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Prospective memory (PM) tasks require remembering to perform a deferred action and can be associated with predictable contexts. We present a theory and computational model, prospective memory decision control (PMDC), of the cognitive processes by which context supports PM. Under control conditions, participants completed lexical decisions. Under PM conditions, participants had the additional PM task of responding to letter strings containing certain syllables. Stimuli were presented in one of two colors, with color potentially changing after each set of four trials. A pretrial colored fixation was presented before each set. Under control and PM standard conditions, fixation color was meaningless. Under PM context conditions, fixation color indicated whether a PM target could occur within the next set. We replicated prior findings of higher PM accuracy for context compared to standard conditions, and the expected variation in PM costs (slowed lexical decisions) as a function of context relevance. PMDC, which formalizes PM as a process of evidence accumulation among ongoing and PM task responses, accounted for the impact of context on PM costs and accuracy via proactive and reactive cognitive control. Increased ongoing task thresholds and decreased PM thresholds in relevant contexts indicated proactive control. With context provision, PM accumulation rates on PM trials increased, as did inhibition of accumulation to competing responses, indicating reactive control. Although an observed capacity-sharing effect explained some portion of PM costs, we found no evidence that participants redirected more capacity from the ongoing to the PM task when contextually cued to relevant contexts. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

We applied a computational model to examine the extent to which participants used an automated decision aid as an advisor, as compared to a more autonomous trigger of responding, at varying levels of decision aid reliability. In an air traffic control conflict detection task, we found higher accuracy when the decision aid was correct, and more errors when the decision aid was incorrect, as compared to a manual condition (no decision aid). Responses that were correct despite incorrect automated advice were slower than matched manual responses. Decision aids set at lower reliability (75%) had smaller effects on choices and response times, and were subjectively trusted less, than decision aids set at higher reliability (95%). We fitted an evidence accumulation model to choices and response times to measure how information processing was affected by decision aid inputs. Participants primarily treated low-reliability decision aids as an advisor rather than directly accumulating evidence based on its advice. Participants directly accumulated evidence based upon the advice of high-reliability decision aids, consistent with granting decision aids more autonomous influence over decisions. Individual differences in the level of direct accumulation correlated with subjective trust, suggesting a cognitive mechanism by which trust impacts human decisions. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

Event-based prospective memory (PM) tasks require individuals to remember to perform a previously planned action when they encounter a specific event. Often, the natural environments in which PM tasks occur are embedded are constantly changing, requiring humans to adapt by learning. We examine one such adaptation by integrating PM target learning with the prospective memory decision control (PMDC) cognitive model. We apply this augmented model to an experiment that manipulated exposure to PM targets, comparing a single-target PM condition where the target was well learned from the outset, to a multiple-target PM condition with less initial PM target exposure, allowing us to examine the effect of continued target learning opportunities. Single-target PM accuracy was near ceiling whereas multiple-target PM accuracy was initially poorer but improved throughout the course of the experiment. PM response times were longer for the multiple- compared with single-target PM task but this difference also decreased over time. The model indicated that PM trial evidence accumulation rates, and the inhibition of competing responses, were initially higher for single compared to multiple PM targets, but that this difference decreased over time due to the learning of multiple-targets over the target repetitions. These outcomes provide insight into how the processes underlying event-based PM can dynamically evolve over time, and a modeling framework to further investigate the effect of learning on event-based PM decision processes. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

Objective: While HIV disease is associated with impairment in declarative memory, the ability of people with HIV (PWH) to describe past and future autobiographical events is not known. Method: Participants included 63 PWH and 28 seronegative individuals ages 50-78 who completed standardized neurocognitive and everyday functioning assessments. Participants described four events from the recent past and four imagined events in the near future, details from which were classified as internal or external to the main event. Result: PWH produced fewer autobiographical details with small-to-medium effect sizes but did not differ from seronegative participants in meta-cognitive ratings of their performance. Performance of the study groups did not vary across past or future probes or internal versus external details; however, within the entire sample, past events were described in greater detail than future events, and more external than internal details were produced. Within the PWH group, the production of fewer internal details for future events was moderately associated with poorer prospective memory, executive dysfunction, and errors on a laboratory-based task of medication management. Conclusion: Older PWH may experience difficulty generating autobiographical details from the past and simulated events in the future, which may be related to executive dyscontrol of memory processes. Future studies might examine the role of future thinking in health behaviors such as medication adherence and retention in healthcare among PWH. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

Objective: Older persons living with HIV (PLWH) disease commonly experience failures of time-based prospective memory (PM) in their daily lives. This study examined the benefits of providing strategic supports at encoding, monitoring, and cue detection for naturalistic time-based PM among older PLWH., Method: Participants included 116 older PLWH and 48 seronegatives who completed a baseline neuropsychological evaluation (see Woods et al., 2020), including a laboratory PM experiment that paralleled the design of the current naturalistic study. The naturalistic time-based PM task required participants to press a button on a portable PM response box 4 times per day for 1 month. PLWH were randomly assigned to an unsupported control condition or to an experimental group in which strategic processing was supported at encoding (implementation intentions and visualization), monitoring (content-free cuing), and/or cue detection (auditory alarm). The seronegative participants were all assigned to the unsupported control group., Results: In a model adjusting for age and affective disorders, PLWH who received all three supports in combination demonstrated moderately better naturalistic time-based PM accuracy as compared with PLWH controls. Both the cue detection and combination conditions were associated with markedly more precise response timing on the naturalistic time-based PM task. Supported PM accuracy as measured in the laboratory was positively associated with naturalistic PM accuracy among PLWH in the experimental groups., Conclusions: Providing strategic supports to enhance the cue salience of naturalistic time-based PM tasks may improve both the accuracy and timing with which older PLWH remember to perform time-based intentions. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

Objective: Older adults with HIV disease demonstrate moderate deficits in time-based prospective memory (PM), which is the strategically demanding ability of remembering to perform a task at a specific time. Using theories from the PM literature, we hypothesized that supporting strategic processes would improve time-based PM in the laboratory among HIV+ older adults., Method: One hundred forty-five HIV+ participants were randomly assigned to a control condition or an experimental group in which strategic processing was supported at encoding (i.e., implementation intentions and visualization), monitoring (i.e., content-free cuing), and/or cue detection (i.e., auditory alarm). The HIV+ control group and 58 seronegative participants completed two ongoing language tasks with a time-based PM requirement. The HIV+ experimental groups underwent counterbalanced time-based PM trials under both control and strategically supported conditions., Results: The HIV+ cue-detection group showed a large within-subjects improvement, which was strongly related to lower scores on separate clinical time-based PM measure and was accompanied by a large reduction in clock-checking behavior. Results also revealed a small within-subjects improvement in time-based PM in the encoding condition., Conclusions: Supporting strategic encoding and cue-detection processes in the laboratory can improve time-based PM deficits in older HIV+ adults, which may inform the development of more naturalistic PM-based interventions to enhance health behaviors. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

Remembering to perform a planned action upon encountering a future event requires event-based Prospective Memory (PM). PM is required in many human factors settings in which operators must process a great deal of complex, uncertain information from an interface. We study event-based PM in such an environment. Our task, which previous research has found is very demanding (Palada, Neal, Tay, & Heathcote, 2018), requires monitoring ships as they cross the ocean on a display. We applied the Prospective Memory Decision Control Model (Strickland, Loft, Remington, & Heathcote, 2018) to understand the cognitive mechanisms that underlie PM performance in such a demanding environment. We found evidence of capacity sharing between monitoring for PM items and performing the ongoing surveillance task, whereas studies of PM in simpler paradigms have not (e.g., Strickland et al., 2018). We also found that participants applied proactive and reactive control (Braver, 2012) to adapt to the demanding task environment. Our findings illustrate the value of human factors simulations to study capacity sharing between competing task processes. They also illustrate the value of cognitive models to illuminate the processes underlying adaptive behavior in complex environments. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).

This study was designed to examine whether cue utilization differentiates performance and resource allocation during simulated rail control tasks that contain implicit patterns of train movement. Two experiments were conducted, the first of which involved the completion of a 30-min rail control simulation that required participants to reroute trains either infrequently (monitoring task) or periodically (process control task). In the monitoring condition, participants with lower cue utilization recorded a greater increase in response latency over time. However, in the process control condition, cue utilization failed to differentiate performance. In the second experiment, the duration of the rail control task was increased, and measures of participant fixation rates and cerebral blood flow were taken. Participants with higher cue utilization demonstrated greater decreases in fixation rates, smaller changes in cerebral oxygenation in the prefrontal cortex, and smaller increases in response latencies, compared with participants with lower cue utilization. The results of the study provide support for the assertion that a relatively greater capacity for cue utilization is associated with the allocation of fewer cognitive resources during sustained attention tasks that embody an implicit pattern of activity. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).

Event-based prospective memory (PM) requires remembering to perform intended deferred actions when particular stimuli or events are encountered in the future. We propose a detailed process theory within Braver's (2012) proactive and reactive framework of the way control is maintained over the competing demands of prospective memory decisions and decisions associated with ongoing task activities. The theory is instantiated in a quantitative "Prospective Memory Decision Control" (PMDC) architecture, which uses linear ballistic evidence accumulation (Brown & Heathcote, 2008) to model both PM and ongoing decision processes. Prospective control is exerted via decision thresholds, as in Heathcote, Loft, and Remington's (2015) "Delay Theory" of the impact of PM demands on ongoing-task decisions. However, PMDC goes beyond Delay Theory by simultaneously accounting for both PM task decisions and ongoing task decisions. We use Bayesian estimation to apply PMDC to experiments manipulating PM target focality (i.e., the extent to which the ongoing task directs attention to the features of PM targets processed at encoding) and the relative importance of the PM task. As well as confirming Delay Theory's proactive control of ongoing task thresholds, the comprehensive account provided by PMDC allowed us to detect both proactive control of the PM accumulator threshold and reactive control of the relative rates of the PM and ongoing-task evidence accumulation processes. We discuss potential extensions of PMDC to account for other factors that may be prevalent in real-world PM, such as failures of memory retrieval. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2018 APA, all rights reserved).

Air traffic controllers can sometimes forget to complete deferred tasks, with safety implications. In two experiments, we examined how the presence and type of interruptions influenced the probability and speed at which individuals remembered to perform deferred tasks in simulated air traffic control (ATC). Participants were required to accept/handoff aircraft, detect aircraft conflicts, and perform two deferred tasks: a deferred conflict task that required remembering to resolve a conflict in the future and a deferred handoff task that required substituting an alternative aircraft handoff action in place of routine handoff action. Relative to no interruption, a blank display interruption slowed deferred conflict resumption, but this effect was not augmented by a cognitively demanding n-back task or a secondary ATC task interruption. However, the ATC task interruption increased the probability of failing to resume the deferred conflict relative to the blank interruption. An ex-Gaussian model of resumption times revealed that these resumption failures likely reflected true forgetting of the deferred task. Deferred handoff task performance was unaffected by interruptions. These findings suggest that remembering to resume a deferred task in simulated ATC depended on frequent interaction with situational cues on the display and that individuals were particularly susceptible to interference-based forgetting. (PsycINFO Database Record, ((c) 2018 APA, all rights reserved).)

Event-based prospective memory (PM) tasks require participants to substitute an atypical PM response for an ongoing task response when presented with PM targets. Responses to ongoing tasks are often slower with the addition of PM demands ("PM costs"). Prominent PM theories attribute costs to capacity-sharing between the ongoing and PM tasks, which reduces the rate of processing of the ongoing task. We modeled PM costs using the Linear Ballistic Accumulator and the Diffusion Decision Model in a lexical-decision task with nonfocal PM targets defined by semantic categories. Previous decision modeling, which attributed costs to changes in caution rather than rate of processing (Heathcote et al., 2015; Horn & Bayen, 2015), could be criticized on the grounds that the PM tasks included did not sufficiently promote capacity-sharing. Our semantic PM task was potentially more dependent on lexical decision resources than previous tasks (Marsh, Hicks, & Cook, 2005), yet costs were again driven by changes in threshold and not by changes in processing speed (drift rate). Costs resulting from a single target focal PM task were also driven by threshold changes. The increased thresholds underlying nonfocal and focal costs were larger for word trials than nonword trials. As PM targets were always words, this suggests that threshold increases are used to extend the time available for retrieval on PM trials. Under nonfocal conditions, but not focal conditions, the nonword threshold also increased. Thus, it seems that only nonfocal instructions cause a global threshold increase because of greater perceived task complexity. (PsycINFO Database Record, ((c) 2017 APA, all rights reserved).)

Automation can improve operator performance and reduce workload, but can also degrade operator situation awareness (SA) and the ability to regain manual control. In 3 experiments, we examined the extent to which automation could be designed to benefit performance while ensuring that individuals maintained SA and could regain manual control. Participants completed a simulated submarine track management task under varying task load. The automation was designed to facilitate information acquisition and analysis, but did not make task decisions. Relative to a condition with no automation, the continuous use of automation improved performance and reduced subjective workload, but degraded SA. Automation that was engaged and disengaged by participants as required (adaptable automation) moderately improved performance and reduced workload relative to no automation, but degraded SA. Automation engaged and disengaged based on task load (adaptive automation) provided no benefit to performance or workload, and degraded SA relative to no automation. Automation never led to significant return-to-manual deficits. However, all types of automation led to degraded performance on a nonautomated task that shared information processing requirements with automated tasks. Given these outcomes, further research is urgently required to establish how to design automation to maximize performance while keeping operators cognitively engaged. (PsycINFO Database Record, ((c) 2017 APA, all rights reserved).)

It is generally assumed that drivers speed intentionally because of factors such as frustration with the speed limit or general impatience. The current study examined whether speeding following an interruption could be better explained by unintentional prospective memory (PM) failure. In these situations, interrupting drivers may create a PM task, with speeding the result of drivers forgetting their newly encoded intention to travel at a lower speed after interruption. Across 3 simulated driving experiments, corrected or uncorrected speeding in recently reduced speed zones (from 70 km/h to 40 km/h) increased on average from 8% when uninterrupted to 33% when interrupted. Conversely, the probability that participants traveled under their new speed limit in recently increased speed zones (from 40 km/h to 70 km/h) increased from 1% when uninterrupted to 23% when interrupted. Consistent with a PM explanation, this indicates that interruptions lead to a general failure to follow changed speed limits, not just to increased speeding. Further testing a PM explanation, Experiments 2 and 3 manipulated variables expected to influence the probability of PM failures and subsequent speeding after interruptions. Experiment 2 showed that performing a cognitively demanding task during the interruption, when compared with unfilled interruptions, increased the probability of initially speeding from 1% to 11%, but that participants were able to correct (reduce) their speed. In Experiment 3, providing participants with 10s longer to encode the new speed limit before interruption decreased the probability of uncorrected speeding after an unfilled interruption from 30% to 20%. Theoretical implications and implications for road design interventions are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record, ((c) 2017 APA, all rights reserved).)

We develop and test an integrative formal model of motivation and decision making. The model, referred to as the extended multiple-goal pursuit model (MGPM*), is an integration of the multiple-goal pursuit model (Vancouver, Weinhardt, & Schmidt, 2010) and decision field theory (Busemeyer & Townsend, 1993). Simulations of the model generated predictions regarding the effects of goal type (approach vs. avoidance), risk, and time sensitivity on prioritization. We tested these predictions in an experiment in which participants pursued different combinations of approach and avoidance goals under different levels of risk. The empirical results were consistent with the predictions of the MGPM*. Specifically, participants pursuing 1 approach and 1 avoidance goal shifted priority from the approach to the avoidance goal over time. Among participants pursuing 2 approach goals, those with low time sensitivity prioritized the goal with the larger discrepancy, whereas those with high time sensitivity prioritized the goal with the smaller discrepancy. Participants pursuing 2 avoidance goals generally prioritized the goal with the smaller discrepancy. Finally, all of these effects became weaker as the level of risk increased. We used quantitative model comparison to show that the MGPM* explained the data better than the original multiple-goal pursuit model, and that the major extensions from the original model were justified. The MGPM* represents a step forward in the development of a general theory of decision making during multiple-goal pursuit. (PsycINFO Database Record, ((c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved).)

In air traffic control (ATC), forgetting to perform deferred actions-prospective memory (PM) errors-can have severe consequences. PM demands can also interfere with ongoing tasks (costs). We examined the extent to which PM errors and costs were reduced in simulated ATC by providing extended practice, or by providing external aids combined with extended practice, or by providing external aids combined with instructions that removed perceived memory requirements. Participants accepted/handed-off aircraft and detected conflicts. For the PM task, participants were required to substitute alternative actions for routine actions when accepting aircraft. In Experiment 1, when no aids were provided, PM errors and costs were not reduced by practice. When aids were provided, costs observed early in practice were eliminated with practice, but residual PM errors remained. Experiment 2 provided more limited practice with aids, but instructions that did not frame the PM task as a "memory" task led to high PM accuracy without costs. Attention-allocation policies that participants set based on expected PM demands were modified as individuals were increasingly exposed to reliable aids, or were given instructions that removed perceived memory requirements. These findings have implications for the design of aids for individuals who monitor multi-item dynamic displays. (PsycINFO Database Record, ((c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved).)

In 2 experiments we examined the impact of memory for prior events on conflict detection in simulated air traffic control under conditions where individuals proactively controlled aircraft and completed concurrent tasks. Individuals were faster to detect conflicts that had repeatedly been presented during training (positive transfer). Bayesian statistics indicated strong evidence for the null hypothesis that conflict detection was not impaired for events that resembled an aircraft pair that had repeatedly come close to conflicting during training. This is likely because aircraft altitude (the feature manipulated between training and test) was attended to by participants when proactively controlling aircraft. In contrast, a minor change to the relative position of a repeated nonconflicting aircraft pair moderately impaired conflict detection (negative transfer). There was strong evidence for the null hypothesis that positive transfer was not impacted by dividing participant attention, which suggests that part of the information retrieved regarding prior aircraft events was perceptual (the new aircraft pair "looked" like a conflict based on familiarity). These findings extend the effects previously reported by Loft, Humphreys, and Neal (2004), answering the recent strong and unanimous calls across the psychological science discipline to formally establish the robustness and generality of previously published effects. (PsycINFO Database Record, ((c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved).)

Objective: HIV-associated neurocognitive disorders (HAND) are associated with deficits in prospective memory (PM). However, most PM research in HIV has used single-event tasks as opposed to habitual PM paradigms, which may be more relevant to clinical populations for whom many health-care behaviors must be performed both frequently and routinely., Method: For the current study, we examined habitual PM and its associations with real-world functioning outcomes in 36 HIV+ individuals with HAND (HAND+), 70 HIV+ individuals without HAND (HAND-), and 115 HIV- individuals. The ongoing task consisted of 24 1-min Stroop trial blocks in which the emotive and cognitive load was manipulated. The habitual PM task required participants to press the spacebar once per block, but only after 20 s had elapsed., Results: A series of MANOVAs covarying for relevant clinicodemographic factors revealed a main effect of study group on habitual PM, such that the HAND+ cohort made significantly more repetition errors than the HIV- and HAND- groups, particularly during early trial blocks. There was no main effect of ongoing task demands, nor was there an interaction between HAND group and task demands. Within the entire HIV+ sample, poorer habitual PM was associated with deficits in learning and dysfunction in real-world outcomes, including medication nonadherence and failures on a naturalistic health-care task., Conclusion: Findings indicate that HAND may be associated with deficient internal source monitoring or temporal discrimination for habitual PM output that may play a critical role in real-world functioning, including HIV disease management., ((c) 2015 APA, all rights reserved).)

Event-based prospective memory (PM) requires a deferred action to be performed when a target event is encountered in the future. Individuals are often slower to perform a concurrent ongoing task when they have PM task requirements relative to performing the ongoing task in isolation. Theories differ in their detailed interpretations of this PM cost, but all assume that the PM task shares limited-capacity resources with the ongoing task. In what was interpreted as support of this core assumption, diffusion model fits reported by Boywitt and Rummel (2012) and Horn, Bayen, and Smith (2011) indicated that PM demands reduced the rate of accumulation of evidence about ongoing task choices. We revaluate this support by fitting both the diffusion and linear ballistic accumulator (Brown & Heathcote, 2008) models to these same data sets and 2 new data sets better suited to model fitting. There was little effect of PM demands on evidence accumulation rates, but PM demands consistently increased the evidence required for ongoing task response selection (response thresholds). A further analysis of data reported by Lourenço, White, and Maylor (2013) found that participants differentially adjusted their response thresholds to slow responses associated with stimuli potentially containing PM targets. These findings are consistent with a delay theory account of costs, which contends that individuals slow ongoing task responses to allow more time for PM response selection to occur. Our results call for a fundamental reevaluation of current capacity-sharing theories of PM cost that until now have dominated the PM literature., ((c) 2015 APA, all rights reserved).)

Time-based prospective memory (PM) refers to performing intended actions at a future time. Participants with time-based PM tasks can be slower to perform ongoing tasks (costs) than participants without PM tasks because internal control is required to maintain the PM intention or to make prospective-timing estimates. However, external control can be gained, and internal control minimized, by checking clocks or by using PM reminders. We present 3 experiments that examined how individuals externalize and internalize control of time-based PM tasks. The control condition performed a lexical decision task only, whereas the PM conditions were additionally required to make a time-based PM response after 11 min. We manipulated whether participants received a reminder, and whether clock checking was discouraged. In Experiments 1 and 3, no cost was found under standard clock check conditions. In contrast, when participants were discouraged from clock checking (Experiments 2 and 3), significant costs were found, accompanied by a decrease in clock checking. PM reminders prompted participants to check the clock, and improved PM accuracy if those reminders were expected. However, there was no evidence that participants could localize the internal or external control of the PM task to after the presentation of an expected reminder (Experiment 3). We conclude that much of the need for internal control can be transferred to the external world by performing a well-practiced task such as clock checking, which reminds participants of the PM task and reduces the internal control required to maintain the intention to perform the PM task., (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2014 APA, all rights reserved.)

Prospective memory refers to remembering to perform an intended action in the future. Failures of prospective memory can occur in air traffic control. In two experiments, we examined the utility of external aids for facilitating air traffic management in a simulated air traffic control task with prospective memory requirements. Participants accepted and handed-off aircraft and detected aircraft conflicts. The prospective memory task involved remembering to deviate from a routine operating procedure when accepting target aircraft. External aids that contained details of the prospective memory task appeared and flashed when target aircraft needed acceptance. In Experiment 1, external aids presented either adjacent or nonadjacent to each of the 20 target aircraft presented over the 40-min test phase reduced prospective memory error by 11% compared with a condition without external aids. In Experiment 2, only a single target aircraft was presented a significant time (39-42 min) after presentation of the prospective memory instruction, and the external aids reduced prospective memory error by 34%. In both experiments, costs to the efficiency of nonprospective memory air traffic management (nontarget aircraft acceptance response time, conflict detection response time) were reduced by nonadjacent aids compared with no aids or adjacent aids. In contrast, in both experiments, the efficiency of the prospective memory air traffic management (target aircraft acceptance response time) was facilitated by adjacent aids compared with nonadjacent aids. Together, these findings have potential implications for the design of automated alerting systems to maximize multitask performance in work settings where operators monitor and control demanding perceptual displays., (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2013 APA, all rights reserved.)

At work and in our personal life we often need to remember to perform intended actions at some point in the future, referred to as Prospective Memory. Individuals sometimes forget to perform intentions in safety-critical work contexts. Holding intentions can also interfere with ongoing tasks. We applied theories and methods from the experimental literature to test the effectiveness of external aids in reducing prospective memory error and costs to ongoing tasks in an air traffic control simulation. Participants were trained to accept and hand-off aircraft and to detect aircraft conflicts. For the prospective memory task, participants were required to substitute alternative actions for routine actions when accepting target aircraft. Across two experiments, external display aids were provided that presented the details of target aircraft and associated intended actions. We predicted that aids would only be effective if they provided information that was diagnostic of target occurrence, and in this study, we examined the utility of aids that directly cued participants when to allocate attention to the prospective memory task. When aids were set to flash when the prospective memory target aircraft needed to be accepted, prospective memory error and costs to ongoing tasks of aircraft acceptance and conflict detection were reduced. In contrast, aids that did not alert participants specifically when the target aircraft were present provided no advantage compared to when no aids were used. These findings have practical implications for the potential relative utility of automated external aids for occupations where individuals monitor multi-item dynamic displays.

Theories and methods from the prospective memory literature were used to anticipate how individuals would maintain and retrieve intentions in a continuous monitoring dynamic display task. Participants accepted aircraft into sectors and detected aircraft conflicts during an air traffic control simulation. They were sometimes required to substitute new actions for routine actions when accepting aircraft traveling at certain speeds or altitudes, or with certain call signs. In Experiment 1, prospective memory error increased with intent to deviate from strong compared to weak routine, and this effect was larger for altitude intentions compared to speed intentions. In addition, errors increased when intentions were general compared to specific. Participants also missed more conflicts when deviating from strong compared to weak routine. In Experiment 2, errors increased for intentions nonfocal to ongoing tasks compared to focal, and this effect was larger for altitude intentions compared to call sign intentions. Participants were slower to accept aircraft when holding nonfocal compared to focal intentions, and slower to accept aircraft and detect conflicts when holding focal intentions compared to no intentions. These findings are consistent with theories that assume that individuals allocate limited-capacity attentional resources to prospective memory tasks. Increased error for altitude intentions, together with the effect of routine strength, suggest a vulnerability to error with increased strength of association between prospective memory cues and competing ongoing tasks. Ongoing tasks that focus attention on cues may sometimes impair, rather than benefit, intention retrieval., (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved.)

A performance theory for conflict detection in air traffic control is presented that specifies how controllers adapt decisions to compensate for environmental constraints. This theory is then used as a framework for a model that can fit controller intervention decisions. The performance theory proposes that controllers apply safety margins to ensure separation between aircraft. These safety margins are formed through experience and reflect the biasing of decisions to favor safety over accuracy, as well as expectations regarding uncertainty in aircraft trajectory. In 2 experiments, controllers indicated whether they would intervene to ensure separation between pairs of aircraft. The model closely predicted the probability of controller intervention across the geometry of problems and as a function of controller experience. When controller safety margins were manipulated via task instructions, the parameters of the model changed in the predicted direction. The strength of the model over existing and alternative models is that it better captures the uncertainty and decision biases involved in the process of conflict detection. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2009 APA, all rights reserved).

Goal orientation and self-regulation theories were integrated to develop a multilevel framework aimed at addressing controversies regarding the magnitude and direction of goal orientation effects on performance. In Study 1, goal orientations were measured repeatedly whilst individuals performed an air traffic control task. In Study 2, goal orientations and exam performance were measured across 3 time points while undergraduates completed a course. Mastery-approach orientation was positively related to performance at the intraindividual level, but not at the interindividual level, and its effect was not moderated by task demands. Performance-approach positively predicted performance at the interindividual level, and at the intraindividual level, the direction of its effect switched as a function of task demands. Performance-avoid negatively predicted performance at the interindividual level but did not emerge as an intraindividual predictor. Mastery-avoid did not relate to performance at either level of analysis. This consistent pattern across 2 studies suggests that levels of analysis and task demands can determine the magnitude and direction of goal orientation effects on performance and highlights avenues for theory development., ((c) 2009 APA, all rights reserved.)

In 3 experiments, the authors examined the role of memory for prior instances for making relative judgments in conflict detection. Participants saw pairs of aircraft either repeatedly conflict with each other or pass safely before being tested on new aircraft pairs, which varied in similarity to the training pairs. Performance was influenced by the similarity between aircraft pairs. Detection time was faster when a conflict pair resembled a pair that had repeatedly conflicted. Detection time was slower, and participants missed conflicts, when a conflict pair resembled a pair that had repeatedly passed safely. The findings identify aircraft features that are used as inputs into the memory decision process and provide an indication of the processes involved in the use of memory for prior instances to make relative judgments., ((c) 2004 APA, all rights reserved.)