Abstract
Even considering the current low accident rate in aviation, the anticipated growth in the number of airplanes in the air in the next decades will lead to an inadmissible rise in the number of accidents. These have been mostly attributed to human error and a misunderstanding of automation by the crew, especially during periods of high workload and stress in the cockpit. Therefore, increased safety requires not only advances in technology, but improved cockpit design including better human-machine interface. These cannot be achieved however, without considering some of the cognitive constructs that affect the behaviour of pilots in the cockpit. In fact, given its characteristics and public visibility, the flight deck of commercial jets is one of the most common arenas for the study of complex and skilled human performance. Here I present a literature review on the selected topics of workload, situation awareness, stress and automation in the cockpit, with the goal of supporting the development of new technologies.
Highlights
Considerable efforts by the aviation community have resulted in the achievement of a safety record in air transport that is unmatched by other modes of transport
The best decision-makers seem to be those who take their time under stress; –– regression: the crew might return to old procedures that may no longer be applicable, use non-standard phraseology when communicating, revert to the use of one’s native language if different from the one being used or look for items in a place where they used to be, but are no longer located; –– decrements in working memory capacity and retrieval; –– decrease in the ability to detect automation failures
Major system changes brought by SESAR and NextGen, growing economic pressure and greater global environmental consciousness demand better and more reliable technology in the cockpit, which usually translate into increased automation
Summary
Purdue University, 2009 PhD in Learning and Memory. Affiliations and functions: since 2013 – German Aerospace Centre DLR, researcher. Research interests: stress and workload reduction in the cockpit, acceptance of new aircraft technologies. Publications: author of 3 papers; coauthor of 4 papers.
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