12381 Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China.
74527 University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China.
Hum Factors. 2022 Dec;64(8):1292-1305. doi: 10.1177/0018720821994355. Epub 2021 Mar 3.
This study examined whether professional air traffic controllers (ATCos) were subject to peak-end effects in reporting their mental workload after performing an air traffic control task, and in predicting their mental workload in future scenarios.
In affective experience studies, people's evaluation of a period of experience is strongly influenced by the most intense (peak) point and the endpoint. However, whether the effects exist in mental workload evaluations made by professional operators is still not known.
In Study 1, 20 ATCos performed air traffic control scenarios on high-fidelity radar simulators and reported their mental workload. We used a 2 (high peak, low peak) × 2 (high end, low end) within-subject design. In Study 2, another group of 43 ATCos completed a survey asking them to predict their mental workload given the same air traffic control scenarios.
In Study 1, ATCos reported higher mental workload after completing the high-peak and the high-end scenarios. In contrast, in Study 2, ATCos predicted the peak workload effect but not the end workload effect when asked to predict their experience in dealing with the same scenarios.
Peak and end effects exist in subjective mental workload evaluation, but experts only had meta-cognitive awareness of the peak effect, and not the end effect.
Researchers and practitioners that use subjective workload estimates for work design decisions need to be aware of the potential impact of peak and end task demand effects on subjective mental workload ratings provided by expert operators.
本研究考察了专业空中交通管制员（ATCos）在执行空中交通管制任务后报告其心理工作量时，以及在预测未来情景中的心理工作量时，是否受到峰值-终点效应的影响。
在情感体验研究中，人们对一段经历的评价受到最强烈（峰值）点和终点的强烈影响。然而，专业操作人员的心理工作量评估中是否存在这些影响尚不清楚。
在研究 1 中，20 名 ATCos 在高保真雷达模拟器上执行空中交通管制场景，并报告他们的心理工作量。我们使用了 2（高峰值，低峰值）×2（高终点，低终点）的被试内设计。在研究 2 中，另一组 43 名 ATCos 完成了一项调查，要求他们根据相同的空中交通管制场景预测他们的心理工作量。
在研究 1 中，ATCos 在完成高峰值和高终点场景后报告了更高的心理工作量。相比之下，在研究 2 中，当被要求预测他们在处理相同场景时的体验时，ATCos 预测了峰值工作量效应，但没有预测终点工作量效应。
峰值和终点效应存在于主观心理工作量评估中，但专家仅对峰值效应有元认知意识，而对终点效应没有。
研究人员和从业者在进行工作设计决策时使用主观工作负荷估计值，需要意识到峰值和终点任务需求对专家操作人员提供的主观心理工作负荷评估的潜在影响。
