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    Prospective Memory Performance in Simulated Air Traffic Control: Robust to Interruptions but Impaired by Retention Interval

    76906.pdf (572.5Kb)
    Access Status
    Open access
    Authors
    Wilson, Micah
    Strickland, L.
    Farrell, S.
    Visser, T.
    Loft, S.
    Date
    2019
    Type
    Journal Article
    
    Metadata
    Show full item record
    Citation
    Wilson, M.K. and Strickland, L. and Farrell, S. and Visser, T.A.W. and Loft, S. 2019. Prospective Memory Performance in Simulated Air Traffic Control: Robust to Interruptions but Impaired by Retention Interval. Human Factors. 62 (8): pp. 1249–1264.
    Source Title
    Human Factors
    DOI
    10.1177/0018720819875888
    ISSN
    0018-7208
    Faculty
    Faculty of Business and Law
    School
    Future of Work Institute
    Funding and Sponsorship
    http://purl.org/au-research/grants/arc/DP12010311
    Remarks

    This is a post-peer-review, pre-copyedit version of an article published in Human Factors. The final authenticated version is available online at: http://doi.org/10.1177/0018720819875888.

    URI
    http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/76662
    Collection
    • Curtin Research Publications
    Abstract

    OBJECTIVE: To examine the effects of interruptions and retention interval on prospective memory for deferred tasks in simulated air traffic control. BACKGROUND: In many safety-critical environments, operators need to remember to perform a deferred task, which requires prospective memory. Laboratory experiments suggest that extended prospective memory retention intervals, and interruptions in those retention intervals, could impair prospective memory performance. METHOD: Participants managed a simulated air traffic control sector. Participants were sometimes instructed to perform a deferred handoff task, requiring them to deviate from a routine procedure. We manipulated whether an interruption occurred during the prospective memory retention interval or not, the length of the retention interval (37-117 s), and the temporal proximity of the interruption to deferred task encoding and execution. We also measured performance on ongoing tasks. RESULTS: Increasing retention intervals (37-117 s) decreased the probability of remembering to perform the deferred task. Costs to ongoing conflict detection accuracy and routine handoff speed were observed when a prospective memory intention had to be maintained. Interruptions did not affect individuals' speed or accuracy on the deferred task. CONCLUSION: Longer retention intervals increase risk of prospective memory error and of ongoing task performance being impaired by cognitive load; however, prospective memory can be robust to effects of interruptions when the task environment provides cuing and offloading. APPLICATION: To support operators in performing complex and dynamic tasks, prospective memory demands should be reduced, and the retention interval of deferred tasks should be kept as short as possible.

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