Aviation Psychology
Aviation Psychology
2005
Midterm Examination Key
- What are the two main components of the vestibular system?
- Semicircular canals
- Otolithic organs
- A sudden increase in forward motion (e.g., from a catapult launch) can cause a pilot to feel that the aircraft is pitching upward.
- A sudden decrease in forward motion (e.g., from suddenly deploying the flaps or speed brakes or quickly leveling off) can cause a pilot to feel that the aircraft is pitching downward.
- Under which condition would a vestibular illusion be most likely to occur?
a)During turbulent straight flight in clear skies
b)During smooth turns in clear skies
c)During turbulent straight flight in the clouds
d)During smooth turns in the clouds
Why? Because the cilia in the vestibular organs return to their normal positions during prolonged smooth motion causing the brain to stop sensing motion. If the turn is stopped, the change in the positions of the cilia will be perceived as a turn in the opposite direction.
- The DOD is planning to fund research into psychological interventions designed to eliminate the sensations that cause vestibular illusions. Is it likely that a successful intervention will be found? No. Why? The sensory systems that give rise to the vestibular illusions are part of very primitive brain systems that are not under higher cognitive control.
- A nighttime explosion in heavy seas has disabled the deck of a US Navy aircraft carrier preparing to accept returning aircraft. The aircraft are diverted to a British carrier with a longer narrower runway. What visual illusions(s) might be expected to affect the US pilots attempting to land on the British carrier in pitching seas at night?
- Without other visual cues, the pilots would tend to perceive themselves to be higher than they actually are due to the unexpected size and length of the runway. The pitching of the ship would cause the aircraft to appear to be higher than it actually is when the bow of the ship was pitching upwards and the pitching would cause the aircraft to appear to be lower than it actually is when the bow of the ship was pitching downwards. Although a modern aircraft carrier would be equipped with visual and electronic landing aids, the visual illusions would still be present and the pilot would need to ignore the illusions and pay attention to the other altitude and position cues.
- List the cues that humans use to perceive depth.
- Convergence
- Eye muscles move so that eyes converge on object
- Provides little information when objects far away
- Binocular Disparity
- Each eye sees somewhat different area
- Parallax
- When in motion, nearby objects appear to move relative to farther objects
- Size constancy – experience affects perception
- Objects of known size are seen as farther away not smaller when farther away
- Brightness
- Dimmer objects are perceived as farther away
- Objects seen through haze appear farther away
- Direct perception of gradients
- When one moves over textured surface, texture appears to move differently depending on difference in angle of motion relative to surface and distance from surface.
- Under what conditions would added workload not lead to poorer performance?
- When the cognitive functions tapped by the additional work are not already operating near capacity.
- When the individual was not originally motivated to use all of his/her capabilities to accomplish the requisite tasks.
- List Wicken’s (1993) principles of information display and give an example of each.
- Principle of Need
- Principle of Legibility
- Principle of Display Integration/Proximity
- Principle of Pictorial Realism
- Principle of the Moving Part
- Principle of Predictive Aiding
- Principle of Discriminability
[Information Displays Class Notes and text for examples]
- A small airport located in a mountain valley is handling an evening rush of holiday travelers when the local radar goes down. The controller must remember the geographic position (bearing, distance), altitude, and speed of each aircraft. If she attempts to hold all of this information in short term memory, how many aircraft will she be able to handle?
- If she tries to remember 4 bits of information for each aircraft, she would be expected to be able to handle only about 2 (8 bits of information) aircraft (based on Miller’s (1956) 7 +/- 2 “rule” for the capacity of short term memory.
- What problems in maintaining situational awareness could the controller encounter? Perform a standard cognitive task analysis. List each stage, give an example of a potential problem, and suggest a solution.
[Note: the examples listed are only some possible issues; any number of possible problems could have been listed]
- Sensation
- Lack of visual display will require that the controller use only audio to gather information.
- Attention
- Controller will need to continually shift attention from one aircraft to another.
- Perception
- Given the number of aircraft nearing the airport, there is a possibility of multiple simultaneous communications which will be difficult to parse without requesting that the pilots “stand by” or repeat themselves.
- Encoding
- Without radar, the controller and the pilots may need to use non-standard position references (e.g., positions relative to known landmarks) the meaning of which could be misinterpreted.
- Memory
- All of the information will need to be manipulated in verbal memory even if the controller writes down and updates the position information on paper.
- Retrieval
- The controller will need to remember and retrieve information about each aircrafts position and intentions.
- Integration
- The controller will need to integrate individual aircraft information into a model of the surrounding airspace.
- Decision-Making
- The controller will need to decide how to sequence the aircraft and what to do with the other aircraft while they are waiting for landing clearance.
- Action
- The controller will need to deliver multiple non-standard instructions in quick succession.
[Could also add issues at interpersonal levels: crew, task group, organization, society.]