Ive been studying use Bob Taits books and some 3rd party Questions
Ive come across two questions which to me seem very similar yet both give different answers:

Bob Taits Questions: In a Situation of very high cockpit workload a pilot is liable to

a) Miss information due to a narrowing of attention (correct answer)
b) become too slow to react
c) miss information due to infrequent input
d) lose interest in the situation


Question from other book: During periods of high cockpit workload which of the following events is most likely to occur?

a) Information may be missed due to narrowing of attention
b) Information may be missed due to its infrequent input (correct answer)
c) the pilot will lose interest in the tasks he is doing
d) the pilot will be slow to react to an emergency

Just hoping someone can help clarify for me.

Hi Beejay,

The second answer doesn't make any sense to me and I suspect is a misprint in that book. Interesting that the wording of the other question is almost identical to Bob's question. Imitation is a high form of flattery

The attention of the pilot will narrow under the workload stress and information may be missed because the pilot simply is not able to perceive it.

Cheers,
Rich

Following on from Richard's observations, all the options, in appropriate circumstances, may be valid. However, tunnel focus is probably what will kill you quickest in an overloaded workload scenario .. those of you who hold (and exercise in nasty weather) a single pilot instrument rating will know just what I am talking about. In the past, it could get pretty torrid flying a non-autopilot aircraft single pilot on a Class 3 rating in bad weather ..

Plenty of papers in the literature for you to run searches on. Staal's linked paper may be worth a read .. suggest you read over a red or two. That way, if it gets too hard going, at least the red will have been pleasant .. human-factors.arc.nasa.gov/flightcogniti...ons/IH_054_Staal.pdf