Objective

This study examined whether professional air traffic controllers (ATCos) were subject to peak-end effects in reporting their mental workload after performing an air traffic control task, and in predicting their mental workload in future scenarios.

Background

In affective experience studies, people’s evaluation of a period of experience is strongly influenced by the most intense (peak) point and the endpoint. However, whether the effects exist in mental workload evaluations made by professional operators is still not known.

Method

In Study 1, 20 ATCos performed air traffic control scenarios on high-fidelity radar simulators and reported their mental workload. We used a 2 (high peak, low peak) × 2 (high end, low end) within-subject design. In Study 2, another group of 43 ATCos completed a survey asking them to predict their mental workload given the same air traffic control scenarios.

Results

In Study 1, ATCos reported higher mental workload after completing the high-peak and the high-end scenarios. In contrast, in Study 2, ATCos predicted the peak workload effect but not the end workload effect when asked to predict their experience in dealing with the same scenarios.

Conclusion

Peak and end effects exist in subjective mental workload evaluation, but experts only had meta-cognitive awareness of the peak effect, and not the end effect.

Application

Researchers and practitioners that use subjective workload estimates for work design decisions need to be aware of the potential impact of peak and end task demand effects on subjective mental workload ratings provided by expert operators.

中文翻译：

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探索空中交通管制员心理工作量评级的峰终效应

客观的

这项研究检查了专业空中交通管制员 (ATCo) 在执行空中交通管制任务后报告他们的心理工作量以及预测他们在未来情景中的心理工作量时是否受到峰终效应的影响。

背景

在情感体验研究中，人们对一段体验的评价受最强烈（峰值）点和终点的强烈影响。然而，这种影响是否存在于专业操作人员的脑力负荷评估中尚不得而知。

方法

在研究 1 中，20 个 ATCos 在高保真雷达模拟器上执行了空中交通管制场景，并报告了他们的脑力负荷。我们使用了 2（高峰值、低峰值）×2（高端、低端）受试者内设计。在研究 2 中，另一组 43 名 ATCos 完成了一项调查，要求他们在相同的空中交通管制情景下预测他们的脑力负荷。

结果

在研究 1 中，ATCos 在完成高峰和高端场景后报告了更高的脑力负荷。相比之下，在研究 2 中，当被要求预测他们处理相同场景的经验时，ATCos 预测了峰值工作量效应，但没有预测最终工作量效应。

结论

主观脑力负荷评价存在峰终效应，但专家对峰终效应只有元认知意识，对终末效应没有认识。

应用

在工作设计决策中使用主观工作量估计的研究人员和从业者需要意识到峰值和结束任务需求对专家操作员提供的主观心理工作量评级的潜在影响。