ABSTRACT
To meet the increasing traffic demands, Air Navigation Service Providers (ANSPs) seek better tools to assess the traffic handling capacity of ATM systems. This effort requires a better understanding of how complex situations are related to human performance and how controllers intervene to maintain control. Empirical studies and reviews have shown that controllers cope with complexity by adapting priorities, managing their cognitive resources and regulating their own performance. This chapter discusses the development of a behavioral marker system to record and evaluate the cognitive strategies that controllers use to cope with complexity. The continuing growth of air traffic world-wide requires interventions that increase the capacity of the airspace. To assess the appropriateness of design interventions, however, it is important to understand how a particular traffic situation is related to the cognitive difficulty in controlling the situation and the associated workload.
