Prospective Memory Performance in Simulated Air Traffic Control

Wilson, Micah K.; Strickland, Luke; Farrell, Simon; Visser, Troy A. W.; Loft, Shayne · 2019 · OpenAlex-citations

DOI: 10.1177/0018720819875888

archive: archived pipeline: cataloged verified

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Summary

This study investigates prospective memory (PM) performance in simulated air traffic control (ATC), specifically examining how retention intervals and task interruptions affect the ability to perform deferred tasks. In safety-critical environments like ATC, operators must remember to execute specific actions at future times, such as deviating from routine aircraft handoff procedures. Previous laboratory research suggests that extended retention intervals and interruptions impair PM, but findings in applied contexts remain inconsistent. The authors aimed to determine whether longer retention intervals increase PM errors and whether interruptions during these intervals further degrade performance, while also assessing costs to ongoing task performance. The experiment utilized a within-subjects design with 70 participants managing a simulated ATC sector. Participants were required to perform a deferred handoff task, involving a deviation from routine procedures, after receiving an instruction. The researchers manipulated three factors: the presence of a 27-second interruption (a secondary ATC task), the encoding delay (time between instruction and interruption, 10s or 50s), and the execution delay (time between interruption end and task execution, 0s or 40s). These manipulations resulted in three total retention intervals: 37, 77, and 117 seconds. Performance was measured by PM accuracy (error rates) and response time, as well as ongoing task metrics like conflict detection accuracy and routine handoff speed. Results indicated that increasing the retention interval significantly decreased the probability of successfully performing the deferred task, with PM errors rising linearly as the interval lengthened from 37 to 117 seconds. However, interruptions did not significantly affect PM accuracy or response times; the presence of an interrupting task did not exacerbate PM errors beyond the effect of the retention interval itself. Additionally, longer encoding or execution delays did not provide a unique benefit to PM performance when interruptions were present. The study also found that maintaining a PM intention imposed cognitive costs, reducing accuracy in ongoing conflict detection and slowing routine handoffs. The findings suggest that prospective memory in complex dynamic tasks is robust to interruptions but highly sensitive to retention interval length. The authors conclude that the task environment likely provides sufficient contextual cues to support bottom-up retrieval processes, mitigating the disruptive effects of interruptions. However, longer retention intervals increase the risk of PM errors and impair concurrent task performance due to cognitive load. The study implies that to enhance safety in ATC and similar domains, systems should minimize the retention interval for deferred tasks and reduce overall PM demands, rather than focusing solely on interruption management.

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• prospective memory interruptions