Detecting a Single Automation Failure: The Impact of Expected (But Not Experienced) Automation Reliability.

OBJECTIVE: Examine the impact of expected automation reliability on trust, workload, task disengagement, nonautomated task performance, and the detection of a single automation failure in simulated air traffic control. BACKGROUND: Prior research has focused on the impact of experienced automation reliability. However, many operational settings feature automation that is reliable to the extent that operators will seldom experience automation failures. Despite this, operators must remain aware of when automation is at greater risk of failing. METHOD: Participants performed the task with or without conflict detection/resolution automation. Automation failed to detect/resolve one conflict (i.e., an automation miss). Expected reliability was manipulated via instructions such that the expected level of reliability was (a) constant or variable, and (b) the single automation failure occurred when expected reliability was high or low. RESULTS: Trust in automation increased with time on task prior to the automation failure. Trust was higher when expecting high relative to low reliability. Automation failure detection was improved when the failure occurred under low compared with high expected reliability. Subjective workload decreased with automation, but there was no improvement to nonautomated task performance. Automation increased perceived task disengagement. CONCLUSIONS: Both automation reliability expectations and task experience played a role in determining trust. Automation failure detection was improved when the failure occurred at a time it was expected to be more likely. Participants did not effectively allocate any spared capacity to nonautomated tasks. APPLICATIONS: The outcomes are applicable because operators in field settings likely form contextual expectations regarding the reliability of automation.

Should We Just Let the Machines Do It? The Benefit and Cost of Action Recommendation and Action Implementation Automation.

OBJECTIVE: To examine the effects of action recommendation and action implementation automation on performance, workload, situation awareness (SA), detection of automation failure, and return-to-manual performance in a submarine track management task. BACKGROUND: Theory and meta-analytic evidence suggest that with increasing degrees of automation (DOA), operator performance improves and workload decreases, but SA and return-to-manual performance declines. METHOD: Participants monitored the location and heading of contacts in order to classify them, mark their closest point of approach (CPA), and dive when necessary. Participants were assigned either no automation, action recommendation automation, or action implementation automation. An automation failure occurred late in the task, whereby the automation provided incorrect classification advice or implemented incorrect classification actions. RESULTS: Compared to no automation, action recommendation automation benefited automated task performance and lowered workload, but cost nonautomated task performance. Action implementation automation resulted in perfect automated task performance (by default) and lowered workload, with no costs to nonautomated task performance, SA, or return-to-manual performance compared to no automation. However, participants provided action implementation automation were less likely to detect the automation failure compared to those provided action recommendations, and made less accurate classifications immediately after the automation failure, compared to those provided no automation. CONCLUSION: Action implementation automation produced the anticipated benefits but also caused poorer automation failure detection. APPLICATION: While action implementation automation may be effective for some task contexts, system designers should be aware that operators may be less likely to detect automation failures and that performance may suffer until such failures are detected.

Inhibitory Cognitive Control Allows Automated Advice to Improve Accuracy While Minimizing Misuse.

Humans increasingly use automated decision aids. However, environmental uncertainty means that automated advice can be incorrect, creating the potential for humans to act on incorrect advice or to disregard correct advice. We present a quantitative model of the cognitive process by which humans use automation when deciding whether aircraft would violate requirements for minimum separation. The model closely fitted the performance of 24 participants, who each made 2,400 conflict-detection decisions (conflict vs. nonconflict), either manually (with no assistance) or with the assistance of 90% reliable automation. When the decision aid was correct, conflict-detection accuracy improved, but when the decision aid was incorrect, accuracy and response time were impaired. The model indicated that participants integrated advice into their decision process by inhibiting evidence accumulation toward the task response that was incongruent with that advice, thereby ensuring that decisions could not be made solely on automated advice without first sampling information from the task environment.

Improving prospective memory with contextual cueing.

Prospective memory (PM) involves remembering to perform an intended action in the future. Researchers have demonstrated that, under certain conditions, contextual information about when PM performance opportunities are likely to occur can support PM performance while decreasing the cognitive demands of the PM task. The current study builds upon prior work to investigate whether warning participants that a PM-relevant context was approaching would improve the efficiency of PM control processes and benefit PM accuracy. Participants completed an ongoing lexical decision task with an embedded PM task of responding to a target syllable. For context conditions, targets only appeared on trials where letter strings were colored red (PM-relevant context), while PM-irrelevant trials were green. The warning in Experiment 1 was embedded in the ongoing task (trials preceding PM-relevant contexts were colored yellow). In Experiment 2 the warning was separate from the ongoing task (1-s pre-trial red fixation preceding PM-relevant contexts). Context improved PM control efficiency and PM accuracy in both experiments. Context always improved PM accuracy for targets in the second and third trial positions of PM-relevant contexts; however, only the Experiment 2 warning generated an accuracy benefit for targets in the first trial position. Experiment 3 replicated the findings of Experiments 1 and 2 and also confirmed that color change without associated context was not responsible for the current results.

The Benefits and Costs of Low and High Degree of Automation.

OBJECTIVE: The objective of this study is to examine the effects of low and high degree of automation (DOA) on performance, subjective workload, situation awareness (SA), and return-to-manual control in simulated submarine track management. BACKGROUND: Theory and meta-analytic evidence suggest that as DOA increases, operator performance improves and workload decreases, but SA and return-to-manual control declines. Research also suggests that operators have particular difficulty regaining manual control if automation provides incorrect advice. METHOD: Undergraduate student participants completed a submarine track management task that required them to track the position and behavior of contacts. Low DOA supported information acquisition and analysis, whereas high DOA recommended decisions. At a late stage in the task, automation was either unexpectedly removed or provided incorrect advice. RESULTS: Relative to no automation, low DOA moderately benefited performance but impaired SA and non-automated task performance. Relative to no automation and low DOA, high DOA benefited performance and lowered workload. High DOA did impair non-automated task performance compared with no automation, but this was equivalent to low DOA. Participants were able to return-to-manual control when they knew low or high DOA was disengaged, or when high DOA provided incorrect advice. CONCLUSION: High DOA improved performance and lowered workload, at no additional cost to SA or return-to-manual performance when compared with low DOA. APPLICATION: Designers should consider the likely level of uncertainty in the environment and the consequences of return-to-manual deficits before implementing low or high DOA.

Individual differences in higher-level cognitive abilities do not predict overconfidence in complex task performance.

Even when people perform tasks poorly, they often report unrealistically positive estimates of their own abilities in these situations. To better understand the origins of such overconfidence, we investigated whether it could be predicted by individual differences in working memory, attentional control, and self-reported trait impulsivity. Overconfidence was estimated by contrasting objective and subjective measures of situation awareness (the ability to perceive and understand task-relevant information in the environment), acquired during a challenging air traffic control simulation. We found no significant relationships between overconfidence and either working memory or attentional control. However, increased impulsivity significantly predicted greater overconfidence. In addition, overall levels of overconfidence were lower in our complex task than in previous studies that used less-complex lab-based tasks. Our results suggest that overconfidence may not be linked to high-level cognitive abilities, but that dynamic tasks with frequent opportunities for performance feedback may reduce misconceptions about personal performance.

Visual search reveals a critical component to shape.

Objects are often identified by the shape of their contours. In this study, visual search tasks were used to reveal a visual dimension critical to the analysis of the shape of a boundary-defined area. Points of maximum curvature on closed paths are important for shape coding and it was shown here that target patterns are readily identified among distractors if the angle subtended by adjacent curvature maxima at the target pattern's center differs from that created in the distractors. A search asymmetry, indicated by a difference in performance in the visual search task when the roles of target and distractor patterns are reversed, was found when the critical subtended angle was only present in one of the patterns. Performance for patterns with the same subtended angle but differing local orientation and curvature was poor, demonstrating insensitivity to differences in these local features of the patterns. These results imply that the discrimination of objects by the shape of their boundaries relies on the relative positions of their curvature maxima rather than the local properties of the boundary from which these positions are derived.

Eye movements provide insights into the conscious use of context in prospective memory.

Prior research examining the impact of context on prospective memory (PM) has produced mixed results. Our study aimed to determine whether providing progressive context information could increase PM accuracy and reduce costs to ongoing tasks. Seventy-two participants made ongoing true/false judgements for simple sentences while maintaining a PM intention to respond differently to four memorised words. The context condition were informed of the trial numbers where PM targets could appear, and eye-tracking recorded trial number fixation frequency. The context condition showed reduced costs during irrelevant contexts, increased costs during relevant contexts, and had better PM accuracy compared to a standard condition that was not provided with context. The context condition also made an increasing number of trial number fixations leading up to relevant contexts, indicating the conscious use of context. Furthermore, this trial number checking was beneficial to PM, with participants who checked more frequently having better PM accuracy.

Global shape processing: A behavioral and electrophysiological analysis of both contour and texture processing.

The number of corners on the boundary of a closed contour is thought to be particularly critical for shape detection and discrimination. The aim of the current study was to examine the relative contribution of the number of corners and the angle between corners to shape discrimination in complex visual scenes as well as to determine the time course and neural substrates of global shape processing based on the presence or absence of these specific features. In Experiment 1, event-related potentials were recorded while participants discriminated between two radial frequency (RF) patterns with the same maximum local curvature defining corners but varying arrangements of those corners. The results showed that the angle separating corners was more critical than the overall number of corners for discrimination performance. An enhanced negativity (posterior N220) over the occipital lobe was elicited following the presentation of an RF with three modulation cycles (RF3) but not following a circle, suggesting that the posterior N220 is sensitive to variation in curvature on a contour. In Experiment 2, we confirm the primary effect of the presence of corners on the amplitude of the posterior N220 component and extend the stimuli to include shapes defined by texture. Source localization on the N170 and N220 components was conducted in Experiment 2, and a source in cortical area V4 was identified. These findings suggest that corners contain vital information for the discrimination of shapes. Additionally, this study shows that the perceptual characteristics and neuroanatomical substrates can be detected using electrophysiological measures.

Modulated textures with shape structures implied by a closed flow are processed globally.

Radial frequency (RF) patterns, shapes deformed from circular by a sinusoidal modulation of radius, have been used to demonstrate global integration of shape information around a closed path by showing that the modulation depth required to detect shape deformation decreases rapidly as larger segments of the contour are modulated. In this psychophysical study we use a field of Gabor patches to examine integration of shape information in sampled RF patterns either alone or placed within an orientation-noise background and show that orientation-noise can be disregarded during the integration of modulation information. We also examine integration in modulated textures with local orientations that flow parallel or perpendicular to an underlying RF shape-structure. In using modulated textures comprising of elements with a random radial position but with orientation modulated such that it conforms to the local orientation of an RF pattern (RF texture) we demonstrate integration around texture patterns that imply shape. Texture patterns with element orientations locally orthogonal (RFO textures) to those of RF textures, however, exhibit a rate of decrease in modulation threshold, which is substantially reduced. When the textures are scrambled by permuting the polar positions of the patches the rate of decrease in threshold with increasing number of patches modulated in orientation is reduced for RF textures but not RFO textures. Detection of modulation in both scrambled textures is shown to be consistent with the detection of local cues. We conclude that implied closure in a modulated flow appears to be critical for global integration of textures.

Memory benefits when actively, rather than passively, viewing images.

Serial visual presentations of images exist both in the laboratory and increasingly on virtual platforms such as social media feeds. However, the way we interact with information differs between these. In many laboratory experiments participants view stimuli passively, whereas on social media people tend to interact with information actively. This difference could influence the way information is remembered, which carries practical and theoretical implications. In the current study, 821 participants viewed streams containing seven landscape images that were presented at either a self-paced (active) or an automatic (passive) rate. Critically, the presentation speed in each automatic trial was matched to the speed of a self-paced trial for each participant. Both memory accuracy and memory confidence were greater on self-paced compared to automatic trials. These results indicate that active, self-paced progression through images increases the likelihood of them being remembered, relative to when participants have no control over presentation speed and duration.

The long road home from distraction: Investigating the time-course of distraction recovery in driving.

Driver distraction is a leading cause of accidents. While there has been significant research examining driver performance during a distraction, there has been less focus on how much time is required to recover performance following a distraction. To address this issue, participants in the current study completed a simulated 40-min drive while being presented with distractions. Distractions were followed by a visual Detection Response Task (DRT) to assess participants' resource availability and potential capacity to respond to hazards, as well as continuous measures of driving performance including their ability to maintain a consistent speed and lane position. We examined recovery for a 40 s period following three types of distraction: cognitive only, cognitive + visual, and cognitive + visual + manual. Since safe driving requires cognitive, visual, and manual resources, we expected recovery to take longer when the distraction involved more of these resources. Consistent with this, each additional level of distraction further slowed DRT response times and increased speed variability during 0-10 s post-distraction. However, DRT accuracy was equally impaired for all conditions during 0-20 s post-distraction, while lane position maintenance from 0 to 10 s post-distraction was only impaired when the distraction included a manual component. In addition, while participants in all three conditions exhibited some degree of post-distraction impairment, only those in the cognitive + visual + manual condition reduced their speed during the time when distracted, suggesting drivers show limited awareness of the potential persistent consequences of distraction.

Phase specific shape aftereffects explained by the tilt aftereffect.

Aftereffects of adaptation are frequently used to infer mechanisms of human visual perception. Commonly, the properties of stimuli are repelled from properties of the adaptor. For example, in the tilt aftereffect a line is repelled in orientation from a previously experienced line. Perceived orientation is predicted by the centroid of the responses of a population of mechanisms individually tuned to limited ranges of orientation but collectively sensitive to the whole possible range. Aftereffects are also predictable if the mechanisms are allowed to adapt. Adaptation across radial frequency patterns, patterns deformed from circular by a sinusoidal modulation of radius, causes repulsive aftereffects, sensitive to the relative amplitudes and orientations of the patterns. Here we show that these shape aftereffects can be accounted for by the application of local tilt aftereffects around the shape contour. We suggest that fields of tilt aftereffects might provide a general mechanism for exaggerating the perceptual difference between successively experienced stimuli, making them more discriminable. If the human visual system does indeed exploit this possibility, then the conclusions often made by studies assuming adaptation within mechanisms sensitive to the shape of stimuli will need to be reconsidered. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).

Forgetting induced speeding: Can prospective memory failure account for drivers exceeding the speed limit?

It is generally assumed that drivers speed intentionally because of factors such as frustration with the speed limit or general impatience. The current study examined whether speeding following an interruption could be better explained by unintentional prospective memory (PM) failure. In these situations, interrupting drivers may create a PM task, with speeding the result of drivers forgetting their newly encoded intention to travel at a lower speed after interruption. Across 3 simulated driving experiments, corrected or uncorrected speeding in recently reduced speed zones (from 70 km/h to 40 km/h) increased on average from 8% when uninterrupted to 33% when interrupted. Conversely, the probability that participants traveled under their new speed limit in recently increased speed zones (from 40 km/h to 70 km/h) increased from 1% when uninterrupted to 23% when interrupted. Consistent with a PM explanation, this indicates that interruptions lead to a general failure to follow changed speed limits, not just to increased speeding. Further testing a PM explanation, Experiments 2 and 3 manipulated variables expected to influence the probability of PM failures and subsequent speeding after interruptions. Experiment 2 showed that performing a cognitively demanding task during the interruption, when compared with unfilled interruptions, increased the probability of initially speeding from 1% to 11%, but that participants were able to correct (reduce) their speed. In Experiment 3, providing participants with 10s longer to encode the new speed limit before interruption decreased the probability of uncorrected speeding after an unfilled interruption from 30% to 20%. Theoretical implications and implications for road design interventions are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record

Lowering thresholds for speed limit enforcement impairs peripheral object detection and increases driver subjective workload.

Speed enforcement reduces incidences of speeding, thus reducing traffic accidents. Accordingly, it has been argued that stricter speed enforcement thresholds could further improve road safety. Effective speed monitoring however requires driver attention and effort, and human information-processing capacity is limited. Emphasizing speed monitoring may therefore reduce resource availability for other aspects of safe vehicle operation. We investigated whether lowering enforcement thresholds in a simulator setting would introduce further competition for limited cognitive and visual resources. Eighty-four young adult participants drove under conditions where they could be fined for travelling 1, 6, or 11km/h over a 50km/h speed-limit. Stricter speed enforcement led to greater subjective workload and significant decrements in peripheral object detection. These data indicate that the benefits of reduced speeding with stricter enforcement may be at least partially offset by greater mental demands on drivers, reducing their responses to safety-critical stimuli on the road. It is likely these results under-estimate the impact of stricter speed enforcement on real-world drivers who experience significantly greater pressures to drive at or above the speed limit.

Using memory for prior aircraft events to detect conflicts under conditions of proactive air traffic control and with concurrent task requirements.

In 2 experiments we examined the impact of memory for prior events on conflict detection in simulated air traffic control under conditions where individuals proactively controlled aircraft and completed concurrent tasks. Individuals were faster to detect conflicts that had repeatedly been presented during training (positive transfer). Bayesian statistics indicated strong evidence for the null hypothesis that conflict detection was not impaired for events that resembled an aircraft pair that had repeatedly come close to conflicting during training. This is likely because aircraft altitude (the feature manipulated between training and test) was attended to by participants when proactively controlling aircraft. In contrast, a minor change to the relative position of a repeated nonconflicting aircraft pair moderately impaired conflict detection (negative transfer). There was strong evidence for the null hypothesis that positive transfer was not impacted by dividing participant attention, which suggests that part of the information retrieved regarding prior aircraft events was perceptual (the new aircraft pair "looked" like a conflict based on familiarity). These findings extend the effects previously reported by Loft, Humphreys, and Neal (2004), answering the recent strong and unanimous calls across the psychological science discipline to formally establish the robustness and generality of previously published effects. (PsycINFO Database Record

Fitting an ex-Gaussian function to examine costs in event-based prospective memory: evidence for a continuous monitoring profile.

Event-based prospective memory (PM) tasks require individuals to remember to perform a deferred action when a target event occurs. PM task requirements can slow ongoing task responses on non-target trials ('costs') under conditions where the defining features of targets are non-focal to the ongoing task, which is indicative that individuals have allocated some form of cognitive control process to the PM task. Recent fits of the ex-Gaussian mathematical function to non-target trial response distributions by prior studies have indicated that these control processes are transiently allocated. In the current paper, fits of the ex-Gaussian function to data reported by Loft and Humphreys (2012) demonstrate a shift in the entire response time distribution (µ) and an increase in skew (τ) for a non-focal PM condition required to remember to make a PM response if presented with category exemplars, compared to a control condition. This change in µ is indicative of a more continuous PM monitoring profile than that reported by prior studies. In addition, within-subject variability in µ was reliably correlated with PM accuracy, suggesting that these control processes allocated on a regular basis were functional to PM accuracy. In contrast, when the ongoing task directed attention to the defining features of targets (focal PM) there was a trend level increase in µ, but the within-subject variability in µ was not correlated with PM accuracy, consistent with the theoretical premise that focal PM tasks are not as dependent on cognitive control as non-focal PM tasks.