Publisher's Synopsis
This report describes an experiment evaluating the effects of supervisory control automation on attention allocation while operating a train. The study compared two levels of supervisory control (partial and full) to manual control, in terms of how it affects vigilance detection and situation awareness. Human performance was measured using a human-in-the-loop train simulator. To evaluate vigilance, participants were asked to detect two types of automation failures and react to obstructions on the track. Situation awareness was measured using the Situation Awareness Global Assessment Technique (SAGAT) in which the simulation was suspended at periodic intervals and the subjects answered questions about the system. These answers were compared to objective measures of system performance.
