Physiological Based Adaptive Automation Triggers in Varying Traffic Density

Adaptive automation is paramount in alleviating the undesired effects of high levels of automation. This paper examines various visual physiological measures whilst participants were engaged in conflict detection tasks in an air traffic control environment of varying traffic densities. Results showed that global means of fixation count and duration do not perfectly convey the underlying cognitive processes of operators and that successive comparisons on aircraft targets could serve as potential predictors of conflict detection performance end states. The agnostic nature of successive comparisons to varying traffic densities is also vital in a realistic air traffic control environment where traffic is fluctuating constantly. Additionally, physiological measures derived from such behavioural cues could potentially serve as fail-safe triggers in conventional physiological-based adaptive automation triggers in safety-critical domains.