Distribution of Attention, Situation Awareness and Workload in a Passive Air Traffic Control Task: Implications for Operational Errors and Automation

Abstract

A study was conducted to investigate factors underlying operational errors (OEs) in en route air traffic control (ATC). Twenty active-duty controllers watched recreations of OEs and were asked to report on their situation awareness and workload. A total of 14 OEs were examined. Responses were analyzed to determine how the subjects allocated their attention in viewing the scenarios. While observed patterns probably reflect necessary prioritization schemes, attention strategies identified in this study can be linked to data on factors underlying OEs. Both objective taskload, as indicated by the number of aircraft being controlled, and subjective workload were found to be related to the controllers’ ability to report situation awareness information. Workload was found to be higher at the time of the OE than at the other stop during the recreation. During high workload, controllers appeared to pay less attention to certain aircraft and variables in order to maintain awareness of more important information. This research has implications for potential problems in situation awareness under passive monitoring conditions that may be present if certain forms of automation are introduced in the future ATC system.