Designing, Developing, and Validating an Adaptive Visual Search Training Platform

Transportation Security Officers (TSOs) are at the forefront of our nation’s security, and are tasked with screening every bag boarding a commercial aircraft within the United States. TSOs undergo extensive classroom and simulation-based visual search training to learn how to identify threats within X-ray imagery. Integration of eye tracking technology into simulation-based training could further enhance training by providing in-process measures of traditionally “unobservable” visual search performance. This paper outlines the research and development approach taken to create an innovative training solution for X-ray image threat detection and resolution utilizing advances in eye tracking measurement and training science that provides individualized performance feedback to optimize training effectiveness and efficiency.