FAA Office of Aerospace Medicine
Civil Aerospace Medical Institute
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AVIATION MEDICINE REPORTS

Report No: DOT/FAA/AM-00/26

Title and Subtitle: Priorities, organization, and sources of information accessed by pilots in various phases of flight

Report Date: July 2000

Authors: Schvaneveldt, R., Beringer, D.B., Lamonica, J., Tucker, R., and Nance, C.

Abstract: In the first project of the study, 27 pilots rated the priority of information required for flight. These pilots were divided by flight experience into novices (65 to 820 hours' flight time) and experienced pilots (1600 to 17,000 hours' flight time). Participants rated 29 information elements across seven phases of flight. These data show the shifting priorities of information across phases of flight, and some clear differences in priority assignments appeared between the novices and the experienced pilots. In the second project, 34 pilots, some from Project 1, participated in the collection of relatedness data for 231 pairs of information elements. A Pathfinder analysis and hierarchical clustering were conducted showing connections among these elements and grouping of the elements. Pilot experience had little influence on the form of the network of associations. The discussion explores the potential of these data for instrumentation layout and integration of cockpit information systems, datalink design, and development of flight instruction curricula.

Key Words: Flight Information, Pathfinder Analysis, Clustering of Flight Information, Priorities of Flight Information

No. of Pages: 43