Christopher D Wickens

Alion Science and Technology

Overlaying images from multiple geospatial databases increases clutter and imposes attentional costs by disrupting focusing attention on each database and dividing attention when comparing databases. Costs of overlay clutter may offset the benefits of reduced scanning between two images displayed separately. In two experiments, we examine these att...

Despite knowing exactly what an object looks like, searching for it in a person's visual field is a time-consuming and error-prone experience. In Augmented Reality systems, new algorithms are proposed to speed up search time and reduce human errors. However, these algorithms might not always provide 100 of the algorithm and, thus, search performanc...

While the visual search for targets in a complex scene might benefit from using augmented-reality (AR) head-mounted display (HMD) technologies by helping to efficiently direct human attention, imperfectly reliable automation support could manifest in occasional errors. The current study examined the effectiveness of different HMD cues that might su...

Costs and benefits are associated with how information is presented depending on the type of task required. A meta-analysis was conducted to examine the costs and benefits associated with overlaying information on a single display, as in the case with a head-mounted display, or presenting information more separately, as in the case with a head-down...

In a dynamic decision-making task simulating basic ship movements, participants attempted, through a series of actions, to elicit and identify which one of six other ships was exhibiting either of two hostile behaviors. A high-performing, although imperfect, automated attention aid was introduced. It visually highlighted the ship categorized by an...

Objective This experiment examined performance costs when processing two sources of information positioned at increasing distances using a flat panel display and an augmented reality head-mounted display (AR-HMD). Background The AR-HMD enables positioning virtual information at various distances in space. However, the proximity compatibility princ...

The amount and color of overlay clutter can impede focusing attention on one layer of information from multiple sources, and influence dividing attention when comparing across layers. The current experiment examined the effect of information access effort and color commonality of overlay clutter on performance. Participants viewed maps with two dom...

In choosing where to present information on large displays, multiple monitors, and head-mounted displays, the potential arises to create access costs associated with placing information outside of the immediate field of view. The current experiment examined performance tradeoffs associated with increasing information access effort ranging from 16 t...

While visual search for targets within a complex scene might benefit from using augmented-reality (AR) head-mounted display (HMD) technologies helping to efficiently direct human attention, imperfectly reliable automation support could manifest in occasional errors. The current study examined the effectiveness of different HMD cues that might suppo...

In this chapter, we represent the pilot as an information processing system. We first describe breakdowns in pilot information processing as illustrated by four tragic accidents. We then present a framework for information processing and discuss how technological developments in aviation have influenced pilot information processing. Then, in separa...

The current experiment examined the relative benefit of different cueing aids during a visual target search task, and the tradeoff between reduced information access effort and increased overlay clutter. Using an augmented reality head-mounted display (AR-HMD), participants completed a 180-degree visual search task with three different cue types (w...

To attempt to counter uncalibrated compliance with an automated decision aid, the current study sought to introduce some level of transparency into the system’s recommendations. An experiment was conducted using a simple, simulated maritime collision avoidance task featuring an imperfect, but highly reliable, de-cision aid. Specifically, the aid’s...

When engineering graphs, it is important that the engineer consider what display format will lead to both the most accurate and most rapid processing of information. The proximity compatibility principle (PCP) states that graphs with high display proximity (ex: line graphs in which lines connect data points) are better for tasks where participants...

Augmented reality head-mounted displays (AR-HMDs) can present information at the center field of view (FOV) to 360° around the user. Deciding where to place virtual content when using an AR-HMD could directly impact the effort required to access information for different tasks. The current paradigm investigated the cost of information access effort...

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Previous research suggests people struggle to detect a series of movements that might imply hostile intentions of a vessel, yet this ability is crucial in many real world Naval scenarios. To investigate possible mechanisms for improving performance, participants engaged in a simple, simulated ship movement task. One of two hostile behaviors were pr...

Objective: The aim was to evaluate the relevance of the critique offered by Jamieson and Skraaning (2019) regarding the applicability of the lumberjack effect of human–automation interaction to complex real-world settings. Background: The lumberjack effect, based upon a meta-analysis, identifies the consequences of a higher degree of automation—to...

We sought to establish to what extent incorporating a dichotomized procedural variable (in this case, maritime 'rules of the road') and incentives into a decision aiding algorithm would change a previously found non-compliance bias when the algorithm contradicted the known procedure. We also sought to examine the relationship between trust in and d...

Detecting hostile intentions from movements alone is important in many real world scenarios. The current paradigm investigated how visual history trails might aid in the detection of two hostile movement behaviors on a simple display. Participants controlled movement of an icon representing their own ship, while six other ships moved around them. A...

The emergence of Human Factors as a discipline is often traced to pioneering efforts tackling military issues in World War II. Rapid technological advances raised fundamental questions around human performance. Approaches, solutions, and advances in the science soon spread outside of their original military contexts. Current and emerging technologi...

Information processing lies at the heart of human performance. This chapter describe the characteristics of the different important stages of information processing, from perception of the environment to acting on that environment. It begins by contrasting different ways in which information processing has been treated in applied psychology, and th...

Objective Three experiments sought to understand performance limitations in controlling a ship attempting to meet another moving ship that approached from various trajectories. The influence of uncertainty, resulting from occasional unpredictable delays in one’s own movement, was examined. Background Cognitive elements of rendezvous have been litt...

Objective: This study aimed to reveal the causal reasons for maneuver preferences on the basis of the objective measures. Background: Although the effects of conflict geometry have been well documented in previous literature, empirical evidence on the influence of conflict geometry on the operator’s workload, maneuver choice, and success is still l...

Objective: The ability of people to infer intentions from movement of other vessels was investigated. Across three levels of variability in movements in the path of computer-controlled ships, participants attempted to determine which entity was hostile. Background: Detection of hostile intentions through spatial movements of vessels is important...

Understanding the variability of trends and other continuously distributed quantities is a vital ability underlying many safety critical decisions, such as how widely to search for a downed aircraft, or whether to prepare for evacuation in the face of an uncertain hurricane or hurricane track. We first review the sparse research on this topic which...

Objective The aim was to evaluate the relevance of the critique offered by Jamieson and Skraaning (2019) regarding the applicability of the lumberjack effect of human–automation interaction to complex real-world settings. Background The lumberjack effect, based upon a meta-analysis, identifies the consequences of a higher degree of automation—to i...

For one entity to initiate a meeting, interception, or rendezvous with another, such situations necessitate both accurate perception of the target’s trajectory and also planning of one’s own trajectory. To examine these cognitive processes and resulting performance trends, the current study presented participants with simplified simulated ship rend...

The information purchase bias describes a tendency to opt for information that reduces uncertainty, even when the cost of information is associated with a substantial net reduction in expected value. The current experiment quantified the amount of information that could be purchased in terms of increased certainty of finding a target (a downed airc...

Understanding uncertainty in spatial domains (such as hurricane forecasting) is both important and challenging, often leading to overconfidence and underestimation of variability. The underlying source of the difficulty is not well understood, as this complex domain requires perceptual, attentional, and memory related cognitive abilities. The prese...

Efficiency of search often comes with experience. We explored search processes during a highly dynamic and complex task: rock climbing. In general, we found similarities between expert and non-expert climbers regarding their visual search and differences in their tactile search. Analyses determined that experts and non-experts did not differ in the...

Understanding uncertainty in spatial domains (such as hurricane forecasting) is both important and challenging, often leading to overconfidence and underestimation of variability. The underlying source of the difficulty is not well understood, as this complex domain requires perceptual, attentional, and memory related cognitive abilities. The prese...

The information purchase bias describes a tendency to opt for information that reduces uncertainty, even when the cost of information is associated with a substantial net reduction in expected value. The current experiment quantified the amount of information that could be purchased in terms of increased certainty of finding a target (a downed airc...

Objective Experimentally investigate maneuver decision preferences in navigating ships to avoid a collision. How is safety (collision avoidance) balanced against efficiency (deviation from path and delay) and rules of the road under conditions of both trajectory certainty and uncertainty. Background Human decision error is a prominent factor in na...

This chapter makes the distinction between the experience of aviation professionals, often quantified in terms of hours of flight time, or flight qualifications, and expertise, as revealed by high proficiency at aviation tasks. Very high proficiency defines the expert. Challenge results because of the difficulty in measuring such proficiency, parti...

Objective: Explore the impact of prior information on spatial prediction and understanding of variability. Background: In uncertain spatial prediction tasks, such as hurricane forecasting or planning search and rescue operations, decision makers must consider the most likely case and the distribution of possible outcomes. Base performance on these...

To assess whether there may be a common ability related to the understanding and calibration of instance variability and mean behavior, participants performed spatial prediction and numeric estimation tasks. In the first task, participants experienced variability in a set of spatial trajectories whose endpoints they predicted along with a central m...

Understanding variability of uncertain systems is often vital for decision makers, yet is habitually disregarded in favor of developing superior capability to predict most likely outcomes. One potential path to improving appreciation of variability is simply to attend more carefully to it. The present study explores a trade-off in the ability to pr...

Objective: The aim of this article is to present a comprehensive review of eye-tracking measures and discuss different application areas of the method of eye tracking in the field of aviation. Background: Psychophysiological measures such as eye tracking in pilots are useful for detecting fatigue or high-workload conditions, for investigating motio...

Thirty-two rock climbers, all self-identifying as capable of lead climbing (place protective gear in the rock, to mitigate the risks of falling), climbed an outdoor route while placing what they believed was the necessary amount of protection. Cameras recorded the percentage of time they spent climbing upward (productivity) relative to placing prot...

Value is a component of the SEEV model of attention combined with measures of salience, effort, and expectancy to characterize areas of interest in a visual workspace. In the current project, an assessment of dynamic value was created by prompting rock climbers to assess their post-hoc priority for placing safety gear at various points during a cli...

Objective: The goal of this study was to explore the ways in which visualizations influence the prediction of uncertain spatial trajectories (e.g., the unknown path of a downed aircraft or future path of a hurricane) and participant overconfidence in such prediction. Background: Previous research indicated that spatial predictions of uncertain t...

In this article I describe the origins of the stages and levels of the automation concept and present the taxonomy, model, and theories underlying this concept. I then show how both simplifications and elaborations of the resulting tradeoff model of degree of automation can address some of Kaber’s concerns about its utility in design.

Spatial predictions of uncertain trajectories are challenging, but are often associated with overconfidence. This study explored how a visualization influenced prediction of uncertain spatial trajectories (e.g., unknown path of a downed aircraft or future path of a hurricane). Mean and variance estimates were compared for participants provided with...

This study investigated the effect of autonomous prioritization on attention in a high-workload environment. It explored the “priority mystery,” or neglect of priority in switching behavior, found in previous Strategic Task Overload Model (STOM) experiments (Wickens Gutzwiller & Santamaria, 2015; Raby & Wickens 1994). We hypothesized that participa...

This study explored the process of adjusting from previously held anchors with visual displays offering uncertain information. In a spatial trajectory prediction task, participants were anchored on accurate or inaccurate information, or were not anchored, regarding the future behavior of an object (both its average behavior and the variance in beha...

A model for task switching which focuses on the decision making of operators in overloaded multitask conditions is reviewed and new research presented. The STOM model is an ongoing effort and as such, work is now accumulating, which serves to validate the model as a useful predictive method, but also is uncovering uncertainties that require further...

Automation is being developed and implemented in a variety of industries with the goals of improving overall system performance and reducing the probability and impact of human or operator error. However, as automation is introduced, it changes the role of the operator and creates new opportunities for different and unanticipated types of errors. I...

Whether it is the car you drive or the app on your smartphone, technology has an increasingly powerful influence on you. When designed with people in mind, this influence can improve lives and productivity. This book provides a broad introduction on how to attend to the needs, capabilities, and preferences of people in the design process. We combin...

I describe below the manner in which workload measurement can be used to validate models that predict workload. These models in turn can be employed to predict the decisions that are made, which select a course of action that is of lower effort or workload, but may also be of lower expected value (or higher expected cost). We then elaborate on four...

Objective: This study examined the effectiveness of visual, auditory, tactile, and redundant auditory-visual information presentation in the context of a medium-fidelity ‘Next Generation Air Transportation System’ (NextGen) flight simulation. Background: Data overload, especially in the visual channel, and associated breakdowns in monitoring repres...

To minimize the risk of operator distraction or overload, system designers must tailor the arrangement of display channels in a visual workspace to the operator’s attentional abilities. Toward this end, computational models that embody the theoretical principles of attention control can inform the designer’s choices and narrow the space of potentia...

Objective: The objectives were to (a) implement theoretical perspectives regarding human-automation interaction (HAI) into model-based tools to assist designers in developing systems that support effective performance and (b) conduct validations to assess the ability of the models to predict operator performance. Background: Two key concepts in...

Cyber security is a high-ranking national priority that is only likely to grow as we become more dependent on cyber systems. From a research perspective, currently available work often focuses solely on technological aspects of cyber, acknowledging the human in passing, if at all. In recent years, the Human Factors community has begun to address hu...

Anchoring and adjustment is a prevalent heuristic, common in a range of settings and decisions. While it is well studied using values, there has been limited research on its function in visual-spatial domains. The present study explored the role of anchoring and adjustment with visual displays containing uncertainty information related to spatial p...

Strategic task switching is demanded in many real-world situations where effective simultaneous performance of concurrent tasks is not possible. Building from a model of strategic task overload management, the current study explored the influence of task load on the relationship between an individual’s task switching capability and task engagement....

Previous studies show people underestimate the amount of uncertainty in predictive states. This experiment tested an implication of such findings: that people will be less likely (than optimal) to acknowledge their uncertainty, and hence less likely to purchase information that reduces future uncertainty. In a trajectory prediction task, participan...