Effects Of Working Memory Refresh Ability And Time Pressure On Air Traffic Control Tasks

With the rapid development of China’s civil aviation industry,the increasing civil aviation traffic volume and the number of flights make the limited airspace structure more complex and air traffic more crowded,which brings great challenges to the work of air traffic controller.With the upgrading of air traffic control(ATC)equipment and air traffic control technology,the proportion of accidents caused by machines is getting smaller and smaller,while the proportion of accidents caused by human operation errors is getting larger and larger.As the most vulnerable factor in the air traffic control system,the research on it is becoming more and more important in the air traffic control safety research.Therefore,it is of great significance to study the effect mechanism of the individual differences of air traffic controllers on the work quality of air traffic controllers in different environments for the growth of air traffic controllers and aviation safety.Many studies have shown that working memory capacity(WMC),especially updating,which is closely related to executive function,is closely related to many advanced cognitive activities of individuals.All the work carried out by air traffic controllers to ensure the efficient and safe operation of civil aviation involves a lot of cognitive activities,such as attention,decision,judgment and so on.Research on working memory and human error divides the behavior response of air traffic controllers into four stages:sensory perception,planning,decision-making and behavior,and working memory seems to play a very important role in these four stages.According to the task target,the individual selectively reacts to the perceived information,further processes the useful information and suppresses the irrelevant information.When the source of information is continuous,the useful information is replaced by the useless information,and then into the processing stage.Then according to the processed information to make a decision and choose a feasible way,and finally make a response.This process is also reflected in the work of air traffic controllers.According to multiple monitoring devices and communication devices,air traffic controllers respond to valid information and suppress invalid information for the purpose of air traffic control safety.Based on the above information,it can be seen that working memory capacity plays a very important role in the work of air trafic control.This study from the perspective of individual differences in working memory on the research of the controllers’ job performance influence factors,aims to find air-traffic controllers,working memory capacity influence on its working performance,further explore its mechanism of action of under time pressure,deepen the understanding of the individual differences in working memory capacity and knowledge of ATC human factors.To this end,two experiments were designed in this study:experiment 1,which preliminarily verified the effect of individual differences in working memory refresh ability under no time pressure on the performance of air traffic controllers and their emotional state at work under different workload levels.The n-back task was used to measure the subjects’ working memory refresh ability,and the subjects were divided into the group with high working memory capacity and the group with low working memory capacity.The results showed that compared with the group with low working memory capacity,the group with high working memory capacity had shorter response times in the air traffic control task.However,there was no significant difference in task perception between the two groups,and there was no significant difference in task emotional state.The response time at high workload level was significantly longer than that at low workload level.In experiment 2,the time pressure was set in the air traffic control task on the verification results of experiment 1 to explore the mechanism of working memory capacity under time pressure.The results showed that the interaction between working memory capacity and time stress was significant.The performance of the subjects under time pressure on the air traffic control task decreased significantly,and the anxiety in the task also increased significantly.However,the degree to which individuals with different working memory abilities are affected by time stress is significantly different,which is manifested in the following aspects:the degree of work quality decline of individuals with high working memory capacity is significantly lower than that of individuals with low working memory capacity,and the anxiety level of the group with high working memory capacity is also significantly lower than that of the group with low working memory capacity.Through two experimental studies on individual differences in working memory capacity,the following conclusions are mainly drawn:(1)When there is no time pressure,the working memory ability will affect the work efficiency of air traffic controllers,with little influence on the accuracy rate;(2)When there is time pressure,time pressure will affect air traffic controllers’accuracy rate and arouse their anxiety.But people with high working memory cope better than those with low working memory.