Investigating the role of flight phase and task difficulty on low-time pilot performance, gaze dynamics and subjective situation awareness during simulated flight
DOI: 10.16910/jemr.17.1.6
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Summary
This study investigates how task difficulty and flight phase influence the performance, gaze dynamics, and subjective situation awareness (SA) of low-time pilots (<300 flight hours). While eye-tracking research has extensively characterized expert pilot behavior, there is a gap in understanding how early-stage skill development interacts with varying task demands. The authors aimed to determine if gaze behavior changes compensate for increased difficulty and how these metrics relate to performance and SA in licensed but inexperienced pilots. Twenty-four participants with Private or Commercial Pilot Licenses completed eight simulated landing trials in a high-fidelity ALSIM flight simulator configured as a Cessna 172. Trials were divided into four "easy" conditions (high visibility, no wind) and four "difficult" conditions (high visibility, high crosswind). Eye movements were recorded using MindLink glasses, and gaze data were analyzed using traditional metrics (dwell time, blink rate) and entropy-based measures (Stationary Gaze Entropy, Gaze Transition Entropy, and cognitive tunneling bouts). Performance was assessed via landing accuracy, hardness, and aircraft control parameters (airspeed and vertical speed). Subjective SA was measured using the Situational Awareness Rating Technique (SART) questionnaire after each trial. Results indicated that increased task difficulty significantly altered both performance and gaze behavior. Difficult trials took longer to complete and resulted in softer landings (lower descent rates) compared to easy trials. Crucially, pilots adapted their gaze strategies to manage higher cognitive loads; difficult conditions were associated with increased dwell time on the external environment (front window) and reduced dispersion of visual scans, indicating more focused attention on task-relevant cues. Entropy analyses revealed that gaze patterns became less complex and more targeted under high difficulty. Furthermore, dynamic analyses showed that cognitive tunneling bouts—periods of exclusive external fixation—were more prevalent in difficult trials. Despite these shifts in information processing, landing accuracy remained statistically unchanged between conditions, suggesting that gaze adjustments successfully compensated for increased demands. Subjective SA scores also correlated with these gaze metrics, with lower SA associated with higher cognitive tunneling. The study concludes that dynamic gaze analyses, particularly entropy-based metrics and cognitive tunneling detection, are robust indicators of task difficulty and pilot experience level. The findings demonstrate that low-time pilots modify their visual scanning strategies to maintain performance under stress, shifting from broad monitoring to targeted fixation. This highlights the utility of eye-tracking metrics in aviation training, offering objective measures to assess information processing capabilities and identify potential risks like cognitive tunneling before they impact safety. The results support the integration of advanced gaze analytics into pilot training programs to enhance situational awareness and skill development during early-stage flight training.
Provenance
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| Stage | Outcome | Tool | Model | Prompt | Attempts | Completed |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| discover | success | Crossref | — | — | 1 | 2026-06-20 |
| archive | success | unpaywall | — | — | 2 | 2026-06-26 |
| extract | success | cached | — | — | 2 | 2026-06-26 |
| clean | success | clean | — | — | 1 | 2026-06-21 |
| chunk | success | chunk | — | — | 1 | 2026-06-21 |
| embed | success | embed | Qwen/Qwen3-Embedding-8B | — | 1 | 2026-06-21 |
| promote | success | — | — | — | 1 | 2026-06-20 |
| summarize | success | llm | qwen3.6-27b-prismaquant | summ-v5 | 1 | 2026-06-26 |
| tag | success | vector_similarity | — | — | 6 | 2026-06-25 |
| verify | success | — | — | — | 1 | 2026-06-26 |
Summary generated by qwen3.6-27b-prismaquant on 2026-06-26; verification: verified.
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- Empirical Findings: behavioral performance data
- Methodological Resource: measurement protocol