosensorial cues were experimentally reduced. An aspecific pattern of visual impairment and a pathological composite score were also present. Our data outline that in patients affected by CN an impairment of the postural balance is present especially when the postural control relies mainly on visual cues. Moreover, a decrease in accuracy of the somatosensory cues has a proportionally greater effect on balance than it has on normal subjects.


2018 ◽  
Vol 40 (1) ◽  
pp. 93-109
Author(s):  
YI ZHENG ◽  
ARTHUR G. SAMUEL

AbstractIt has been documented that lipreading facilitates the understanding of difficult speech, such as noisy speech and time-compressed speech. However, relatively little work has addressed the role of visual information in perceiving accented speech, another type of difficult speech. In this study, we specifically focus on accented word recognition. One hundred forty-two native English speakers made lexical decision judgments on English words or nonwords produced by speakers with Mandarin Chinese accents. The stimuli were presented as either as videos that were of a relatively far speaker or as videos in which we zoomed in on the speaker’s head. Consistent with studies of degraded speech, listeners were more accurate at recognizing accented words when they saw lip movements from the closer apparent distance. The effect of apparent distance tended to be larger under nonoptimal conditions: when stimuli were nonwords than words, and when stimuli were produced by a speaker who had a relatively strong accent. However, we did not find any influence of listeners’ prior experience with Chinese accented speech, suggesting that cross-talker generalization is limited. The current study provides practical suggestions for effective communication between native and nonnative speakers: visual information is useful, and it is more useful in some circumstances than others.


1993 ◽  
Vol 21 (3) ◽  
pp. 266-280 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ariane S. Etienne ◽  
Sylvie Joris Lambert ◽  
Benoit Reverdin ◽  
Evelyne Teroni

2004 ◽  
Vol 01 (02) ◽  
pp. 205-231 ◽  
Author(s):  
PAUL RYAN ◽  
MAJELLA GIBLIN ◽  
EDEL WALSHE

High-technology companies operate in a dynamic and unstable environment due to rapidly changing technologies and consumer tastes. An increasing number of companies are engaging in joint R&D projects to subvent the constraints to competitiveness in this turbulent environment. Collaborative R&D activity has been studied from the perspectives of strategic management [Dodgson (1992)], organizational behavior [Powell et al. (1996)], operations management [Nooteboom et al. (2000)] and business-to-business marketing [Turnbull et al. (1996)]. Within the literature, trust has been identified as highly significant to alliance effectiveness, governance and the development of a long-term mutually beneficial relationship. [Perry et al. (2002); Ramaseshan and Loo (1998); Morgan and Hunt (1994); Ganesan (1994); Nooteboom et al. (2000)]. This paper describes a collaborative R&D project between two high-tech companies to trace the development of trust between the partners. It specifically considers the role of trust in facilitating the progression of their relationship from subcontracting to joint collaboration. Reaffirming existing theories, the findings of the paper identify partner compatibility and an effective selection process as well as openness and honesty as the foundations for trust. Moreover, sound management practices were found to foster high levels of co-operation and commitment to the relationship. The main contribution of the paper is the identification of opportunistic behavior as a possible positive phenomenon. This provides new insight to existing literature which traditionally assumes a negative relationship between trust and exploitative behavior.


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