Information Processing

Question 1

Identify the human sensors pilots depend on for information acquisition. (3)

Answer 1

• 5 main senses
• Postural - forces felt by muscles/joints
• Vestibular - body’s relative position

Question 2

Describe the following types of memory:

a) short term/working memory (3

Answer 2

• retains information for limited periods between 10-20 seconds
• capacity of 5-9 unrelated items
  retention will improve by repeating and rehearsing information
• transferred to the long term memory through the process of encoding

Question 3

Describe the following types of memory:

a) long term memory (4

Answer 3

• retains large amount of information almost indefinetly
• unlimited capacity
• once stored, the memory will remain in this memory state
• transferred to the short term memory through the process of retrieval

Question 4

Explain the following methods of retaining and retrieving information from memory:
(a) mnemonics

Answer 4

A memory retention technique in which a collection of words, phrases or sentences are used to memorise key concepts.

Question 5

Explain the following methods of retaining and retrieving information from memory:
(checklists)

Answer 5

A memory retrieval and checking technique that allows pilots to confirm the vital procedures have been completed to the correct settings.

Question 6

Describe the limitations of memory (3)

Answer 6

• The short term memory having a limited ability of retention with the likelihood and susceptibility of interruption
• The long term memory being restricted in the ability to retrieve information as a result of recency
• The motor/muscle memory (or automatic response) is prone to error increasing the likelihood of mistakes

Question 7

Describe the effect of the following on perception:

(a) expectation
(b) experience

Answer 7

With expectation, there is an assumption or prediction of what is going to come next.

With experience, there is an expectation to see what is normally seen. When there is a discrepancy between the two, a problem arises generally.

Question 8

Describe perception

Answer 8

This is the way that you notice or understand something using one of your senses.

Perception is going to be the way you perceive something and therefore will be very subjective, i.e one person can perceive something completely differently to someone else.

Question 9

34.44.4/46.44.2 The brains role in registering sensations, processing sensory information

Answer 9

REGISTERING SENSATIONS
•Sound, light, pressure, taste or smell, Very short period of time before sensation disappears

• Echoic sensory store can hold sounds for 2 – 8 secs
• Iconic sensory store can hold images/light for ½ - 1 sec

PROCESSING SENSORY INFORMATION
- Recognising and understanding A stimulus. paying attention to inputs will involve forming a perception and the transfer of data into more robust memory (short term, long term, motor)

Question 10

34.44.4/46.44.2 brains role in storing information and controlling actions

Answer 10

STORING INFORMATION
Two parts of memory system
Working/short term, and long term memory

Motor memory - subconscious

CONTROLLING ACTIONS
Your decision is translated into action and appropriate motor responses are initiated
The more aroused, the faster the response, but less accurate its likely to be.

With age responses are slower but more accurate.

Question 11

D 34.44.6/46.44.4 Describe a basic model of information processing, including the concepts of: (a) attention, (b) divided attention, (c) selective attention

Answer 11

Attention - limited by the amount of info which can be held in the short term memory and is the human attention span

Divided attention - attention divided between stimuli or tasks provided they don’t exceed capacity. (Cocktail party effect)

Selective attention - Sampling process by which the sensory store prioritises relevance to the task at hand.

When demands on attention become too competitive the process can discard important information.

Question 12

34.44.6/46.44.4 Describe a basic model of information processing (attention getting stimulus)

Answer 12

Initial alerting to a stimuli, although this may be considered an automatic act in fact it requires complex thought processing.

Varies on past experiences and an individual determines important.

(Hungry person likes smell of food rather than sounds of a traffic jam)

Question 13

34.44.6/46.44.4 Describe a basic model of information processing (sensory threshold)

Answer 13

Stimuli must be a certain strength for the receptors to detect them, minimum strength is sensory threshold

(Sound must be loud enough or light bring enough to perceive)

Question 14

34.44.6/46.44.4 Describe a basic model of information processing (sensitivity)

Answer 14

How aware are you regarding each of your sensory channels: sight, sound, taste, smell, touch, and pain

•All individuals have varying degrees of sensitivity and have varying ways of outwardly responding and expressing their awareness of these sensitivities.

Question 15

34.44.6/46.44.4 Describe a basic model of information processing (adaptation)

Answer 15

Sensory receptors adapt either partially or completely to their stimuli after a period of time

•E.G: why you don’t continue to feel the clothes on your skin after you get dressed

Question 16

34.44.6/46.44.4 Describe a basic model of information processing (habituation)

Answer 16

Sensory adaptation is also referred to as habituation

•E.G: Moving to a house close to a railway line or airport. After a month or so the noise is hardly sensed.

Question 17

Describe peripheral and sensory memory

Answer 17

• It is the shortest term memory. It is the ability to retain impressions of sensory information after the original stimuli are ended.
• Ie. Seeing something for a second but being able to recall it.
• Last for up to 1/5th to ½ a second

Question 18

Describe motor/skills memory

Answer 18

a third sub conscious part of the memory that is devoted to the operation of automatic functions, such as those that form the basis of a skill. Such as riding a bike.

Question 19

Describe semantic memory

Answer 19

A structured record of facts, concepts and skills

How to spell or understand a word

Question 20

Describe episodic memory

Answer 20

The memory of event which have been experienced, however our memory of events can become clouded by what we think should have occurred.

Long term memory is composed of semantic and episodic

Question 21

34.44.12/46.44.8 Explain the following methods of retaining and retrieving information from memory: (a) chunking and what are the limits for digits, letter and words

Answer 21

grouping small amounts of information together we can optimize the capacity of the short term memory

• This is limited to approximately seven for digits, around six for letters, and around five for words.
• Is prone to interruption

Question 22

Describe associations regarding memory (verbal/visual)

Answer 22

A technique for remembering a list of items.

• Verbally a wild or bizarre association is imagined and attached to a word.
• Visually a technique to put names to faces.

Question 23

Describe aide memoirs

Answer 23

Anything from a checklist to a note to remind yourself

Question 24

34.44.14/46.44.10 Explain the concept of mental workload

Answer 24

•The level of performance any individual is capable of is limited by the ability to process the relevant information, up to that point performance is improved, if the workload is increased.

Question 25

34.44.16/46.44.12 Explain the concept of overload

Answer 25

When workload becomes excessive the attention processes are overloaded by too much information and the response executions needed are more than the time available permits.

Question 26

34.44.18/46.44.14 Methods of managing potential overload

Answer 26

Faced with a multitude of demands, pilots learn to delegate routine tasks to the sub conscious

• With experience the conscious knows how much time it takes to devote to gathering a certain piece of information
• The allocation of time is a function of its importance and its complexity.

Question 27

34.44.20/46.44.16 Describe and compare skill, rule, and knowledge based behaviours

Answer 27

Skill based:

These are acquired with practice and may be executed without conscious thought.

•Pilot operating the controls

Rule Based:

• These have been learned in connection with circumstances
• Responding to a fire warning

Knowledge based:

These are non procedural responses which acquire the knowledge and experience

•Deciding when to initiate a missed approach

Question 28

34.44.22/46.44.18 Describe the process of acquiring a skill

Answer 28

Skill knowledge is acquired slowly through related experience.

•Three stages of skill knowledge acquisition.
●Cognitive - must learn the facts
●Associative - must be practiced
●Automatic response - practice procedures to become more automated and second nature

Question 29

34.44.24/46.44.20 Describe failures of skill, rule and knowledge based behaviours

Answer 29

Skill based – because these are done as second nature, if they are not monitored they are prone to error when the user is pre-occupied with other tasks.

• Rule based – failures occur when there is an initial mis-diagnosis of a problem or situation and the wrong procedure is applied.
• Knowledge based – reliance upon stored information, which must be recalled from the long term memory and then ticked off in the short term memory.

Question 30

34.44.26/46.44.22 Confirmation bias

Answer 30

We tend to seek only information that confirms our model and ignore other information that may cast doubt on its accuracy.

Question 31

34.44.30/46.44.24 The formation of mental models

Answer 31

We generate a mental model on the basis of our past experience and learning, however since models are based on experience that may differ between individuals, it is true to say that perception is subjective

Question 32

34.44.32 The special perceptual problems associated with: (a) snow operations (b) water operations and (c) low flying

Answer 32

(A) Landing on a snowy runway causes problems due to the lack of texture and contrast.

(b) water operations
•Similar to snow operations due to the lack of texture and context it is very difficult to judge your height above the surface

(c) agricultural and low flying operations
•Constantly having to focus on the hazards associated can cause fatigue especially with the high workload involved