Pilots' Visual Scan Patterns and Attention Distribution During the Pursuit of a Dynamic Target

The current research was to investigate pilots' visual scan patterns in order to assess attention distribution during air-to-air maneuvers.

A total of 30 qualified mission-ready fighter pilots participated in this research. Eye movement data were collected by a portable head-mounted eye-tracking device, combined with a jet fighter simulator. To complete the task, pilots had to search for, pursue, and lock on a moving target while performing air-to-air tasks.

There were significant differences in pilots' saccade duration (ms) in three operating phases, including searching (M = 241, SD = 332), pursuing (M = 311, SD = 392), and lock-on (M = 191, SD = 226). Also, there were significant differences in pilots' pupil sizes (pixel(2)), of which the lock-on phase was the largest (M = 27,237, SD = 6457), followed by pursuit (M = 26,232, SD = 6070), then searching (M = 25,858, SD = 6137). Furthermore, there were significant differences between expert and novice pilots in the percentage of fixation on the head-up display (HUD), time spent looking outside the cockpit, and the performance of situational awareness (SA).

Experienced pilots have better SA performance and paid more attention to the HUD, but focused less outside the cockpit when compared with novice pilots. Furthermore, pilots with better SA performance exhibited a smaller pupil size during the operational phase of lock on while pursuing a dynamic target. Understanding pilots' visual scan patterns and attention distribution are beneficial to the design of interface displays in the cockpit and in developing human factors training syllabi to improve the safety of flight operations.