Physiological Assessment of Aircraft Pilot Workload in Simulated Landing and Simulated Hostile Threat Environments

摘要

In two experiments, physiological metrics of cockpit workload were investigated in highly realistic flight simulators. In Experiment 1, non-pilot males were trained on a simulated landing task and a secondary, tone discrimination task while heart rate, skin conductance, and brain event-related potentials were continuously quantified. The results showed that heart rate was a more stable measure of workload than was skin conductance. Heart rate increased during each final approach to landing, and mean heart rate decreased as the subjects gained mastery over the task as a function of practice. Four ERP components (N1,P2,N2,P3) were statistically evaluated. As workload increased, N2 became more negative and P3 became less positive; also, as workload increased, the latency difference between P3 and N1 increased. Finally, a within-subject regression analysis was employed to express the extent to which the four ERP components were intercorrelated. This measure proved to have considerable power to predict how well individual subjects would perform on the landing tasks. In Experiment 2, rated male pilots flew a simulated mission involving threat by surface-to-air missiles (SAMs). Heart rate, respiration activity, and ERPs were quantified by means of a custom-designed, miniaturized recording system. The pilots were informed of the level of SAM threat by tones sounded in the headset. The results showed that heart rate and respiration activity increased as SAM threat increased.