Sequences of actions for individual and teams of air traffic controllers

Air traffic controllers participated in high-fidelity simulations of en route air traffic, either singly or with a second team member. The observed stream of time-stamped behaviors and communication events was analyzed using the Pathfinder scaling algorithm, which provides a directional graph of the latent structure in the data. The graphs were found to be similar across levels of traffic complexity, and the triggers for frequently co-occurring activities were equivalent for the individuals and the teams. This suggests that numerous aspects of air traffic control performance are robust and transcend some powerful situational variables. The implications for interface design and automation are discussed.

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