INVESTIGATING COMPLEXITY FACTORS IN UK AIR TRAFFIC MANAGEMENT. IN: ENGINEERING PSYCHOLOGY AND COGNITIVE ERGONOMICS. AEROSPACE AND TRANSPORTATION SYSTEMS

Air traffic controllers' ability to handle the traffic safely and efficiently is becoming more difficult as air traffic volume continues to increase. Mental workload has been the intervening variable of interest in air traffic management human factors with respect to the increasing traffic. An additional variable of interest is that of complexity. Increased complexity of traffic and, with that, higher workload for the controller which means higher level of controller's mental operation, can mean problems in maintaining adequate situation awareness , and can also result in human errors. This paper discusses a feasibility study that set out to identify complexity-linked factors that are impacting on incident rates, and to consider approaches towards the development of complexity reducing mechanisms.