Attentional Control and Performance Across Increasing Degrees of Unreliable Automation

Abstract

Automation is becoming increasingly pervasive across various technological domains. As this trend continues, work must be done to understand how humans interact with these automated systems. However, individual differences can influence performance during these interactions, particularly as automation becomes more complex, potentially leaving operators out-of-the-loop. Much of the current research investigates the role of working memory and performance across low and high levels of unreliable automation. There is little work investigating the connection between other high-level cognitive processes such as attentional control and performance. Foroughi et al. (2019) found a positive correlation between attentional control and task performance. However, they only included a low-level form of automation. The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between attentional control and performance using increasing degrees of unreliable automation. Our results demonstrated a positive correlation between attentional control and performance using high-level unreliable automation.