Mitigating Biases in Time-to-Contact Judgments with Cockpit Displays of Traffic Information

A flight simulation experiment was conducted to assess cockpit automation for mitigating the effects of a distance bias in time-to-contact judgments on converging intruders. Six formats of a prototype cockpit display of traffic information were tested, including all combinations of intruder icon (perceptual cue) format (baseline/conventional, colored, blinking) and a data tag with velocity information (present, absent). Results revealed displays with colored or blinking cues produced greater accuracy in pilot selection of intruders posing the greatest risk and lower response times than for conventional displays not presenting such cues. The addition of the velocity data tag to icons had no effect on intruder selection accuracy but was associated with lower response times. It was concluded that both the perceptual cue format and velocity data tags support superior performance in time-to-contact judgments as compared with conventional displays.