Visual Attention in a Team C2 Change Blindness Task

Abstract

To date, little research has been conducted on change blindness (CB) in complex military environments even though substantive differences exist in the context, meaning, and consequences of changes in those settings compared to other research environments. The CUlTent experiment represents an attempt to characterize the relationship between CB and several military-relevant task factors . Single-task participants were required to perfolTl1 a change detection task which occulTed in the context of an ongoing air defense task. Dual-task participants completed the change detection task while also managing the air defense task. The results suggest that CB may occur at a relatively high rate in military settings, and that speed of detection may be influenced by practice and context. Results of eye tracking analyses suggest that such tracking may be useful triggers for automated CB mitigation. Overall, the results of the experiment suggest that CB in military environments is relatively complex and may be difficult to eliminate.