Effects of the display formats on pilots' cognitive performance with head-up display velocity,height and heading information in fighter

Objective To compare the effect of three display formats on pilots' cognitive performance with head-up display(HUD) velocity, height and heading information. Methods 3 ×2repeated measurement design was adopted in this experiment. One hundred and fifty-one male pilots joined in the research. They finished 18 menus and rated every display format with excellent, good,medium or bad. Covarianee analysis of repeated measurements and pairwise comparison tests were used to assess the difference of pilots' correct rates and reaction time with three display formats, and ehi-square tests were used for the pilots' ratings. Results For the pilots' correct rate in HUD velocity menus, the main effect of display formats was very significant(F= 7. 097,P＜0. 001) ,and the main effect of cognitive mode of information was significant(F= 3. 902 ,P＜0.05). The expectancy of correct rate that pilots accurately identified the analog scale Ⅰ with digital window was the highest.For the pilots' reaction time, the interaction effect of the type of participants and the cognitive mode of information was significant(F= 2. 9051, P＜0.05). The main effect of the total time of flight was significant(F= 6. 637,P＜0.05). For the pilots' subjective rating, the proportion distribution of the raters with "excellent, good, medium or bad" was very significant (X2= 233. 305,P＜0. 001), and 82.1 percent pilots considered the analog scale Ⅰ with digital window excellent. For the pilots'correct rate in HUD height menus, the main effect of display formats was very significant(F= 8. 523,P＜0. 001), and the interaction effect of the display formats and the total time of flight was significant (F=3. 253,P＜0.05). The expectancy of correct rate that pilots accurately identified the analog scale Ⅰ with digital window was the highest. For the pilots' reaction time, the main effect of the display formats was very significant(F= 10. 869,P＜0. 001). For the pilots' subjective rating, the proportion distribution of the raters with"excellent, good, medium or bad" was very significant (x2=273. 959,P＜0. 001) ,and 86.8 percent pilots considered the analog scale Ⅰ with digital window excellent. For the pilots' correct rate in HUD heading menus, the main effect of display formats was very significant (F=11. 418,P＜0. 001), and the interaction effect of the display formats and the total time of flight was significant(F=5. 802,P＜0. 01). The expectancy of correct rate that pilots accurately identified the analog scale Ⅰ with digital window was the highest. For the pilots' reaction time, the main effect of the type of participants was significant(F= 3. 226,P＜0.05), and the main effect of the total time of flight was significant(F= 5. 719, P＜0.05). For the pilots' subjective rating, the proportion distribution of the raters with "excellent, good, medium or bad" was very significant (x2=226. 324,P＜0. 001) ,and 88.7 percent pilots considered the analog scale Ⅰ with digital window excellent.Conclusion It was suggested that the analog scale Ⅰ with digital window was firstly adopted for the display formats with HUD velocity, height and heading in fighter. Key words: Head-up display; Data display; Cognition; Velocity; Height; Heading