NTL Record

Title Self-estimates of distractibility as related to performance decrement on a task requiring sustained attention.
Record ID 39202
Personal Name
Creator
Thackray, Richard I.; Jones, Karen N.; Touchstone, R. Mark
Corporate Creator Civil Aeromedical Institute
Corporate
Contributor
United States. Office of Aviation Medicine
Publisher Civil Aerospace Medical Institute
Publication Date 19720700
Language English
Abstract Increasing automation of air traffic control tasks may have the undesirable side effect of increased monotony as a result of the anticipated reduction in task demands. 50 subjects performed a monotonous, but perceptually demanding task, for approximately 30 minutes without rest. It was found that high-distractibility subjects (as determined from a questionnaire administered prior to the experiment) showed increasing lapses of attention during performance, while low-distractibility subjects failed to show any evidence of a decline in attention. Significant changes were obtained for respiration, respiration-period variability, heart-rate variability, and skin conductance during the task period, but the magnitude of these changes did not differ among the two distractibility groups.
Rosap ID dot:21004
Rosap URL https://rosap.ntl.bts.gov/view/dot/21004
TRT Terms Air traffic controllers; Attention; Vigilance; Distraction; Automation; Workload; Performance; Physiological aspects; Heart rate; Respiratory system; Galvanic skin response; Questionnaires; Analysis of variance; Errors; Accuracy; Hypothesis testing; Experiments; Human subject testing
General Subjects Air traffic controllers; Attention--Testing; Vigilance (Psychology); Boredom; Distraction (Psychology); Automation; Employees--Workload; Performance--Testing; Heart beat; Respiration; Galvanic skin response; Questionnaires; Analysis of variance; Errors; Statistical hypothesis testing
Classification NTL - AVIATION - Air Traffic Control;
NTL - AVIATION - Aviation Human Factors;
NTL - PLANNING AND POLICY - Surveys
Geographical
Coverage
United States
Report Number FAA-AM-72-25; DOT/FAA/AM-72/25
Resource type Tech Report
URL https://ntlrepository.blob.core.windows.net/lib/39000/39200/39202/AM72-25.pdf
Format PDF
Database NTL Digital Repository