Time-sharing effects on pilot tracking performance

Abstract

Subjects were required to simultaneously perform a two-dimensional tracking task and respond to a set of lights with toggle switches. Five levels of difficulty and two stimulus presentation rates were involved in the secondary task. The purpose of the experiment was to examine time-sharing performance of experienced military pilots and to investigate differences in performance by pilots of different types of aircraft. Analysis of the data collected from 20 subjects showed that correlation between elements of a complex task is weak, performance levels drop as task load increases, and there was only one difference found between any of the pilot type groups. Dual-crew fighter/attack jet pilots took significantly longer to respond to stimuli when time-sharing.