Engineering Psychology and Cognitive Ergonomics

Adaptive automation shall support users in a flexible way. One way to achieve this could be by monitoring cognitive states of pilots in order to anticipate an individual’s need for support. A special challenge lies in choosing methods that enable a valid measurement of the cognitive state in question since different measures are associated with distinct strengths and weaknesses. For example, practical considerations like environmental factors, wearing comfort and intrusiveness have to be considered. The objective of this paper is to provide a collection of physiological, self-report and behavioral measures that can be applied to assess mental workload in pilots, and to discuss their advantages and disadvantages for this purpose. A targeted literature search was conducted to this end. The comparisons drawn in this paper reveal that a multi-method approach is preferable to relying on a single measure. In this regard, however, there is no one-size-fits-all solution and it is strongly advised to consider the selection of appropriate measures carefully for each specific research question and application context.

Fatigue is a serious threat to flight safety, being a contributing factor of many aviation accidents. Sleep-related fatigue has been the most researched; however, fatigue also depends on task-related factors such as time-on-task and workload. Desmond and Hancock [1] theorized two opposite types of task-related fatigue: active fatigue (induced by cognitive overload) and passive fatigue (elicited by prolonged, understimulating and monotonous tasks). Research mainly conducted in the automotive sector demonstrated the existence of these different states and found that passive fatigue is linked to decline in performance and vigilance, together with task disengagement. Automation is extensively used in most flights, and though pilots are particularly vulnerable to passive fatigue due to the nature of their tasks (especially during cruise with autopilot engaged), no specific passive fatigue research involving pilots exist. This study intended to fill that gap, by employing well-rested licensed pilots (N = 26) who underwent an experiment involving the Multi-Attribute Task Battery (MATB) which replicates some of the tasks encountered during flight. Pilots were randomly assigned to either a one-hour very low workload scenario intended to induce passive fatigue, or a one-hour moderate workload control scenario. Pilot performance on the MATB was measured as simple reaction times (SRTs) and the frequency of missed cues on a system-monitoring task. Subjective measures were used to evaluate how task engagement and perceived workload changed over the course of the experiment. Results confirmed that passive fatigue had a detrimental effect on performance as pilots in that scenario showed significantly slower SRTs compared to the control group. Task engagement scores did not decline as predicted, but instead increased significantly more in the passive fatigue scenario, indicating a possible self-assessment inefficacy generated by the monotonous tasks. These findings suggests that wakeful pilots experience performance decline during prolonged monotonous and mostly automated flights, thus a wiser use of automation or the development of appropriate countermeasures is needed.

The importance of digital degree programs has grown increasingly in recent years, due in part to their ability to provide a personalized learning experience for students. However, degree programs in this format have higher dropout rates than traditional degree programs. In the process of a user-centered design approach, a dashboard for the online degree programs of a university network is developed to provide information and recommendations about the learning process based on descriptive analysis and machine learning (ML) methods. For this purpose, ML models are developed, trained and evaluated. The goal of the dashboard is to promote self-regulation among students and reduce dropout rates. It will be set up as a plug-in through the learning management system (LMS) Moodle exclusively for students. In order to understand which aspects are important for users in relation to the cognitive processes involved in interacting with the dashboard, an eye-tracking study was conducted using the thinking aloud technique. The goal of the study was to investigate which cognitive demands are set for the users when interacting with the prototype and how the automatically generated information is perceived. When integrating the LD into the LMS, care should be taken to ensure that all content is realized in an understandable and easy-to-follow manner, due to the fact that otherwise the effort required to focus on the content elements of the LD could become greater - and with it the cognitive requirements.

This study uses a simulation of an actual video interview to compare the effects of acquaintance and animated character scenes as interviewers on participants’ mental stress and perceptions. The acquaintance group tended to have lower anxiety levels in the self-state anxiety assessment and in the change in nasal tip temperature during the anticipation and presentation phases. Furthermore, the results of eye movements during the presentation showed that the acquaintance group paid more attention to the interviewer and perceived the interviewer with a higher frequency than the animated character group. In addition, we used the functional Near-Infrared Spectroscopy (fNIRS) technique to explore the effects of interview stress on brain activity. The stranger group tended to increase cerebral blood flow in both the left and right prefrontal cortices of the participants within 4 s of meeting the interviewer on the screen. This result may be related to mental stress, which promotes the brain’s regulatory function.

Physiological monitoring of the operator’s current state has gained much attention in aviation research, especially for the development of adaptive assistance systems. In order to tailor the assistance to the human operator’s current needs, these systems need to be informed about their operator’s state. Physiological data can provide such information objectively, continuously and almost in real-time. Using electroencephalography (EEG) band power analyses, changing cortical activation can be detected and inferences about cognitive states drawn. In addition, the combination of band powers into indices is sometimes used to enhance sensitivity. In the current work, we compared the sensitivity of two indices commonly used for mental workload (MWL) assessment, the Task Load Index (TLI) and the Engagement Index (EI), against each other and with single band powers. We computed the TLI and EI from the datasets of two flight simulator studies that induced MWL while controlling for mental fatigue (MF) (N = 35) and vice versa (N = 31). We hypothesized that both TLI and EI would increase with MWL, but would not vary with MF. Additionally, according to the literature, TLI and EI should be more sensitive to changes in MWL than single bands. The TLI increased with increasing MWL, but proved less sensitive than theta band power alone. It did not vary with increasing MF. The EI did not vary with MWL, but decreased slightly with MF. We conclude that the usefulness and sensitivity of EEG indices is not universal, but varies considerably across studies and most likely experimental tasks. Therefore, the choice of an EEG feature should be made carefully. Especially in automated systems developed to monitor the operator’s state, EEG features should not be used blindly as a seemingly valid data source, but always empirically validated with respect to their sensitivity.

Mental workload prediction plays an important role in product design, work organization, task design and assignment in many fields since only with an appropriate mental workload level, could an operator maintain satisfactory task performance. The VACP method was developed for prediction of mental workload that would be induced by a task by calculating a sum score of four independent ratings from visual, auditory, cognitive and psychomotor dimensions, respectively, based on a table of workload component scales. This study aimed to explore the relationship between mental workload scores obtained by the VACP method and NASA-TLX subjective workload ratings, so as to explore the validity of the VACP method applied in different fields. The data with detailed experimental task description and NASA-TLX rating scores were collected from the existing publications, and the predicted mental workload scores were obtained by applying the VACP method for each task described in the publications. By correlation analysis, the results showed that there was a significant correlation between VACP scores and subjective workload ratings. According to the regression models between VACP scores and NASA-TLX ratings in different data groups, there was a significant linear correlation between VACP score and NASA-TLX ratings in most cases. The explicit model of VACP scores and NASA-TLX ratings would contribute to the control of mental workload for different domains and tasks in both product design and operation phases.

Managing the risk of air traffic controller fatigue has become a requirement for ensuring the safety of ATC operations and an important means of improving the safety management level. This paper examines apron control fatigue prevention and risk assessment identification methods from both management and technical perspectives, proposes air traffic controller fatigue management programme suitable for apron control in Beijing Daxing International Airport, and makes relevant management recommendations in order to better study the mechanism of apron controller fatigue and provide a theoretical basis for the reasonable arrangement of apron controller shifts.

Human mental fatigue occurs during various tasks due to increased load and time-on-task. As it might impair human performance, it could be beneficial detecting it automatically and subsequently implement measures to mitigate fatigue. To accomplish this, mental fatigue has to be detected, preferably as unobtrusive as possible. Recent research proposes that remote eye-tracking could be a promising method. The background of this contribution is interactive image exploitation as it might occur in safety or security applications. We consider wide area motion imagery which typically covers several square kilometers and includes a huge number of tiny vehicles and persons. A human operator has to perform lots of search, zoom and pan operations in order to find relevant objects. We conducted a pilot study (N = 20 non-expert image analysts) where subjects preformed several basic image exploitation tasks. During the sessions, we collected their gaze data using a 500 Hz eye-tracker. From the recorded gaze data protocols, we extracted saccadic and fixational gaze parameters using the I-VT algorithm. Mean and maximum saccadic velocity as well as mean saccadic amplitude decrease over time. This corresponds to findings by the research community in terms of observed gaze behavior under mental fatigue. However, the effects are small and need confirmation by future work.

Background This research utilizes Virtual Reality as a non-conventional, informal educational setting to measure the impact of presence on human working memory performance. Many researchers have assessed human working memory and working memory performance (WMP) by computerizing a task and calculating the participant’s score. Objective In this work, we investigate the impact of the degree of presence on working memory performance. First, we evaluate the user’s feeling of being in the environment (i.e., presence), and then we investigate the correlation between WMP and presence. Method Participants experienced three presence levels (desktop VR (DVR), immersive VR (IVR), and immersive embodied VR (IEVR)) and conducted the same working memory task (N back task) in each environment. Result Our results show that the presence level significantly affects participants’ mean scores. Likewise, it has a significant impact on the participant response time. Hence, the participant score increases as the presence level increases, and the response time decreases as the feeling of presence increases.

The effects of lights from computer screens, specifically the blue light has been a debated research topic in this digital area we are living in. Past research initially has shown the negative effects of blue light on eyestrain, sleep and even focus. However, some recent studies have also shown that blue light might improve the focus and wakefulness of individuals. In addition to blue light usage, dark user interface (UI) themes have become extremely common in our daily usage of technology. Even though, it seems to be a very popular option within users, its effect on cognitive performance is still yet to be researched thoroughly. Some of the past research showed negative effects of dark UI on reading performances. On the other hand, dark UI seemed to cause less eye strain and less fatigue. Based on the past research and some other implications, this research created a custom blue light inspired UI and studied its effects on cognitive workload and eye strain in comparison to dark UI and default UI using EEG and eye trackers. Under each user interface condition, participants performed a hybrid-search task and EEG frequency bands and pupil size measures are collected. As a result of the analysis, statistical trend and individual feedback were gathered however none of the results were significant. It’s our belief that, this preliminary study can be the precursor of an improved, well versed usability research with increased sample size and more dependent variables.

Introduction. Eye tracking technology can be used to characterise a pilot's visual behaviour as well as to further analyse the workload and status of the pilot, which is crucial for tracking and predicting pilot performance and enhancing flight safety. Research questions. This research aims to investigate and identify the visual-related factors that could affect the pilot's landing operation performance (depending on whether the landing was successful or not). Method. There are 23 participants who performed the task of landing in the Future system simulator (FSS) while wearing eye trackers. Their eye tracking parameters including proportion of fixation count on primary flight display (PFC on PFD), proportion of fixation count on out the window (PFC on OTW), percentage change in pupil diameter (PCPD) and blink count were trained for classification using XGBoost according to whether they landed successfully or not. Results & Discussion. The results demonstrated that eye-movement features can be used to classify and predict a pilot's landing performance with an accuracy of 77.02%. PCPD and PFC on PFD are more crucial for performance classification out of the four features. Conclusion. It is practical to classify and predict pilot performance using eye-tracking technologies. The high importance of PCPD and PFC on PFD indicates that there is a correlation between pilots’ workload and attention distribution and performance, which has important implications for future predictive and analytical research on performance. The prediction of performance using eye tracking suggests that pilot status monitoring has a useful application in flight deck design.

Since the real flight environment for pilots is constantly changing, and existing studies of head-up display (HUD) on flight are often static, the experiment was conducted to simulate the dynamics of flight through Flightgear software to closely match the mental load of pilots in real conditions. To explore the effect of HUD on the flight process in a simulated flight environment, a three-factor experiment was conducted to investigate the change in the pilot's mental workload during flight including two information access (Display1 (integrated HUD and gauge display) vs. Dislpay2 (single gauge display)), two tasks (climb task vs. level flying task) and four visits (Visit2 vs. Visit 3 vs. Visit 4 vs. Visit 5). The information volume was achieved by performing different flight tasks and the work experience is represented by the number of times of flying (visit). From the analysis of NASA-TLX scale, flight performance and EEG data of pilots, it was found that as the number of executions increased, the working memory gradually increased but the mental workload gradually decreased. In addition, we also found that the HUD could assist pilots in cognition and help reduce the workload during flight, and the assistance was most effective when the HUD presented sufficient information.

The prediction of mental workload, as well as the determination of its “redline”, is important in Human System Integration (HSI), as it could save time and resources by detecting problems at the early stages of system design. It is also well-recognized as a key issue in safety risk management. Till now, most of the methods in redline determination hold the perspective of a fixed and absolute threshold. However, human operators are inherently flexible and capable of adopting different strategies to maintain their task performance among a range of mental workload. In the present study, mental workload is considered as a more management than technological issue. An idea of risk-based method is proposed to determine the control line of mental workload. The concept of mental workload intensity instead of amount is proposed to establish a relationship between performance or safety risk and mental workload, so that according to the acceptable risk set by the management/administration, the mental workload control line can be determined. The idea was demonstrated with a case study of maritime tasks. The results show that the output of the proposed method is well consistent with expert judgment.

One of the most important differentiators of skills in chest x-rays diagnosis is an effective information acquisition strategy. However, well-experienced doctors frequently find it difficult to explicitly show their own strategies because such strategies are carried out unconsciously. To uncover effective strategies in chest x-rays diagnosis, we performed debriefing stimulate by the doctors’ eye movement data. Based on the debriefing data, we elicit effective diagnosis strategies of chest x-ray images under realistic medical checkup conditions.

Like most drivers have their own driving styles, commercial airline pilots also have their own flying styles, referring to a set of individual flying habits that gradually formed with their flying experience. However, little is known about flying style that might affect flight safety. This study aims to develop a framework for evaluating pilots’ flying style. Our original evaluation framework was derived from the “Manual of Evidence-based Training” issued by the International Civil Aviation Organization (Doc 9995), which outlines eight competencies of commercial airline pilots for observation and evaluation by flight instructors. Furthermore, in the next step, the initial framework can be developed by interviewing evidence-based training (EBT) flight instructors and applying new technologies (e.g., eye-tracking technology and physiological measuring technology). Using the initial framework for flying style, we can evaluate pilots’ preferences for flying. In this regard, it is useful for a variety of purposes, including understanding the operational characteristics of pilots, improving flight training, and crew paring in a more rational way.

Visual aerial image analysis occurs in various application domains. Recently, high-resolution optical sensors became more and more available. This results in more captured image data and increased workload for the human expert image analysts. In this contribution, we address the situation of a human operator performing a visual screening task in aerial images in order to find certain vehicles. This task is common in the safety and security domain. Based on discussion with expert image analysts about typical image analysis challenges, we implemented an experimental system in order to investigate whether gaze-based interaction and automated image exploitation would provide an appropriate and efficient user interface. The system provides (1) screening results generated from an automated screening algorithm and (2) gaze-based interaction using a low-cost remote eye-tracker and a keyboard for panning/zooming the image as well as for selecting/framing of targets. The results of a pilot study (N = 12 non-expert image analysts) show, that the availability of automated screening results reduces error rates, completion time and perceived workload (NASA-TLX). Ratings of the gaze-based interaction using the ISO 9241–411 questionnaire are good to very good, except for eye strain for users with glasses.

Improvements of cognitive function and focus have been closely related to long term exercise. Consistent amounts of exercise help cognitive decline in aging adults. Exercise has been used in many ways to improve focus, mood, and energy levels. Different exercise types have been proven to bring cognitive benefits and neurological benefits for those of all ages. This research measures and analyzes the performance of a cognitive task and mental state between those who regularly exercise compared to those who do not.

The working characteristics of air traffic controllers are closely related to their temperament type. The selection of controllers, controller posts, and the composition of controller teams should all consider the adapta-bility of temperament. Therefore, it is crucial to study the distribution of temperament types among air traffic controllers to ensure the safety of control system operations and to prevent civil aviation accidents. In this study, we used the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire (EPQ) to conduct a questionnaire survey of air traffic controllers and compared the results to a national norm control group. Our analysis demonstrated that the tem-perament type of air traffic controllers differs significantly from that of ordinary people. We concluded that the most suitable temperament types for control work are polysanguine, mucinous, choleric, and depres-sive, in that order. Finally, we developed a fitting model based on a BP neural network to assess the suitability of individual controllers for spe-cific control positions. We used the questionnaire data to establish a da-ta set and selected the minimum root mean square error as the loss function for back propagation training. The simulation analysis con-firmed the effectiveness of the fitting model.

This study is based on the attention allocation to investigate the evaluation model of pilot’s visual search performance. Based on the SEEV model of attention allocation, the evaluation model of pilot’s visual search performance was determined by three factors: expectancy, value and effort. The eye movement indicators such as fixation duration and numbers of fixation were selected to represent the influencing factors in the model, and the expert scoring method was used to determine the weight coefficient of each factor. Then, the comparative experiment was designed with the level of information systems (context-sensitive information system and electronic flight manuals) as the independent variable and visual search performance as the dependent variable. The eye-tracking data of 20 airline pilots were recorded in the simulator under each experimental scenario. Finally, the data was substituted into the model to verify its effectiveness and feasibility. The results showed that the pilot visual search performance evaluation model can effectively reflect the level of pilot’s visual search performance, and the level of pilot visual search performance in critical areas is effectively improved by using context-sensitive information system when handling malfunctions. The model can provide the theoretical reference for the training of standard operating procedures and the optimization of the context-sensitive information system.

Human errors are the primary cause of aviation safety accidents. It is necessary to identify the potential operation errors of a crew during a flight task. In this work, we propose a flight mission recognition method using Blocked Dynamic Time Warping (BDTW) to detect the operational errors. DTW is a popular method to calculate the similarity of time series, and can also be used as an effective sequence alignment method for pilots’ operational sequence recognition. Traditional DTW has a high computational complexity, and cannot meaningfully align the time series when the outlier exists. In contrast, BDTW based on the encoded representation of time series to reduce calculation time can be applied to the alignment of the operational sequence consisting of a series of the areas of interest (AOI) of pilot’s actions. Since the same flight mission has the same operation process, we use BDTW to progressively align multiple AOIs under a mission, and then extract common operations as the pattern. In this way, the interference of noise on recognition is mitigated. The data with 10 flightcrews in 5 different missions was used for test and the results show high recognition accuracy of the proposed method.

In order to investigate the competence characteristics required to be a good controller in the context of a new generation of air traffic control system with manmachine integration, based on the competency theory, the controller competency characteristics quality evaluation index system is established by means of questionnaires and workflow analysis, and the mutual influence relationship between the quality characteristics is analyzed according to the DEMATEL-ISM method, and the controller competency quality explanation structure model is constructed. The model is divided into three levels with 12 competence characteristics indicators, reflecting the hierarchical structure and inner connection of air traffic controller competence characteristics. The results show that under the current background of air traffic control system with manmachine integration, spatial awareness, strain response capability, evaluate decision-making capacity, forecast and overall planning capacity, and attention distribution capacity are the core qualities directly related to the effectiveness of control work, and the sense of work responsibility, consciousness of rules and discipline are the basic qualities of control work. The research on the competency model of controllers and the influencing factors between the competency characteristics of controllers can provide a certain reference basis for the construction of personnel qualification and capacity in the safety management of controllers in the context of a new generation of air traffic control system with manmachine integration, and provide a certain reference value for the future recruitment and selection, training and development of controllers.

Based on the professional characteristics of airline transport pilots and requirements of implementing pilots’ Professionalism Lifecycle Management (PLM) system put forward by Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC), this study proposes the measurement framework and method on airline transport pilot’s psychological competency by consulting the relevant results of psychological competency and psychological assessment of pilots. Firstly, this study points out that the psychological competency of airline transport pilots mainly includes two measurement dimensions: professional adaptability and mental health, covering five measurement modules: general cognitive ability, operational and professional ability, social-interpersonal ability, personality traits and attitude, and mental health. Secondly, this study provides the complete process of psychological competency evaluation for pilots, and the measurement data of the pilot can be obtained through supporting hardware and software devices for evaluation and analysis. Finally, this study designs an index fusion algorithm of pilot’s psychological competency, integrates the data obtained by the objective measurement algorithm and the subjective measurement algorithm, and calculates the score value of the pilot's psychological competency after standardized calculation, combined with the psychological competency measurement framework. The research conclusion shows that the measurement framework and method on airline transport pilot’s psychological competency proposed in this study have certain applicability, and can be widely applied in the next step, providing direct technical support and input for the development of reliable civil aviation pilot selection, evaluation and training tools.

In order to evaluate the work capability of approach controllers in real time, further improve the safety of ATC operation and promote the high-quality development of civil aviation. This paper identifies three indicators to assess the real-time capability of approach controllers according to the work characteristics and job requirements: reaction capability, decision-making capability and radar continuous monitoring capability. According to the different traffic volumes of small, medium and large, a controller’s real-time capability assessment model was established, and the three indicators were quantified and studied by experimentally using Tobii eye movement instrument to collect controllers’ eye movement data, and the weights of the three indicators were determined by using the entropy-CRITIC combination method. The position of approach controller requires the highest reaction capability, followed by radar surveillance capability and decision-making capability. Finally, k-means cluster analysis is used to classify and evaluate the real-time capability of controllers, and the approach controller capability is classified into four levels, with the best capability for Level 1 controllers and the worst capability for Level 4 controllers, and suggestions are given for the capability training of different levels of controllers.

Building a sound Professionalism Lifecycle Management System for pilot skills is very necessary and a general trend, among which the evaluation of pilot cadets' operation performance is an indispensable part. In this paper, the maneuvering skills of the cadets in the basic flight simulation training of aircraft are evaluated. The takeoff and landing routes reflect the most basic and important driving skills, eye, hand and foot coordination ability and attention distribution ability in flight. In the test, the cadets are designed to simulate the takeoff and landing routes. Based on the data of simulated flight parameters, the key characteristic indexes are extracted and the flight control points of take-off, climb, approach and landing are integrated for the various safety risk events easily caused in flight. Through programming, the intelligent automatic quantitative evaluation of the level of evaluation operation indicators achieved by each subject in the simulated flight is realized. A flight cadets' operational performance evaluation method based on simulated flight data is proposed to reflect the pilot cadets’ level of handling technology. In addition, based on the above evaluation results of simulated flight operations, specific and feasible improvement measures are provided according to the actual flight and training experience of captains of an airline company for different safety risk events that may be caused by deviation of each indicator, and a suggestion library for improvement measures is established to form a closed loop and improve the operation level of flight cadets.

Different from the traditional safety concept, to make sure things go right is described as Safety-II, which has been used widely in many industries. To describe pilots’ stable attitudes and behaviors exhibited by pilots toward flight activities, the definition of flight safety style was proposed. With the aim to quantitatively evaluate airline pilots’ flight safety style, a method applying multidimensional data based on the Safety-II theory was proposed. First, based on the literature review, we proposed the definition, intension, and extension of pilots’ flight safety style. Second, we analyzed and compared the advantages and disadvantages of different evaluation methods for flight safety attitudes, flight safety behaviors as well as flight safety style. Third, based on the Safety-II theory, we proposed and characterized a quantitative evaluation framework applying multi-source data at implicit and explicit levels, including pilots’ hazardous attitudes, operation behaviors, and non-operation behaviors. Finally, we constructed a mathematical model, and thus pilots’ flight safety style scores can be calculated and ranked. The collected data were applied to give a case study to validate the method by performing an analysis based on the Safety-II theory. This study shows a data-driven method for the pilots’ flight safety style quantitative evaluation based on Safety-II, which can be used to find out the data described as ‘as many things as possible go right (Safety-II)’ to advance Evidence-based Training (EBT) of flight safety style. It also provides airlines with a more reasonable way to evaluate pilots’ flight safety style quantitatively, and further improve flight safety.

An evaluation model of intelligent control system interface is established to evaluate operator’s cognition performance, which is the premise to ensure high-efficient operation of systems. In this paper, in view of intelligent control system interface, the comprehensive cognition performance evaluation indicator system is constructed from the dimension of visual search quality and information processing level. Then, the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) is introduced to weight the indicators; vague set characterization quantitative indicator and TOPSIS method are used to order the designed scheme; and the AHP-VAGUE-TOPSIS combination calculation model is constructed. Finally, an objective quantitative evaluation method is provided by evaluating and improving Trina Solar MES control system and weld interface, for applying the physiological evaluation technologies to evaluate the intelligent control system interface.

This paper proposed an approach by using the color layering strategy to classify the interface information of HUD, based on the designing of aircraft HUD. The hue attribute of color was used as the breakthrough. The icon search experiment was utilized and the background color in the hue ring was selected every 60° The foreground color is determined according to three color levels, 180°, 120° and 60°, which are different from the background color. We explored the effect of color level on search performance and found the optimal combination of foreground and background colors. The results revealed that the search performance was highest when the background was red, and the foreground was green and yellow.

This paper presents an erroneous behavior taxonomy for network operation and maintenance in the sector of information and communications technology. In this study, through analysis of the procedures of six typical tasks, a generic task type description was first proposed to represent task steps, with three component attributes including operators, objects, and functions. Based on that, four domain experts were invited to make judgments on potential erroneous behaviors when technicians carried out such tasks. Judgment results were analyzed and grouped into a three-level error taxonomy including 10 Level 1 error modes (failures of macro-cognitive functions), 38 Level 2 error modes (general forms of observable erroneous behaviors), and 75 instanced error modes (specific observable erroneous behaviors in specific task steps). The error taxonomy exhibits unique characteristics of the sector of information and communications technology compared with traditional safety-critical domains. Moreover, meaningful insights are gained from this study, including the strength of this three-attribute task type description and the existence of requirements on human understanding in action-type tasks.

In the past ten years, smartphones have gone far beyond communication tools. The average number of apps per capita reached more than eighty, which brings difficulties to the search and recognition of icons. As the number of apps increased, app folders became widely used, which also brought up new problems, i.e., how to search and recognize the apps by their thumbnails icons. Furthermore, those icons are displayed under all kinds of personalized wallpapers. The present study focused on the recognition of thumbnail icons in the folder on wallpapers of different complexity. According to the literature, the contrast between icon and background, and complexity of the wallpaper are two key factors for icon identification. The contrast is determined by the opacity of folder and the brightness of icons. Thus, we studied the effect of the brightness of icons, the opacity of the folder, and the complexity of the wallpapers on icon selecting. Twenty-three users participated in the experiment. The results show interaction effect of wallpaper complexity and folder opacity on search performance and subjective rating. On the complex wallpaper, with the increase of the opacity of the folder background, the search time and the subjective difficulty decreased significantly, the aesthetic and clarity increased significantly. So we recommend high folder opacity for complex wallpaper. On the simple wallpaper, the search time and subjective difficulty does not change with the opacity of the folder background. The aesthetic increased between low level to medium level but decreased at a high level, which imply the folder opacity for simple wallpaper shouldn’t be too high.

A head-up display (HUD) is a comprehensive electronic display device that projects such information as vehicle status, driving status and navigation to the front of the driver's line of sight, helping the driver to recognize various information. It improves driving safety by preventing drivers from looking down at information and reducing visual deviation on the road. However, visual attention while driving is limited; thus, the HUD information needs to be presented within the driver's field of view for quick recognition. In this study, simulated driving was used to investigate drivers' recognition responses and subjective ratings to stimuli in 77 positions within a field of view of 50° × 50° in different driving scenes. The results showed that as the position deviated from the centre, the driver's recognition response decreased, and the subjective evaluation of the positions in the visible and suitable dimensions also decreased. In the daytime scene, the driver pays more attention to the road than in the nighttime scene, leading to a more noticeable neglect of the surrounding scene. This study provides response time and subjective ratings distribution within a field of view of 50° × 50°, and the results of the test for significant differences at different positions were derived. The results may help designers of head-up displays create better interfaces and avoid disrupting the driver's view and obscuring the road scene.

Due to prolonged missions in isolated, enclosed, and extreme (ICE) environments, astronauts are exposed to complex stressors that can easily negatively impact psychological states, increase the risk of undesirable behaviors, and jeopardize mission success. Yet long-term journeys will limit the use of existing psychological countermeasures. We are concerned about the long-term mental health of astronauts, and for this reason, we conducted a 7-day controlled experiment in Xiangtan Central Hospital, conducting an isolation simulation to compare the effectiveness of a projection-based virtual natural environment for psychological interventions. 20 participants (10 males and 10 females) were randomized into two groups: the intervention group was exposed to an environment with virtual natural environment projections, and the control group maintained a monotonous indoor environment. Changes in participants’ anxiety levels before and after the experiment, as well as their positive and negative emotional states on days 1, 4, and 7, were recorded. The results of the study showed that negative emotions and anxiety continued to increase and positive emotions decreased over time for all participants. However, differences between groups suggest that a natural environment based on projections can be effective in reducing negative mental states in solitary confinement states. This paper will help inform habitat habitability design and psychological responses in future long-term missions.

Due to the low volume of passenger services between March 2020 and May 2022, manpower demand was dwindled by airlines and simultaneously shape undesirable or appalling moods among flight students due to the unpredictable timeline of business recovery. To realize the psychological impact and understand how they coped with the challenges generated by COVID-19, this follow-up study surveyed flight schools in the United States (U.S.) and compared respondents’ perception of health protocols, flight training, human factors, psychological issues, and safety culture to that of Chinese respondents. Cronbach’s alpha, Spearman correlation coefficients, and Wilcoxon-Mann-Whitney t-test were used to coin instrument consistency, data validity, and correlation among questions before testing perceptional differences. The result discovered that “Stress” “Pressure”, and “Fatigue” were the three dominant Human Factors, where “Stress” and “Uncertainty” were the two top psychological issues affecting U.S. respondents during the pandemic time. Moreover, U.S. flight schools were less supportive to wear a face mask in the cockpit but showed a stronger motivation to seek mental/psychological health support and were more willing to adapt to new safety and health standards. China’s flight schools encountered more disrupted scheduled flight training and check-rides and decreased flight skills due to the stricter health protocols, but flight schools tried as diligently as possible to offer refresher courses during the pandemic.

With the start of the COVID-19 on 2020, in order to protect the flight crew who are operating in ultra-long-range routes, the Civil Aviation Administration of China has implemented temporary deviation approval for the flight time restrictions of some airlines. That is, multiple sets of crew members are allowed to fly back and forth in the form of rest on the plane without getting off the plane after landing overseas. This type of flight has been questioned by local regulators. China civil aviation was required to provide the proof of safety in this operation mode. Therefore, this study uses NASA TLX workloads scale and alertness monitoring tools to collect and analyze subjective and objective data of pilots in one airline of China. The study compares the data including before, during and after the flight duty to prove the feasibility of China current ultra-long-range flight. It found that the appropriate shift work can limit the perception of fatigue and workloads.

The article discusses the search for clinical, psychological and neurophysiological markers of stress resilience when examining large groups in a limited time. Stress resilience is determined by stress factors, working conditions in professional teams, occupational health of subjects, awareness, etc. In the limited time (25–40 min) for diagnosing stress resilience, a research algorithm was tested, consisting of a clinical-psychological and neurophysiological study (EEG) with traditional tests and analysis of indices and power spectra. Groups of healthy subjects (over 100 people) and neuropsychiatric outpatients (38 people) were examined. The emphasis in the analysis of the results of the study is on the data of secondary (integrative) indicators, both for psychological tests (correlation analysis) and for EEG (factorial analysis). In particular, the integrative indicator SCL-90-R - “general severity index” has a high statistical significance (p < 0.05) both in healthy individuals and in neuropsychiatric outpatients. The effectiveness of Mini-Mult is shown by the scales of hypochondria, depression, hysteria, paranoia, psychasthenia, schizoidness and hypomania (p < 0.05). A number of logical thinking techniques were also used. EEG power indicators and spectra in theta, delta, and alpha frequency ranges are an effective reflection of cognitive status. The article discusses the existing testing algorithm as an option for assessing neurocognitive status in screening studies.

Resilience Engineering (often abbreviated to resilience) has gained increasing prominence in the training and operating environment. According to the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA), resilience is the ability of a crew member to recognize, absorb and adapt to disruptions (Malinge 2021). Private jet operations range from single pilot light jets owned and operated by one pilot to very sophisticated ultra-long-range jets. This study is focused primarily on the Fractional side of private jets. Fractional is a type of jet ownership that allows a corporation or very high net worth individual to buy a share of an aircraft. For the crews, the operation is high tempo with multiple sectors a day with many changes.Previous studies on resilience have focused on airline pilots and military pilots, in particular, how they handle abnormal situations. To date, there has been no known study on resilience conducted on private jet pilots operating in a high tempo environment. Therefore, this research was based around a mixed method online survey involving pilots who were new to the private jet environment compared to the behaviours of the experienced private jet pilots. Behaviours explored involve how work is done, technology use and the uptake of activity and mindfulness.

As air travel continuously becomes safer, airlines continue to evolve their focus in managing flight safety. Part of flight safety’s success has been the evolution of Crew Resource Management and Threat and Error Management (TEM) techniques. TEM has been thoroughly adopted throughout the industry and its success reflected in training syllabuses and demonstrated through the Line Oriented Safety Audit program (LOSA). However most recently, airlines have begun to adopt Safety-II and Resilience Engineering principles to further develop its frontline safety. Whilst TEM’s focus is on the prevention of undesired outcomes, a resilience focus is on the reinforcement of success. This paper firstly presents the contributions that the Threat and Error Management model has made to flight safety. Resilience Engineering and the concept of the resilient potentials are then presented, and recent regulatory changes in resilience training debated. The synergistic attributes between the threat and error management model, and the resilient potentials are discussed, which is then demonstrated with a crew briefing model which operationalises these concepts as a tool for flight crew. Future applications of Safety-II and Resilience Engineering are discussed, presenting how a combined focus of threat and error management and resilient potentials can help airlines further improve flight safety.

This paper proposes an approach for generating operational preparedness drill scenarios accompanied by a safety competency evaluation process. The approach combines the “Engineering for Humans” extension of the STPA (Systems Theoretic Process Analysis) hazard analysis introduced by France (2017) to identify causal scenarios incorporating human behavior and human-computer interaction to any unsafe control actions performed by the human operators in the processes of the Risk and Resilience Assessment Centre of the Region of Eastern Macedonia and Thrace. The safety requirements identified via the STPA extension will be utilized then to generate preparedness drill scenarios and, at the same time, will be used to set up the Real-Time Safety Level (RealTSL) calculation methodology to assess the safety level of the process during preparedness drills. The paper will also present results of operational scenarios and how these scenarios are used in the initial steps of RealTSL to be applied effectively during future preparedness drills to assess the safety competency of the system under study.

This study aims to investigate the psychological stress experienced by air traffic controllers in order to improve their well-being and ensure safe and efficient air transportation. The research approach consists of three main steps. Firstly, the daily work content of controllers is analyzed and divided into three categories: work factors, management factors, and personal factors. Based on this analysis, an index system is developed comprising 12 factor indicators that can influence controller psychological stress. Secondly, a questionnaire is designed based on the Occupational Stress Indicator (OSI) and the controller’s psychological stress influence factor index. The questionnaire includes two parts: a test to determine the level of psychological stress and a ranking of the importance of each factor indicator. Finally, a questionnaire survey is conducted among air traffic controllers, and the collected data is analyzed to identify patterns and trends. The results show that 92% of air traffic controllers experience some level of psychological stress, with stress levels increasing with age and working time. Based on the findings, the paper proposes measures to mitigate the negative effects of psychological stress on air traffic controllers.