Information Fusion for Situation Awareness in the Cockpit

Evidence is provided pointing to potential caveats associated with the use of information fusion techniques in the cockpit. Six pilots each with a minimum of ten years flight experience completed a series of missions using a simulated future jet cockpit. Each trial required a pilot to guide their aircraft towards a fixed location. The pilot was required to estimate the position of this location both during and five minutes after the flight. Different types of fusion were manipulated with regard to the information presented on a touchscreen display – Fused, Fused Drill-Down, and UnFused. Data suggested that information fusion alone can have negative consequences for both task performance and subsequent recollection of information. It is argued that reductions in system transparency and transfer-appropriate processing may account for these findings.