Abstract
Air Traffic Control Laboratory Simulator (ATC-lab) is a new low- and medium-fidelity task environment that simulates air traffic control. ATC-lab allows the researcher to study human performance of tasks under tightly controlled experimental conditions in a dynamic, spatial environment. The researcher can create standardized air traffic scenarios by manipulating a wide variety of parameters. These include temporal and spatial variables. There are two main versions of ATC-lab. The medium-fidelity simulator provides a simplified version of en route air traffic control, requiring participants to visually search a screen and both recognize and resolve conflicts so that adequate separation is maintained between all aircraft. The low-fidelity simulator presents pairs of aircraft in isolation, controlling the participant’s focus of attention, which provides a more systematic measurement of conflict recognition and resolution performance. Preliminary studies have demonstrated that ATC-lab is a flexible tool for applied cognition research.
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The development of ATC-lab was supported in part by Large Grant A00104975 from the Australian Research Council.
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Loft, S., Hill, A., Neal, A. et al. ATC-lab: An air traffic control simulator for the laboratory. Behavior Research Methods, Instruments, & Computers 36, 331–338 (2004). https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03195579
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03195579