Examining the Relationship Between Mental Workload and Situation Awareness in a Simulated Air Combat Task

Abstract

Seven pilots participated in an experiment designed to assess the relationship between mental workload and situation awareness. Participants flew simulated air intercepts against four bombers supported by two fighters. The experiment contrasted two cockpit designs. The conventional cockpit used traditional independent gauges for flight and tactical information. The virtually augmented candidate cockpit used advanced interface concepts. The task scenario consisted of four mission phases that were designed to influence pilot mental workload and situation awareness. An inverse relationship was observed between mental workload and situation awareness as influenced by cockpit design and phase of mission. This shows the importance of assessing both mental workload and situation awareness when assessing system effectiveness.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Jun 01, 2000
Accession Number
ADA387928

Entities

People

  • Amy L. Alexander
  • Michael A. Vidulich
  • Thomas E. Nygren

Organizations

  • Ohio State University

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Air Platforms
  • Materials and Manufacturing Processes
  • Weapons Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Air Force
  • Air Force Research Laboratories
  • Aircrafts
  • Cognition
  • Cognitive Workload
  • Combat Simulations
  • Government Procurement
  • Governments
  • Judgment
  • Liquid Crystals
  • Measurement
  • Military Research
  • Psychology
  • Schematic Diagrams
  • Simulations
  • Simulators
  • Situational Awareness

Readers

  • Artificial Intelligence
  • Computational Modeling and Simulation
  • Human-Computer Interaction (HCI).