ABSTRACT
NextGen promises to alter the way that ATCos manage traffic for the purpose of increasing the capacity of the NAS. This will largely be accomplished through the use of various automation tools. However, because the tools are likely to be introduced gradually, ATCos will have to learn both, manual and NextGen tools. The present study examines the order in which these tools ought to be trained (manual tools first vs. NextGen tools first), and whether effective training procedures need to take into account individual differences of students. Specifically, we examined differences in awareness of need for immediate communication (ANIC) as an indirect measure of how proficient student controllers are at acquiring and maintaining Situation Awareness (SA). We found that student controllers that
were higher in ANIC performed better on the SPAM measure of SA. They also had fewer LOS and a faster time through sector on an ATC simulation. Importantly, they were also unaffected by training order, while those lower in ANIC had greater SA when they were trained with manual tools first. We thus recommend introducing manual tools first, as doing so is less likely to lead to complacency with respect to SA among the less proficient students.
