Automation Training
The Effect of Conceptual Training on Piloting Performance
Many automation training programs for commercial airlines emphasize procedural training for the various maneuvers and operations required for pilot competency. Procedures have several benefits for training: procedures assist in standardizing behavior, provide examples of correct action, and create a baseline that can be used to evaluate performance. There are some potential risks to a reliance on only procedures in training, especially when training for a complex system.
Many complex systems (such as the flight management system, seen in the picture to the right) often
do not provide enough visual feedback to understand how
the system will respond to current input. Due to this lack
of effective feedback from the FMA, executing procedures
without understanding how the FMS operates can lead
to significant operational errors. Even more dangerous - a
lack of feedback from the system may lead to the effects
of a particular error may not be readily apparent to the pilot.
The GMU aviation research team has partnered with several regional airlines to better understand how training for flight management systems can be improved. A current approach we are investigating is augmenting current procedural training with knowledge about how the automation interprets operator actions and performs specific tasks. By providing improved information specifically tailored towards understanding how the underlying system components interact, pilots may be able to better understand how and when to properly execute procedures in the aircraft.
One of our recent studies evaluated the effect of integrating
conceptual system information into a regional airline’s training
program. Pilots were exposed to either procedural training or
procedural training augmented with conceptual information.
After a short online training session (less than 20 minutes), both
groups were given an extensive test of the automation and its abilities. Interestingly, the type of training pilots were provided with significantly affected correct responses and errors (See table to the right for an example of the results). The results of this study suggest that:
- Procedural Training that is augmented with Conceptual information may reduce conceptual errors and improve system understanding.
- The inclusion of conceptual information seems to reinforce the procedures, as pilots who were exposed to conceptual training showed more accuracy in answering procedural questions.