Impact of automated decision aids on performance, operator behaviour and workload in a simulated supervisory control task

Abstract

In studies reporting automation effects on overall system performance and on the operator, the methods used to measure workload often did not appropriately reflect the complexity of this construct. The present study addresses the impact of automation on operator workload and behaviour in process control fault management. Workload effects were assessed with subjective, cardiovascular and secondary task performance indicators. Interactions with the interface of the process control simulation directed at gathering information and controlling the system were recorded. Automation made operators more efficient, allowing faster fault management with less information sampling and control actions. Subjective workload ratings were significantly lower in the assisted conditions as compared to manual, which was not reflected in cardiovascular and secondary task measures. Participants' information sampling activity did not differ between medium and high level of automation. Results suggest that participants paid constantly high attention to their task even with highly automated support.

Keywords:

• automation
• decision aid
• process control
• fault management
• mental workload
• performance
• operator behaviour

Acknowledgements

We wish to thank Sabine Jatzev for her help during data acquisition and data analysis and Emily Horning and two anonymous reviewers for their valuable comments on the manuscript. Furthermore, we highly appreciate the technical support from Marcus Bleil in setting up and configuring the experimental paradigm and equipment.