title: Displaying contextual information reduces the costs of imperfect decision automation in rapid retasking of ISR assets.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The impact of a decision support tool designed to embed contextual mission factors was investigated. Contextual information may enable operators to infer the appropriateness of data underlying the automation's algorithm.
  
  
  BACKGROUND
  Research has shown the costs of imperfect automation are more detrimental than perfectly reliable automation when operators are provided with decision support tools. Operators may trust and rely on the automation more appropriately if they understand the automation's algorithm. The need to develop decision support tools that are understandable to the operator provides the rationale for the current experiment.
  
  
  METHODS
  A total of 17 participants performed a simulated rapid retasking of intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) assets task with manual, decision automation, or contextual decision automation differing in two levels of task demand: low or high. Automation reliability was set at 80%, resulting in participants experiencing a mixture of reliable and automation failure trials. Dependent variables included ISR coverage and response time of replanning routes.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Reliable automation significantly improved ISR coverage when compared with manual performance. Although performance suffered under imperfect automation, contextual decision automation helped to reduce some of the decrements in performance.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Contextual information helps overcome the costs of imperfect decision automation.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Designers may mitigate some of the performance decrements experienced with imperfect automation by providing operators with interfaces that display contextual information, that is, the state of factors that affect the reliability of the automation's recommendation.
authors.forename: Ericka
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Rovira
authors.forename: Austin
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Cross
authors.forename: Evan
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Leitch
authors.forename: Craig
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Bonaceto
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000401:Aircraft; D000465:Algorithms; D001331:Automation; D003198:Computer Simulation; D003626:Data Display; D003657:Decision Making; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008328:Man-Machine Systems; D008889:Military Personnel; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D013647:Task Performance and Analysis; D035502:Trust; D055815:Young Adult