UDT 2020 UDT Extended Abstract Template Presentation/Panel The effects of Visual Clutter and Perceptual Speed in high-pressured information environments on the performance of tactical systems operators in the underwater battlespace Olivia Foulds 1 , Dawn Wood 2 1 PhD Student, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, Scotland 2 Engineer, BAE Systems Submarines, Frimley, England Abstract — Tactical systems operators are required to work in high pressured, complex information environments where they are bombarded with a multitude of visual data. However when too much visual stimuli is present, the phenomenon of clutter degrades an individual’s perception in many tasks. This study presents an experiment that explored a user’s search behaviour, performance, and experience, given v arious manipulations of clutter depending on it’s congruence to the task. Furthermore, we investigated the interaction between clutter and perceptual speed, which is an individual difference for how accurately and quickly people process visual information. The exploration of these results will inform the design of future underwater battlespace applications to maximise the efficiency of human operators. 1 Background reliability concerns [4]. Yet given the importance of understanding how an individual operator can process In underwater battlespace, a vast amount of visual visual information, new PS tests may provide valuable information, or clutter, is displayed to sonar operators. insights. Thus, the present study designed two new However, the phenomenon of ‘clutter’ occurs when the computerised versions of PS tests, to explore: a) how low influence of nearby visual contours negatively interfere and high users interact with various manipulations of with and reduce visual perception when trying to focus visual clutter, and b) if it is possible to then predict PS on a target [1]. Clutter can therefore dramatically affect based on search behaviour. operator performance because the human brain has limited attentional and perceptual capabilities and cannot 2 Approach process everything it sees. This is detrimental in an environment where an operator must make sense of what 40 users completed two computerised PS tests and were they see, while simultaneously maintaining situational categorised into low and high ability based on a median awareness (SA) to act upon any events that may arise. split. Each user then completed search tasks where they were to find appropriate targets specific to each topic Individuals vary in their perceptual ability to process requirement amidst four variations of visual clutter: none, visual information. The worse perception is, the more congruent, incongruent, and mixed. Congruence was errors occur. Currently, tests for individual differences chosen as an important clutter feature as previous work that infer how well operators respond to visual clutter and has identifed that although not necessary to complete a demonstrate SA are lacking. For example, SA tests make task successfully, viewing extra related information can use of subjective ratings or require additional exercises to increase system interaction and subsequently improve complete [2], which may not be reliable or detract an task accuracy [6]. Users also completed questionnaires. operator from their current task. Additionally, infrequent The effects of clutter and PS were then explored for a tests do not account for the dynamic challenges that can user’s search behaviour, performance, and experience . affect perception, such as fatigue. Instead of finding ways Finally, various machine learning models were trained to directly monitor individual differences, recent work based on search log data, to see if we could accurately has instead focused on developing advice to maintain predict PS without the need of administering a separate factors such as aerobic fitness and hydration to ensure test. healthy cognitive performance [3]. However as military personnel face constant challenges and unpredictability, it 3 Results would be beneficial if a system could dynamically understand the current ability of i t’s operator, to ensure Similar to previous literature, clutter overall resulted in appropriate actions can occur if perception reduces. users: taking significantly longer to identify targets ( p = Perceptual Speed (PS) is a cognitive ability defined by 0.0067); performing significantly worse in a post-task an individual’s accuracy and speed to scan information recall test; and reporting the most confusion and while completing visual search tasks [4]. Although PS tiredness. Although congruent clutter increased testing has been used in military contexts such as pilot interaction and more items were identified as targets, selection, where the aim has been to employ higher PS overall target accuracy did not improve. scorers for jobs that require complex perceptual abilities Low PS users (which were 30% of our sample, and [5], PS tests are old-fashioned and contain validity and categorised as those who had scored low on both PS
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