https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3882-9442
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ABSTRACT
Previous research has suggested that information and action automation stages do not imply the same consequences for human performance in the supervision of automated systems. Still, only a few studies have simultaneously investigated these stages. When information and action automation are reliable, both can support performance. However, with unreliable aids, the literature has suggested that action automation tends to be more detrimental than information automation. This study aimed to assess the contributions of imperfect information and action automation on attentional allocation and to investigate a potential monitoring inefficiency in a multitasking environment. Participants (n = 96) completed three Multi-Attribute Task Battery (MATB) tasks. A monitoring task was automated with two types of automation (action or information) of four reliabilities each (0%; 56.25%; 87.5%; 100%). Ocular behaviors and performance were assessed. Results show that reliability of information automation influenced visual resource allocation. When information automation was the most reliable, participants spent the least amount of time sampling the monitoring task. Finally, the reliability of action automation triggered no effect on performance or cumulative dwell times. Our results suggest that in complex multitasking situations where information and action automation occurred simultaneously, participants allocated fewer visual resources to automated task with increased information automation reliability. Similarly, their performance was better only with increased information automation.
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The authors declare that there is no conflict of interest.
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Notes on contributors
Eugénie Avril
Eugénie Avril is a doctoral student in the cognitive ergonomics PhD program at Federal University of Toulouse, INU Champollion, SCoTE Lab, Albi, France. She received an MS in ergonomics from the INU Champollion, France, in 2017 and BA in psychology from the INU Champollion, France.
Benoît Valéry
Benoît Valéry is a study engineer at Institut National Universitaire Champollion (INUC) in the Science of Cognition, Technology, and Ergonomics (ScoTE) Lab. He was a PhD student from 2015 to 2018, both at Ecole National de l’Aviation Civile (ENAC) and at Institut Supérieur de l’Aéronautique et de l’Espace (ISAE).
Jordan Navarro
Jordan Navarro is a lecturer in psychology at the University of Lyon and has been appointed junior member of the Institut Universitaire de France. He obtained a PhD from the University of Nantes in 2008. His research interests focus on the human factors with advanced vehicle technologies and automation.
Liên Wioland
Liên Wioland obtained a PhD in cognitive ergonomics from the University of Paris in 1997. From 1998 to 2002 she worked as a consultant in Human Factors in aviation and nuclear. In 2002 she joined INRS (French National Research and Safety Institute) in the research laboratory “psychology and ergonomics applied to prevention”.
Julien Cegarra
Julien Cegarra is a full professor in the Department of Psychology at INU Champollion, France, and director of the Science of Cognition, Technology, and Ergonomics (ScoTE) Lab in Albi, France. He received his PhD in ergonomics from the University of Paris 8 in France in 2004.