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Eye Tracking During A Complex Aviation Task For Insights Into Information Processing

Eye tracking has been used extensively as a proxy to gain insight into the cognitive, perceptual, and sensorimotor processes that underlie skill ...

University of Waterloo

Eye movements have been used to examine the cognitive function of pilots and understand how information processing abilities impact performance. Traditional and advanced measures of gaze behaviour effectively reflect changes in cognitive load, situational awareness, and expert-novice differences. However, the extent to which gaze behaviour changes during the early stages of skill development has yet to be addressed. The current study investigated the impact of task difficulty on gaze behaviour in low-time pilots (N=18) while they completed simulated landing scenarios. An increase in task difficulty resulted in longer fixation of the runway, and a reduction in the stationary gaze entropy (gaze dispersion) and gaze transition entropy (sequence complexity). These findings suggest that pilots' gaze became less complex and more focused on fewer areas of interest when task difficulty increased. Additionally, a novel approach to identify and track instances when pilots restrict their attention outside the cockpit (i.e., gaze tunneling) was explored and shown to be sensitive to changes in task difficulty. Altogether, the gaze-related metrics used in the present study provide valuable information for assessing pilots gaze behaviour and help further understand how gaze contributes to better performance in low-time pilots.

The effects of task difficulty on gaze behaviour during landing with visual flight rules in low-time pilots.

Gaze behaviour has been used as a proxy for information processing capabilities that underlie complex skill performance in real-world domains such as aviation. These processes are highly influenced by task requirements, expertise and can provide insight into situation awareness (SA). Little research has been done to examine the extent to which gaze behaviour, task performance and SA are impacted by various task manipulations within the confines of early-stage skill development. Accordingly, the current study aimed to understand the impact of task difficulty on landing performance, gaze behaviour and SA across different phases of flight. Twenty-four low-time (<300 hours) pilots completed simulated landing scenarios under visual flight rules conditions. Traditional gaze metrics, entropybased metrics, and blink rate provided meaningful insight about the extent to which information processing is modulated by flight phase and task difficulty. The results also suggested that gaze behavior changes compensated for increased task demands and minimized the impact on task performance. Dynamic gaze analyses were shown to be a robust measure of task difficulty and pilot flight hours. Recommendations for the effective implementation of gaze behaviour metrics and their utility in examining information processing changes are discussed.

Investigating the role of flight phase and task difficulty on low-time pilot performance, gaze dynamics and subjective situation awareness during simulated flight.

Cognitive load can impair an operator's ability to optimally scan and process relevant information that is critical to the safe and successful operation of an aircraft. Since the cognitive demands experienced by pilots fluctuate throughout a given flight due to changes in task demands that range from high to low cognitive load, it has become increasingly important to objectively track and quantify these changes accordingly. The analysis of eye movements has been shown to be a promising method to understand information acquisition, processing efficiency, and how these aspects of cognition impact pilot performance. Therefore, the aim of the current study was to assess the impact of a dual task paradigm on low-time pilot flight performance and gaze behavior during two phases of flight with varying levels of cognitive load. Twenty-two licensed pilots (<350 h) completed simulated flight circuits alongside an auditory oddball task under visual flight rules conditions. Self-reported situation awareness scores and auditory task performance revealed the dual task was more demanding than the single tasks. Flight performance and gaze behavior indicated that primary task performance and information processing remained unaffected. These results suggest that the recruited pilots attained a level of skill proficiency that enabled the efficient deployment of cognitive resources to successfully complete the flying task under states of increased cognitive load. Combined with previous research findings, the results suggest that the effect of secondary tasks depends on the type of tasks used (i.e., simple/choice response tasks, memory recall, etc.). The utility of using a dual task and gaze behavior to probe flight proficiency and information processing efficiency throughout training are discussed.

Suzanne Kearns

Waterloo Institute for Sustainable Aeronautics,
Department of Geography and Aviation

University of Waterloo

Eye Tracking During A Complex Aviation Task For Insights Into Information Processing

Suzanne Kearns

.css-o250i3{font-size:18px;font-family:Open Sans,sans-serif;line-height:21.6px;}Waterloo Institute for Sustainable Aeronautics,Department of Geography and Aviation

University of Waterloo

Eye Tracking During A Complex Aviation Task For Insights Into Information Processing

Waterloo Institute for Sustainable Aeronautics,
Department of Geography and Aviation