Detection Performance in a Simulated Real-Time Airborne Reconnaissance Mission

Abstract

The ability of fifty-four subjects to find and designate tactical military targets on a cathode-ray-tube display was evaluated as a function of five experimental variables. Results indicated that probability of detection was sensitive to variations in target type, target-to-background contrast, and image rate of motion, or time available for search. False positive rate was affected only by available search time. Implications of these results for the design of real-time reconnaissance systems are discussed.