Information Processing

Question 1

What are the human sensors pilots depend on for information acquisition?

Answer 1

• Sight
• Balance
• Hearing
• Touch

Question 2

What is the brain’s role in registering sensation and the controlling actions?

Answer 2

Registering sensations:
- Sounds, light, pressure, taste or smell
- Very short period of time before sensation disappears
Echoic sensory store can hold sounds for 2-8 secs
Iconic sensory store can hold images/light for 1/2 - 1 sec
- Requires attention

Question 3

What is the brain’s role in processing sensory information and the controlling actions?

Answer 3

• Recognising and understanding a stimulus
• Paying attention to inputs will involve forming a perception and the transfer of data into more robust memory (short term, long term, motor memory)

Question 4

What is the brains role in storing information and the controlling actions?

Answer 4

Two parts of the memory system:
- Working/short term memory
- Long term memory

• Motor memory - subconscious

Question 5

Describe a basic model of information processing, including the concepts of attention, divided attention and selective attention.

Answer 5

Attention: Limited by the amount of information which can be held in the short term Emory and is the human attention span

Divided attention: Attention divided between stimuli or tasks provided they don’t exceed the capacity

“Cocktail party effect” - you hear your own name or call sign

Selective attention: In which the sensory store prioritises relevance to the task at hand. When demands on attention become too competitive, the process can discard important information.

Question 6

Describe a basic model of information processing attention getting stimulus.

Answer 6

• The initial alerting to a stimuli - varies on past experiences and what an individual determines important

Question 7

Describe a basic model of information processing sensory threshold.

Answer 7

• Stimuli must be a certain strength for the receptors to detect them, the minimum strength os sensory threshold.

Question 8

Describe a basic model of information processing sensitivity.

Answer 8

• How aware are you regarding each of your sensory channels: sight, sound, taste, smell, touch and pain
• All individuals have varying degrees of sensitivity and have varying ways of outwardly responding and expressing their awareness of these sensitivities.

Question 9

Describe a basic model of information processing adaptation.

Answer 9

• Sensory receptor adapt either partially or completely to their stimuli after a period of time

Question 10

Describe a basic model of information processing habituation.

Answer 10

• Sensory adaption is also referred to as habituation

Question 11

Describe peripheral/sensory memory.

Answer 11

• Shortest term memory - ability to retain impressions of sensory information after the original stimuli are ended.

Question 12

Describe short term/working memory.

Answer 12

• Retains information for a limited period
• It’s capacity is limited 5-9 unrelated items
• Information is retained for 10 to 20 seconds after which it is replaced by new information
• If information in the working memory is repeated or rehearsed it will be retained for a longer period

Question 13

Describe the long term memory.

Answer 13

Intended for storage of information over a long period of time despite our everyday impressions of forgetting it seems likely that long term memory actually decays very little over time and can store a seemingly unlimited amount of information almost indefinitely.

Two stores:

Semantic - facts, rules etc.
Episodic - past experiences

Question 14

Describe motor/skills memory.

Answer 14

• The third subconscious part of the memory that is devoted to the operation of automatic functions, such as those that form the basis of a skill.
• A motor programme and a conscious action can be excercised simultaneously

Question 15

Describe semantic memory.

Answer 15

• A structured record of facts, concepts and skills
• How to spell or understand a word

Question 16

Describe episodic memory.

Answer 16

• Is the memory of event which have been experienced, however our memory of events can become clouded by what we think should have occured.

Long term memory = semantic and episodic memory

Question 17

What are the limitations of memory?

Answer 17

• Short term is limited to 5-9 unrelated items-related items for a short period of time and is prone to interruption.
• Long term Emory is restricted too the ability to retrieve information and recency.
• Motor memory is prone to error which is likely to be undetected because of the lack of feedback.

Question 18

Explain ‘chunking’ as a method of retaining and retrieving information from memory.

Answer 18

• Grouping small amounts of information together - optimize capacity of short term memory
• limited to seven digits, six letter and five words
• Prone to interruption

Question 19

Explain ‘mnemonics’ as a method of retaining and retrieving information from memory.

Answer 19

Making a word or phrase or sentence in order to memorise several points e.g. HASELL

Question 20

Explain ‘associations’ as a method of retaining and retrieving information from memory.

Answer 20

• Technique for remembering a list of items
• Verbally a wild or bizarre association is imagined and attached to a word
• Visually a technique to put names to faces

Question 21

Explain ‘checklists’ as a method of retaining and retrieving information from memory.

Answer 21

• Used to ensure crew properly configure aircraft
• Timely completion of normal checklists is the most effective method of omission or preventing inappropriate actions

Question 22

Explain ‘aide memoirs’ as a method of retaining and retrieving information from memory.

Answer 22

• Checklist
• Note

Question 23

Explain the concept of mental workload.

Answer 23

• The level of performance any individual is capable of is limited by the ability to process the relevant information up to the point performance is improved, if the workload is increased.

Question 24

Explain the concept of overload

Answer 24

• When workload becomes excessive the attention processes are overloaded by too much information and the response executions needed are more than the time available permits

Question 25

What are some methods of managing potential overload.

Answer 25

- Delegate routine tasks to the sub conscious

Question 26

Describe and compare skill, rule, and knowledge based behaviours

Answer 26

Skill based: - Acquired with practice and may be executed without conscious thought - Pilot operating the controls Rule based: - These have been learned I n connection with circumstances. Requires some conscious attention Knowledge based: - Non-procedural responses which require the knowledge and experience - Requires all conscious attention

Question 27

Describe the process of acquiring a skill.

Answer 27

- Acquired slowly through related experience Three stages: - Cognitive - must learn facts - Associative - must be practiced - Automatic response - practice procedures to become more automated and second nature

Question 28

Describe the failures of skill, rule and knowledge based behaviours

Answer 28

- Skill based - because these are done as second nature, if they are not monitored they are prone to error when the user is pre-occupied with other tasks - Rule based - failures occur when there is an initial mis-diagnosis of a problem or situation and the Wong procedure is applied - Knowledge based - reliance upon stored information, which must be recalled from the long term memory and then ticked off in the short term memory

Question 29

What is confirmation bias?

Answer 29

Only seeking information that confirms our model and ignore other information that may cast doubt on its accuracy.

Question 30

Describe the effect of expectation on perception.

Answer 30

We assume/predict what is to come next.

Question 31

Describe the effects of experience on perception.

Answer 31

We expected to see what we are used to seeing, when this is different we have a big problem.

Question 32

What is the formation of mental models?

Answer 32

We generate a mental model on the basis of our past experience and learning, however since models are based on experience that may differ between individuals, it sis true to say that perception is subjective

Question 33

What are the special and perceptual problems associated with snow operations?

Answer 33

Causes problems due to the lack of texture and contrast.

Question 34

What are the special and perceptual problems associated with water operations?

Answer 34

Lack of texture and contrast means that it is very difficult to judge your height above the surface.

Question 35

What are the special and perceptual problems associated with agricultural and low flying operations?

Answer 35

Constantly having to focus on the hazards associated can cause fatigue especially with the high workload involved.