Cognitive Engineering in Training: Monitoring and Pilot-Automation Coordination in Complex Environments

Abstract: This paper reports on a Cognitive Engineering approach to identify untaught skills and knowledge and to support design of learning tools. We investigate flightpath (FP) monitoring and the interaction of pilot and automation implicated in monitoring. We interviewed experienced pilots to understand the knowledge and skills underlying effective monitoring, and we developed an example learning environment to improve these skills. We explore how design of pilot training and learning, like the design of interfaces and of the underlying automation, benefits from cognitive engineering methods and perspective. In aviation, monitoring and managing FP are critical activities, affected by automation, control actions by the pilot, and by external factors, including weather and Air Traffic Control (ATC). Effective piloting depends on strategies for noticing, understanding, and anticipating these influences to monitor and manage FP. Although flightdeck automation is intended to aid pilot understanding and prediction, the Fight Management Systems (FMS) can also mislead the pilot, particularly when depending on old or incomplete information. Understanding such vulnerabilities is an important part of pilot-automation coordination. We identified skills and knowledge learned from experience but not from training; for less experienced pilots these are likely knowledge gaps and potential targets for learning. Using learner-centered principles, we developed a learning environment designed to help pilots build skills and knowledge for proactive FP monitoring. We consider how a broad cognitive engineering approach might inform both the "what" and "how" of learning in dynamic work domains.

Keywords: Pilot, monitoring, automation, learning, cognitive engineering, work analysis, learning analysis, learning design, training, aviation.

DOI: 10.54941/ahfe1003006

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