The integration of information relevant to a manual control task

An information integration hypothesis developed by Wickens and Boles (1983) maintains that when task relevant information must be integrated by the operator, such information should be configured to maintain close proximity. Close proximity may be defined at the input stage as shared resources, or at the output stage as the same hand. To test the effects of display and response proximity, subjects performed a manual control task in which discrete information was integrated with the manual control task. Four different display formats were manipulated within subjects and two response configurations were manipulated between groups. It was predicted that: (1) cues most similar to the tracking task (i.e. Visual and Spatial) would be processed most efficiently and result in fast adaptation and (2) detection with the proximal hand would be more efficient.;By comparing this group with a group of subjects performing a dual task designed to have similar processing requirements, support was obtained for the integration hypothesis with regard to response proximity but not display proximity. Performance in the integration task was better when the integrated stimuli were responded to with the tracking hand than with the non-tracking hand. The influence of display proximity was not consistent with the integration hypothesis but was interpreted in terms of differences in stimulus processing. Implications of these findings are discussed and applied to the realms of high performance aircraft and automation.