Office of Aerospace Medicine Technical Reports
FAA Office of Aerospace Medicine
Civil Aerospace Medical Institute
Report No: DOT/FAA/AM-82/17
Title and Subtitle: Physiological stress in air traffic controllers: A review
Report Date: August 1982
Authors: Melton CE
Abstract: Ten years of research on physiological stress in air traffic control specialists (ATCS's) is reviewed. Data were derived from 20 tasks involving the experimental variables of workload, shift-rotation patterns, and automation.
Laboratories at the Civil Aeromedical Institute consisted of a survey of the quantity and quality of sleep in working ATCS's, a restudy of ATCS's several years after the first study to appraise stress change, and experimental attempts to evoke a differential response to two different qualities of stress. Stress was distinctly related to imposed workload as well as to working conditions. Differences in stress levels in ATCS's on different shift-rotation patterns were minimal. Automation gave rise to increased total stress accounted for by an increased workload incident to the changeover period from annual to computerized control techniques. A stress index was developed to facilitate comparison of physiological stress at the different air traffic control (ATC) facilities and among ATCS's. Anxiety level measurements vary minimally from facility to facility indicating little impact of ATC work on the physchological state of ATC's.
These and other measures show that it is clearly inappropriate to describe ATC work, as is commonly done in the popular press, as being unusually stressful.
Key Words: Air traffic controllers, Stress, Workload, Automation, Shift work, Physiological monitoring, Stress index
No. of Pages: 51
Civil Aerospace Medical Institute
Report No: DOT/FAA/AM-82/17
Title and Subtitle: Physiological stress in air traffic controllers: A review
Report Date: August 1982
Authors: Melton CE
Abstract: Ten years of research on physiological stress in air traffic control specialists (ATCS's) is reviewed. Data were derived from 20 tasks involving the experimental variables of workload, shift-rotation patterns, and automation.
Laboratories at the Civil Aeromedical Institute consisted of a survey of the quantity and quality of sleep in working ATCS's, a restudy of ATCS's several years after the first study to appraise stress change, and experimental attempts to evoke a differential response to two different qualities of stress. Stress was distinctly related to imposed workload as well as to working conditions. Differences in stress levels in ATCS's on different shift-rotation patterns were minimal. Automation gave rise to increased total stress accounted for by an increased workload incident to the changeover period from annual to computerized control techniques. A stress index was developed to facilitate comparison of physiological stress at the different air traffic control (ATC) facilities and among ATCS's. Anxiety level measurements vary minimally from facility to facility indicating little impact of ATC work on the physchological state of ATC's.
These and other measures show that it is clearly inappropriate to describe ATC work, as is commonly done in the popular press, as being unusually stressful.
Key Words: Air traffic controllers, Stress, Workload, Automation, Shift work, Physiological monitoring, Stress index
No. of Pages: 51
Last updated: Friday, June 1, 2012