Cognitive Task Analysis of Prioritization in Air Traffic Control.

A cognitive task analysis was performed to analyze the key cognitive components of the en route air traffic controllers' jobs. The goals were to ascertain expert mental models and decision-making strategies and to identify important differences in controller knowledge, skills, and mental models as a function of expertise. Four groups of participants from all 20 Air Route Traffic Control Centers in the continental United States comprised a hierarchy of skill levels ranging from current developmental controllers with no formal radar training to expert controllers who were supervisors. Seven data collection procedures were used: unstructured interviews, structured interviews, critical incidents interviews, paired problem solving, cognitive style assessment, DYSIM (Dynamic Simulator) performance modeling, and DYSIM structured problem solving. This first phase resulted in the identification of 12 primary tasks, a mental model representing expert controllers' organization of domain knowledge, three categories of controller strategies, a hierarchy of goals and a set of methods used by experts to achieve those goals. The findings were used to specify the instructional content and sequencing for the Federal Aviation Administration's new en route air traffic control curriculum. (Appendixes include the following: 28 references; structured interview questions; scenarios for DYSIM performance modeling and structured problem solving; a summary of critical incident types; paired problem solving comparison diagrams and dictionary; a report of COGNET (cognitive network of tasks) analysis; problem-solving analyses of expert, intermediate, and novice groups; and statistical analyses of cognitive style assessments.) (YLB)