Planning and Scheduling in Flight Workload Management

Abstract

A closed loop adaptive model for workload has been proposed by Hart and Wickens (1990) in which planning and scheduling activities contribute to the increase or diminution of workload the operator may experience. Of relevance to this model is people's ability to estimate how much time they need to complete a task, their ability to prioritize the tasks to be performed, and their ability to schedule those tasks on time. Thirty pilots flew three ILS approaches under different levels of workload. The data indicates that the increase in workload affected flight performance as well as the planning and scheduling of tasks with different levels of prioritization. This level of prioritization closely approximated the flight instructor's and the subjects' subjective ratings of the degree of importance of each task. It is also suggested that overconfidence in time estimation may depend on the task involved. Finally, the data is discussed in terms of its implication to a closed loop adaptive model of workload.