Multi-Aircraft Video - Human/Automation Target Recognition Studies: Video Display Size in Unaided Target Acquisition Involving Multiple Videos

Prior research involving target detection when monitoring multiple video sources led to concerns about increased operator workload and degraded target detection performance as the number of video sources and visual search requirements increased. A study was conducted to examine the utility of smaller video displays to reduce visual scan and search demands when multiple video sources are monitored. Sixteen participated performed a target detection task involving one small video, one large video, four small videos, and four large videos. Results indicated no significant differences in target detection performance and workload for small vs. large video sources. However, in the four-video condition, participants made significantly more false alarms when viewing the small videos. Further, when asked to indicate their preference, participants preferred the large videos, but the difference was statistically significant in only the single video condition. Implications for video display designs involving monitoring multiple video sources are discussed.