Engineering topics

Berg, S. L.

Publications and source records attributed to Berg, S. L..

5 records

NASA NTRS1993

The Backgrounds Data Center

The Strategic Defense Initiative Organization has created data centers for midcourse, plumes, and backgrounds phenomenologies. The Backgrounds Data Center (BDC) has been designated as the prime archive for data collected by SDIO programs. The BDC maintains a Summary Catalog that contains 'metadata,' that is, information about data, such as when the data were obtained, what the spectral range of the data is, and what region of the Earth or sky was observed. Queries to this catalog result in a listing of all data sets (from all experiments in the Summary Catalog) that satisfy the specified criteria. Thus, the user can identify different experiments that made similar observations and order them from the BDC for analysis. On-site users can use the Science Analysis Facility (SAFE for this purpose. For some programs, the BDC maintains a Program Catalog, which can classify data in as many ways as desired (rather than just by position, time, and spectral range as in the Summary Catalog). For example, data sets could be tagged with such diverse parameters as solar illumination angle, signal level, or the value of a particular spectral ratio, as long as these quantities can be read from the digital record or calculated from it by the ingest program. All unclassified catalogs and unclassified data will be remotely accessible.

Snyder, W. A.↗

NASA NTRS1986

The impact of physical and mental tasks on pilot mental workoad

Seven instrument-rated pilots with a wide range of backgrounds and experience levels flew four different scenarios on a fixed-base simulator. The Baseline scenario was the simplest of the four and had few mental and physical tasks. An activity scenario had many physical but few mental tasks. The Planning scenario had few physical and many mental taks. A Combined scenario had high mental and physical task loads. The magnitude of each pilot's altitude and airspeed deviations was measured, subjective workload ratings were recorded, and the degree of pilot compliance with assigned memory/planning tasks was noted. Mental and physical performance was a strong function of the manual activity level, but not influenced by the mental task load. High manual task loads resulted in a large percentage of mental errors even under low mental task loads. Although all the pilots gave similar subjective ratings when the manual task load was high, subjective ratings showed greater individual differences with high mental task loads. Altitude or airspeed deviations and subjective ratings were most correlated when the total task load was very high. Although airspeed deviations, altitude deviations, and subjective workload ratings were similar for both low experience and high experience pilots, at very high total task loads, mental performance was much lower for the low experience pilots.

Berg, S. L.↗

NASA NTRS1986

Effect of time span and task load on pilot mental workload

Two sets of simulations designed to examine how a pilot's mental workload is affected by continuous manual-control activity versus discrete mental tasks that included the length of time between receiving an assignment and executing it are described. The first experiment evaluated two types of measures: objective performance indicators and subjective ratings. Subjective ratings for the two missions were different, but the objective performance measures were similar. In the second experiments, workload levels were increased and a second performance measure was taken. Mental workload had no influence on either performance-based workload measure. Subjective ratings discriminated among the scenarios and correlated with performance measures for high-workload flights. The number of mental tasks performed did not influence error rates, although high manual workloads did increase errors.

Berg, S. L.↗

NASA NTRS1985

Effect of time span and task load on pilot mental workload

Two sets of experiments were run to examine how the mental workload of a pilot might be measured. The effects of continuous manual control activity versus discrete assigned mental tasks (including the length of time between receiving an assignment and executing it) were examined. The first experiment evaluated the strengths and weaknesses of measuring mental workload with an objective perforamance (altitude deviations) and five subjective ratings (activity level, complexity, difficulty, stress, and workload). The second set of experiments built upon the first set by increasing workload intensities and adding another performance measure: airspeed deviation. The results are discussed for both low and high experience pilots.

Berg, S. L.↗

NASA NTRS1984

Measuring Workload Differences Between Short-term Memory and Long-term Memory Scenarios in a Simulated Flight Environment

Four highly experienced Air Force pilots each flew four simulated flight scenarios. Two scenarios required a great deal of aircraft maneuvering. The other two scenarios involved less maneuvering, but required remembering a number of items. All scenarios were designed to be equaly challenging. Pilot's Subjective Ratings for Activity-level, Complexity, Difficulty, Stress, and Workload were higher for the manuevering scenarios than the memory scenarios. At a moderate workload level, keeping the pilots active resulted in better aircraft control. When required to monitor and remember items, aircraft control tended to decrease. Pilots tended to weigh information about the spatial positioning and performance of their aircraft more heavily than other items.

Berg, S. L.↗