The development of eye tracking in aviation (ETA) technique to investigate pilot's cognitive processes of attention and decision-making

Abstract

Eye tracking device had provided researchers a promising way to investigate what pilot‘s cognitive processes when they see information present on the flight deck. There are 35 participants consisted by pilots and avionics engineers participated in current research. The research apparatus include an eye tracker and a flight simulator divided by five AOIs for data collection. The research aims are to develop cost-efficiency of eye tracking technique in order to facilitate scientific research of cognition and decision-making in aviation. The results indicated that participants’ eye movement patterns did have significant differences on the following variables including fixation count, F(4, 136) = 601.01, p < .001; average fixation duration, F(4, 136) = 100.87, p < .001; percentage of total fixations, F(4, 136) = 779.92, p < .001, and average pupil area, F(4, 136)=2.51, p < .05. The findings demonstrated that eye tracker is a suitable tool to investigate pilots’ cognitive process of attention and decision-making on flight deck. Furthermore, it can be applied to improve pilots’ SA and decision-making during flight operations.