In this introduction to the special issue, the guest editors situate the selected articles within the ongoing conversation about Human Factors in Aviation.

This research provides a current benchmark of the cognitive skills and cognitive processes needed for flight path management (FPM) in current commercial air transportation flight operations. While some cognitive skills for aviation have been identified, it remains unclear which skills are most pertinent for different phases of flight, for different tasks, across different aircraft types, and during operational complexity. Further, there is concern that flight deck automation may contribute to cognitive skill degradation. Two expert pilots participated in cognitive walkthroughs to establish a current benchmark of the cognitive skills and cognitive processes needed for FPM. The tasks involved seven different phases of flight and two different aircraft; the results from two phases are reported-Preflight Briefing and Initial Climb. The findings indicate nineteen cognitive skills, and three metacognitive skills are used by pilots for FPM. In addition, the cognitive process models needed for FPM are all very similar, regardless of the aircraft type, task, phase of flight, or increased operational complexity. These results provide a foundation for future efforts on cognitive skill degradation, training of FPM cognitive skills, and may be used to inform the design of new automated systems to support pilot cognition.

Crew Resource Management (CRM) has been an integral part of aviation for decades. However, evaluation of CRM for pilots has always been a challenge. As such, an exploration of the literature was commenced to approach CRM evaluation from a modern perspective. Some teams promoted the integration of technology into the assessment process to better understand the behavioral markers currently being utilized. Others encouraged a larger revamp, by shifting towards a more holistic assessment based on advances in cognitive science. Both these approaches were discussed, and it is likely that a blend of both will be required to address this research problem. However, to ensure robustness and long-term sustainability of CRM evaluation, more research must be conducted from a cognitive science perspective, to inform which assessment frameworks are more effective and reliable.

The commercial flight deck is a workspace with more than a century of knowledge in human-machine interaction, pioneering the transition from direct analog displays to computerized screens. The flight deck is a collaborative workplace where pilots interact with automated systems and flight information that is distributed across an array of screens that present information in spatial alignment to tasks and flight situation. This pictorial examines new Interaction Design video prototyping techniques for spatially aligned and collaborative interactions across multiple screens for a next generation commercial flight deck.

In this paper, we describe an integrative approach to understanding flight crew activity. Our approach combines contemporary innovations in cognitive science theory with a new suite of methods for measuring, analyzing, and visualizing the activities of commercial airline flight crews in interaction with the complex automated systems found on the modern flight deck. Our unit of analysis is the multiparty, multimodal activity system. We installed a variety of recording devices in high-fidelity flight simulators to produce rich, multistream time-series data sets. The complexity of such data sets and the need for manual coding of high-level events make large-scale analysis prohibitively expensive. We break through this analysis bottleneck by using our newly developed integrated software system called ChronoViz, which supports visualization and analysis of multiple sources of time-coded data, including multiple sources of high-definition video, simulation data, transcript data, paper notes, and eye gaze data. Four examples of flight crew activity serve to illustrate the methods, the theory, and the kinds of findings that are now possible in the study of flight crew interaction with flight deck automation.

Designers of commercial aviation flight decks have recently begun to consider ways to reduce or eliminate the use of paper documents in flight operations. Using ethnographic methods we describe the cognitive functions served by the paper-use practices of pilots. The special characteristics of flight deck work give a distinctive quality to pilots' paper-use practices. The complex high-stakes high-tempo nature of pilots' work makes shared understandings essential to safe flight. This means that representation of flight critical information must not only be available to both pilots, but available to the pilots jointly in interaction with one another. The cross-cultural component of our work shows how language and culture color all of the pilots' practices and how interaction with paper objects allows actors to build social identities and social relations.

Abstract Culture is widely believed to play an important role in the international aviation system. Given the many factors, including the infrastructure of aviation, that affect aviation safety, the role of culture remains uncertain. It is accepted that culture must exert some influence on the patterns of behavior enacted by flight crews on the flight deck, but different views of culture produce different hypotheses about the role of culture in the organization of behavior. We review the history of ideas about culture and describe a recently developed concept of culture that is based in contemporary cognitive science. We then use this modern,theory of culture to evaluate recent attempts to understand the role of culture on the flight deck. Finally, we sketch a methodology for the study of culture on the flight deck. Keywords:Culture, aviation safety, flight deck operations, anthropology. Acknowledgements We are grateful to The Boeing Company,for funding this research and for creating an opportunity to discuss the issues and questions surrounding the role of culture in flight deck operations. We thank Randy Mumaw,for many,insightful comments,and interesting discussions. 3 Executive Summary

Fauconnier and Turner’s conceptual blending theory (1998) has been used to analyze many types of cognitive phenomena, particularly the role blending plays in language comprehension. In this paper we illustrate how blending also has a role in mediating expert performance, such as understanding the meaning of a chart or a navigation display. Pilots use blends to assess flight situations, predict what the airplane will do next, and make decisions. These blended conceptualizations of navigational tools help the pilot to interact appropriately with the aircraft. We propose that the principles of conceptual blending theory aid in the 1 design and testing of novel display designs.

Pilots flying the Boeing 757/767 for a large US-based airline responded to a survey containing 16 attitude probes concerning autoflight automation. Their responses indicate that pilots feel more comfortable with automation as their experience of automation increases. Comparing their responses to those obtained by Earl Wiener a decade ago at another carrier reveals remarkable stability in the community of airline pilots flying this airplane. A cross-correlational analysis of the attitude probes shows that pilots group the probes in terms of facilitation of and interference with the job of flying. This analysis also suggests that pilots are concerned about challenges to pilot authority. A cross-correlational analysis of the pilots reveals variability among the pilots in the dimensions of ``discomfort with automation'' and ``automation as magic''.

Culture is widely believed to play an important role in the international aviation system. Given the many factors, including the infrastructure of aviation, that affect aviation safety, the role of culture remains uncertain. It is accepted that culture must exert some influence on the patterns of behavior enacted by flight crews on the flight deck, but different views of culture produce different hypotheses about the role of culture in the organization of behavior. We review the history of ideas about culture and describe a recently developed concept of culture that is based in contemporary cognitive science. We then use this modern theory of culture to evaluate recent attempts to understand the role of culture on the flight deck. Finally, we sketch a methodology for the study of culture on the flight deck.

We are conducting a longitudinal study to investigate how pilots acquire expertise in the operation of the autoflight and flight management computer systems in the Airbus A320 airplane. We interview and observe pilots in the first stages of their line experience to discover how pilot's understanding of flight deck automation develops. Pilots appear to use a small set of simple conceptual models to understand how the automation controls aircraft behavior. These basic models are not presented to pilots in training. Pilots appear to use their conceptual models as resources for constructing an understanding of how the automation controls airplane behavior. We discuss the models and our efforts to incorporate them into training.