ABSTRACT
Communicationcanbeviewedasaco-ordinatedsequenceoflanguage-related cognitiveprocessesbetweentwoormoreindividuals.Communicationinhighrisk environmentsischaracterizedbyadditionaltasksofhighprioritythathavetobe performedalongsidelanguage-relatedprocesses.Thus,apilothastomaintain controlovertheairplanewhilehe/shecommunicateswiththetowerortheco-pilot. ResultsfromtheLinguisticFactorsGroupillustratehowcommunicationmay sufferwhenthereishightaskload.Insuchsituations,thepilotflyingtendstoutter fewerandshorterspeechacts,suggestingthathe/shemaynotbeabletoparticipate asmuchintheongoingcommunication,ashe/sheisoccupiedwithflying.Infact, somepilotsexplicitlystatethattheyarenotabletofullyparticipateinaproblem solvingdiscussion.Thisexampleconfirmstheintuitivelyplausibleideathattask loadmayinterferewithcommunication;itdoesnot,however,giveconcreteclues abouttheprecisereasonsormechanismsoftheinterference.Experimental investigationstoelucidatethesemechanismsaresurprisinglyscant.Threeofthe GIHREgroupshaveundertakenexperimentalinvestigationsintothedetailsof cognitiveprocessingincommunicationunderadditionaltaskload.Bysettingupa commonstrategy,thegroupsachievedasystematicapproachfortackling communicationissuesfrombasicresearchtoappliedresearch.Withrespecttothe ThreatandErrorManagementModeloutlinedinChapter8,theresearchreported heredealswiththeeffectsofanumberoflatentthreatstosafetyandeffective performance.Thefocusisontypesofthreatsthatmaycausecommunication errors.
