Modeling pilot performance under degraded visual environment

Asiana Airlines Flight 214

Aviation Psychology and Applied Human Factors ◽

10.1027/2192-0923/a000066 ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 4 (2) ◽

pp. 113-121 ◽

Cited By ~ 5

Author(s):

Stephanie Chow ◽

Stephen Yortsos ◽

Najmedin Meshkati

Keyword(s):

Human Factors ◽

Aviation Safety ◽

Cultural Factors ◽

Vital Role ◽

Cultural Issues ◽

Flight Crew ◽

Pilot Performance ◽

Engineering Designs ◽

Flight Deck

This article focuses on a major human factors–related issue that includes the undeniable role of cultural factors and cockpit automation and their serious impact on flight crew performance, communication, and aviation safety. The report concentrates on the flight crew performance of the Boeing 777–Asiana Airlines Flight 214 accident, by exploring issues concerning mode confusion and autothrottle systems. It also further reviews the vital role of cultural factors in aviation safety and provides a brief overview of past, related accidents. Automation progressions have been created in an attempt to design an error-free flight deck. However, to do that, the pilot must still thoroughly understand every component of the flight deck – most importantly, the automation. Otherwise, if pilots are not completely competent in terms of their automation, the slightest errors can lead to fatal accidents. As seen in the case of Asiana Flight 214, even though engineering designs and pilot training have greatly evolved over the years, there are many cultural, design, and communication factors that affect pilot performance. It is concluded that aviation systems designers, in cooperation with pilots and regulatory bodies, should lead the strategic effort of systematically addressing the serious issues of cockpit automation, human factors, and cultural issues, including their interactions, which will certainly lead to better solutions for safer flights.

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Cognitive Factors Mediate the Relation Between Age and Flight Path Maintenance in General Aviation

Aviation Psychology and Applied Human Factors ◽

10.1027/2192-0923/a000102 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 6 (2) ◽

pp. 81-90 ◽

Cited By ~ 4

Author(s):

Kathleen Van Benthem ◽

Chris M. Herdman

Keyword(s):

Cognitive Functioning ◽

Flight Path ◽

General Aviation ◽

Cognitive Factors ◽

Pilot Performance ◽

Pilot Error ◽

Age Related ◽

And Performance ◽

Relationship Of ◽

The Relationship

Abstract. Identifying pilot attributes associated with risk is important, especially in general aviation where pilot error is implicated in most accidents. This research examined the relationship of pilot age, expertise, and cognitive functioning to deviations from an ideal circuit trajectory. In all, 54 pilots, of varying age, flew a Cessna 172 simulator. Cognitive measures were obtained using the CogScreen-AE ( Kay, 1995 ). Older age and lower levels of expertise and cognitive functioning were associated with significantly greater flight path deviations. The relationship between age and performance was fully mediated by a cluster of cognitive factors: speed and working memory, visual attention, and cognitive flexibility. These findings add to the literature showing that age-related changes in cognition may impact pilot performance.

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Do You Want to See the Tree? Ignore the Forest

Experimental Psychology (formerly Zeitschrift für Experimentelle Psychologie) ◽

10.1027/1618-3169/a000240 ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 61 (3) ◽

pp. 205-214 ◽

Cited By ~ 12

Author(s):

Nicolas Poirel ◽

Claire Sara Krakowski ◽

Sabrina Sayah ◽

Arlette Pineau ◽

Olivier Houdé ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Visual Recognition ◽

Local Level ◽

Local Information ◽

Visual Environment ◽

Global Information ◽

Focus Attention ◽

Global Level ◽

Hierarchical Stimuli ◽

Priming Paradigm ◽

The One

The visual environment consists of global structures (e.g., a forest) made up of local parts (e.g., trees). When compound stimuli are presented (e.g., large global letters composed of arrangements of small local letters), the global unattended information slows responses to local targets. Using a negative priming paradigm, we investigated whether inhibition is required to process hierarchical stimuli when information at the local level is in conflict with the one at the global level. The results show that when local and global information is in conflict, global information must be inhibited to process local information, but that the reverse is not true. This finding has potential direct implications for brain models of visual recognition, by suggesting that when local information is conflicting with global information, inhibitory control reduces feedback activity from global information (e.g., inhibits the forest) which allows the visual system to process local information (e.g., to focus attention on a particular tree).

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