Exploring the Effects of Perceptual Separability on Human-Automation Team Efficiency

The purpose of the current experiment was to examine the effect of perceptual separability on human-automation team efficiency in a speeded judgment task. Human operators in applied environments interact with automated systems via a visual display which contain both complex raw data and automated support, requiring both sources of information to be mentally integrated by operators. Participants performed a speeded length-judgment task with or without decisional cues issued by a reliable automated aid. The cue was rendered in the format perceptually separable (color) or configural (area) to raw stimulus information (length). Workload capacity measures quantified human-automation team efficiency. Participants responded more slowly following the onset of the aid’s decisional cue in the area display format in the form of limited-capacity processing than the color display format, which led to unlimited-capacity processing. The color display format can support unlimited-capacity processing without moderating operators’ response speed while the area display format may produce limited-capacity processing, delaying their responses. Automation and display designers should consider utilizing separable perceptual characteristics of display elements in visual interfaces to improve human-automation team efficiency in a speeded perceptual-cognitive task.