Man4Gen: Manual Operation of 4th Generation Airliners

Period: September 2012 - December 2015

Principal investigator(s):

• Univ.-Prof. Dr. Claus Lamm (Task Lead)
• A.o.Univ.-Prof. Dr. Markus Peschl (Administrative Lead)
• Mag. Irene Stepniczka, MSc (Project & Scientific Lead)

Team member(s):

• Mag. Maximilian Eder
• Mag. Livia Tomova

Funding program: FP7 - Seventh Framework Programme of the European Union

Involved fields: Cognitive Science, Aviation

Description:

Despite the substantial and proven safety benefits of automation systems in 3rd and 4th generation aircraft, evidence indicates that when faced with unexpected and challenging situations, pilots sometimes have difficulties in quickly responding to situations which require a rapid transition in their activity from monitors of very reliable systems, to active and authoritative decision-makers exercising manual control of the aircraft. Man4Gen intends to address aspects of this problem to improve the safety of airline operations of modern aircraft.

Selected Publications:

• Tomova, L., von Dawans, B., Heinrichs, M., Silani, G., & Lamm, C. (2014). Is stress affecting our ability to tune into others? Evidence for gender differences in the effects of stress on self-other distinction. Psychoneuroendocrinology, 43, 95–104.
• Stepniczka, I., Tomova, L., Niedermeier, D., Peschl, M., Lamm, C. (2015). Social Situation Awareness: Empathic Accuracy in the Aircraft Cockpit. In: Noelle, D. C., Dale, R., Warlaumont, A. S., Yoshimi, J., Matlock, T., Jennings, C. D., & Maglio, P. P. (Eds.) (2015). Proceedings of the 37th Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society. Austin, TX: Cognitive Science Society.
• Stepniczka I, Sladky R, Tik M, Lamm C, Hoffmann A, Niedermeier D, Field J, Windischberger C..Brain Mapping in Aircraft Pilots in-flight: Monitoring and Anticipation in challenging Situations. 21th Meeting of the Organization for Human Brain Mapping, HBM – Honolulu, 2015.

Website

Contact:

irene.stepniczka@univie.ac.at