Saccade amplitude as a discriminator of flight types

Effectiveness of saccade amplitudes and dwell time lengths in determining pilots' eye scanning behaviors, and thus visual workload, during instrument- and scenery-centered simulator flight tasks was investigated.

Five male jet-aircraft pilots volunteered, and five different simulated flight tasks, including takeoff to landing, were selected for the study.

An aerobatic flight, considered to be a scenery-centered one, showed the largest saccadic amplitude among the five flight tasks, its mean value three times that of S-shaped circular flight (SLW), considered to be instrument-centered. The shortest dwell time was for landing, its dwell time length half those of the other flights, and the longest was for SLW. The post-hoc test result revealed that this measure is only partially successful in differentiating landing from the other types of flights. The regression coefficient of the aerobatic flight was about three times that of SLW, and takeoff was almost two times SLW.

Saccade amplitude was the most important factor in distinguishing between the two types of flights. Dwell time length was supportive, and shift rate of the line of slight was inconclusive in differentiating flight tasks. A scattergram drawn with amplitudes and dwell times gives us a clear understanding of the difference between the two types of flights.