Wednesday, December 03, 2014

Can Cockpit Automation Cause Pilots to Lose Critical Thinking Skills? Research Says Yes.

https://www.hfes.org/web/DetailNews.aspx?ID=362

Dec. 1, 2014

In the wake of recent airline crashes, major news networks have aired concerns about pilots’ ability to accurately fly “by hand” when the airplane’s cockpit automation systems fail. Although many of these concerns have centered on manual skills such as operating the airplane’s controls, new human factors/ergonomics research suggests that pilots’ thinking skills, such as navigating, remaining aware of the status of the flight, and diagnosing troublesome situations, are most vulnerable in today’s automated cockpits. In a new study published in Human Factors, researchers studied how the prolonged use of cockpit automation negatively impacts pilots’ ability to remember how to perform these key tasks.

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Results indicated that pilots’ instrument-scanning and “stick-and-rudder” skills remained reasonably intact despite prolonged periods of disuse. More significantly, however, the study found that pilots often struggled with maintaining awareness of the airplane’s position when the GPS and map display were disabled, or with troubleshooting problems when the automated systems were not available to provide hints. Furthermore, pilots who relied more heavily on the computers to handle these tasks and who allowed their thoughts to drift during flight were more likely to suffer the effects of rusty cognitive skills.

“Our results suggest that we might be a bit less concerned about things that pilots do ‘by hand’ in the cockpit and a bit more concerned about those things that they do ‘by mind,’” said Casner. “Pilots’ ability to remain mindful and engaged as they now watch computers do most of the flying may be a key challenge to keeping their cognitive skills fresh.”

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