Training

Air traffic density in the U.S. National Airspace System (NAS) has increased over the last decade due to a rising demand for air travel. In light of this projected increase in air traffic density, the Next Generation (NextGen) Air Traffic Management System was developed which introduced automation tools to assist Air Traffic Controllers (ATCos) with their tasks. The use of NextGen tools requires ATCos to use different techniques than those that are required to manage NextGen unequipped aircraft. Thus, ATCos must integrate the two skill sets when managing a sector consisting of NextGen equipped and unequipped aircraft.

Numerous CHAAT studies have investigated differing strategies in training future air traffic controllers on current day and NextGen air traffic management tools. Rorie et al. (2011) examined whether the order in which student controllers are trained with current day and NextGen procedures affected performance, establishing that current-day procedures should be learned prior to learning those of NextGen. Vu et al. (2013) investigated whether part-whole training methods were more beneficial for student air traffic controllers to effectively manage a mixed-equipage (e.g., NextGen equipped and unequipped aircraft) environment, findings of which supported those of Rorie et al. (2011). Battiste et al. (2013) examined whether early exposure of student controllers to NextGen automation technology in the form of integrated Data Comm affects the degree to which they come to rely on this tool instead of voice-based to manage air traffic, finding that students had a preference for voice based traffic management by final examination.

References

Battiste, H., Choi, W., Mirchi, T., Sanchez, K., Vu, K.-P. L., Chiappe, D., & Strybel, T. Z. (2013). The effects of early training with automation tools on the air traffic management strategies of student ATCos. In Human Interface and the Management of Information. Information and Interaction for Health, Safety, Mobility and Complex Environments (pp. 13-21). Heidelberg, Berlin: Springer, doi:10.1007/978-3-642-39215-3_2

Rorie, R. C., Kiken, A., Morgan, C., Billinghurst, S., Morales, G., Monk, K., Vu, K.-P. L., Strybel, T., & Battiste, V. (2011). A preliminary investigation of training order for introducing NextGen tools. In Human Interface and the Management of Information. Interacting with Information (pp. 526-533). Heidelberg, Berlin: Springer.

Vu, K.-P. L., Kiken, A., Chiappe, D., Strybel, T. Z., & Battiste, V. (2013). Application of part-whole training methods to evaluate when to introduce nextgen air traffic management tools to students. The American Journal of Psychology, 126(4), 433-447, doi:10.5406/amerjpsyc.126.4.0433