Correlating Boredom Proneness and Automation Complacency in Modern Airline Pilots

Abstract

The research project determined whether boredom proneness and self-assessed boredom affect automation complacency in modern airline pilots. Modern transport category aircraft are increasing in automation sophistication. This paradigm shift is seeing pilots relegated to automation supervisory or monitoring roles instead of active participants in the flight. An unintended consequence is the potential for increased boredom. The study examines whether pilots who are more prone to boredom make a greater amount of automation complacency related mistakes. A sample of active professional airline pilots at a major airline in the United States completed an on-line survey (N=273). The survey incorporated four parts. The first segment collected general demographic data. The second portion administered the BPS, or Boredom Proneness Test (Farmer & Sundberg, 1986). The third segment administered the Pilot Automation Complacency Practices Scale, created by the author. Finally, the last portion queried the subject’s self-assessed boredom level, and automation philosophy. The survey included numerous free comment sections for pilots to add information not specifically queried. Pearson Correlation Coefficients confirmed that boredom proneness does affect automation complacency in the sample. The BPS exhibited good validity with the self-assessment of boredom (r=.499, p=0.01). Boredom and boredom proneness also adversely affect attention span in airline pilots. The research is applicable to highly automated environments conducive to boredom where monitoring and supervision is required.