Air Traffic Controller Decision-Making Survey of 100 Specialists

A field survey of 100 Air Traffic Control Specialists investigated their perspectives on decision-making, planning, and related cognitive processes. The study, authored by Jean Francois D'Arcy, is based on semi-structured interviews analyzing factors like safety, situation awareness, and workload. Results indicate differences in strategic planning between terminal and en route controllers.

Use Cases

• Modeling controller decision-making heuristics based on reported cognitive processes like learning and memory.
• Analyzing the impact of experience and facility type on planning strategies, as described in the survey results.
• Identifying design requirements for ATC systems based on expressed needs for conflict probes and better weather information.
• Studying the effects of high workload, fatigue, and bad weather on operational conservatism.

Strengths

• Based on 100 semi-structured interviews, providing a substantive qualitative basis.
• Explicitly investigates multiple cognitive processes: decision-making, planning, learning, memory, and situation awareness.
• Compares behavioral differences between terminal and en route controller groups.

Limitations

• Row count and column-level documentation are absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• The dataset is closed license, which may restrict redistribution and commercial use.
• Last update date is unknown; freshness unverified.

Provenance

Source

Jean Francois D'Arcy

Collection Method

Field survey using 100 semi-structured interviews.

Time Range

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Freshness

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Geography

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