How Multi-Tasking Ability Impacts Performance, Workload, Situation Awareness, Stress and Trust with Simulated...

Area of Science:

• Human-Computer Interaction
• Cognitive Psychology
• Automation Safety

Background:

• Automation reliability is a critical concern in complex systems like air traffic control (ATC).
• Prior research shows multi-tasking ability (MTa) affects responses to reliable automation.
• The impact of MTa on supervising imperfect automation remains unclear.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate how individual differences in multi-tasking ability (MTa) influence the performance, workload, situation awareness, stress, and trust when supervising imperfect automation in simulated air traffic control (ATC).

Main Methods:

• Multi-tasking ability (MTa) was assessed using cognitive tasks in 113 undergraduate students.
• Participants performed simulated ATC tasks under manual control and with imperfect automation.
• Automation errors included missing 30% of aircraft acceptance and hand-off events.

Main Results:

• Lower MTa participants showed greater performance benefits from reliable automation but larger costs with unreliable automation.
• Automation improved situation awareness and reduced workload, irrespective of MTa.
• Stress reduction was more pronounced for lower MTa participants with automation.
• Higher MTa participants demonstrated more accurate trust calibration across automation reliability levels.

Conclusions:

• Multi-tasking ability (MTa) significantly modulates the effects of imperfect automation on performance, stress, and trust in ATC.
• Findings suggest MTa is a crucial factor in personnel selection for roles involving volatile automation reliability.