ABSTRACT
The safe and efficient conduct of air traffic control depends on the communication of information. Few human factors studies in air traffic control have taken communications as their main theme, though most have measured communications in order to achieve other objectives. Communications have developed through dialogues, menus and other means of information exchange through human–machine interfaces. The forms of communication have to match associated forms of information communication within the system. Although speech in air traffic control seems different from other forms of communication, its actual application is similar enough to other forms of data entry to be compared directly with some of them in terms of efficacy for conveying air traffic control information. Most proposed developments in automated assistance for air traffic control communications consider quantitative aspects of air traffic control messages exclusively, and contain no information that corresponds with the qualitative information in speech.
