Citation

Bolia RS, Nelson WT, Vidulich MA. Hum. Factors Aerosp. Safety 2004; 4(3): 181-193.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2004, Ashgate Publishing)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Air Battle Managers (ABMs) in the United States Air Force are responsible for directing the implementation of a dynamic air tasking order (ATO) and controlling the execution of air-to-air and air-to-ground operations specified by that ATO. In order to do so, they must typically monitor a situation display (SD) comprising a map overlaid with landmarks, geographical features, and moving tracks representing the air and ground assets of coalition and enemy forces, as well as tracks for which positive identification is lacking. In addition to this surveillance component, they are required to perform a number of other tasks, such as associating coalition assets with targets, coordinating air-to-air refuelling, and responding to warnings. These tasks all require a portion of the visual display that is occupied by the SD, and typically occlude the SD, leading presumably to decreased performance on one of the two concurrent tasks. The purpose of the present investigation was to determine whether the use of a multi-layer display, on which visual information is presented at two different depths, with varying degrees of transparency, would reduce the performance decrement associated with concurrent task performance by eliminating the effects of occlusion. A multi-element tracking task was employed as an analogy to the SD, while a cognitive vigilance task was used to represent the additional visual task. Analyses suggest that transparency alone plays a role in reducing the deficits introduced by occlusion, and also reduces perceived mental workload.