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Do we really need more stages? Comparing the effects of likelihood alarm systems and binary alarm systems
Zirk, Anna; Wiczorek, Rebecca; Manzey, Dietrich
Objective: This research investigates the potential behavioral and performance benefits of a 4-stage likelihood alarm system (4-LAS) contrasting a 3-LAS, a binary alarm system with a liberal threshold (lib-BAS) and a BAS with a conservative threshold (con-BAS).
Background: Prior research has shown performance benefits of 3-LASs over conventional lib-BASs due to more distinct response strategies and better discriminating true from false alerts. This effect might be further enhanced using 4-LASs. However, the increase of stages could cause users to reduce cognitive complexity by responding in the same way to the two lower and the two higher stages, thus treating the 4-LAS like a con-BAS.
Method: All systems were compared using a dual task paradigm. Response strategies, number of joint human machine (JHM) false alarms (FAs), misses, and sensitivity were regarded.
Results: Compared to the lib-BAS, JHM sensitivity only improved with the 4-LAS and the con-BAS. However, the number of JHM misses was lowest for the con-BAS compared to all other systems.
Conclusion: JHM sensitivity improvements can be achieved by using a 4-LAS, as well as a con-BAS. However, only the latter one may also reduce the number of JHM misses, which is remarkable considering that BASs with conservative thresholds a priori commit more inbuilt misses than other systems.
