Investigation of display issues relevant to the presentation of aircraft fault information

The present study investigated the effects of different display, hypothesis presentation, information presentation, and parameter presentation styles on pilot performance. It was hypothesized that performance would be maximal using picture-based displays, presenting hypothesis information as a composite, showing only out-of-tolerance parameter information, and when parameter information was displayed as a bargraph. The results of the study indicated that pilot performance was best when employing picture- and text-based displays, when fault hypotheses were displayed as composites. There were no differences in response times when picture- and text-based displays were compared. Subjects' performances were best when hypotheses were displayed as composites compared to when the individual hypotheses were displayed. The display of the out-of-tolerance parameter information resulted in faster overall pilot performances compared to the presentation of all relevant parameter information. There were no differences in performance when parameter information was presented as a bargraph compared to when it was presented as a numerical value. The findings are discussed and recommendations for future research are presented.