Development and evaluation of a cognitive model of human-performance in fighter aircraft

As fighter aircraft become more technologically complex, the major tasks of pilot become cognitively demanding. Models and theories that represent the domain complexity and associated operator activities are useful in human-centered design. This article describes a human-performance model of a fighter pilot developed through cognitive task analysis. The analysis was conducted based on empirically driven concept maps and semi-structured interviews with fighter pilots. The resulting model highlights salient decision points, key concepts, information requirements, problems, and problem solutions encountered in mission scenarios in the context of data collected through human-in-the-loop simulations of prototypical fighter aircraft tasks. This paper outlines the cognitive task analysis, model development, and evaluation