Presentation
Perceptions of Difficulty in an Automation-Supported Task
DescriptionOperators are increasingly given discretion on when they choose to engage automated systems, however, these decisions are often suboptimal, inhibiting operator performance. Prior work has suggested that this may be a result of improper estimations of task difficulty. Therefore, this study investigated where perceived task difficulty diverged from objective task difficulty (accuracy) and its impact on automation use. In a visual search task, participants were instructed to identify a target object in cluttered images. On certain trials, participants had the choice to engage an automated aid. Results indicated that participants were sensitive to differences in difficulty, but they used the automation more often when they rated the condition as more difficult. With automation present, performance was equivalent between the easy and difficult conditions, but participants rated the difficult condition as harder. This may suggest a disconnect between perceived difficulty and objective performance measures. These results highlight the importance of considering both subjective and objective difficulty when designing automated systems, as aligning subjective user perceptions with objective system capabilities and team performance is crucial for optimizing performance and decision-making in complex tasks.
Event Type
Lecture
TimeThursday, October 16th4:30pm - 4:50pm CDT
LocationGrand Hall L
Aerospace Systems
Student Forum
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