ABSTRACT
This chapter represents Malleable Attentional Resources Theory (MART), as data are reported that plot the time-decay curve for the attentional resources of participants in a vehicle automation experiment. It reveals that underloaded participants experience significant resource decay with the first minute of the task. Since its inception, MART has gathered momentum in the literature on human interaction with automated systems. Elsewhere, Bailey and Scerbo gave credence to MART in a study of human supervision of reliable automation, while Straussberger et al invoked MART as a possible consequence of monotonous air traffic control tasks. That resource decay occurs so quickly was surprising, to say the least, as it was anticipated that there may be some lag as attentional capacity adapts to the task demands. Nonetheless, the results provide further clarification of the mechanism by which MART explains the relationship between underload and performance.
