The Relationship Between SPAM, Workload, and Task Performance on a Simulated ATC Task

This study examined the influence of workload and dual-task performance decrements associated with the SPAM technique. Participants performed the Air Traffic Scenarios Test (ATST), which is a low fidelity air traffic control simulator developed by the Federal Aviation Administration. Performance on the ATST was followed by post-run questionnaires (baseline conditions) or in conjunction with SPAM queries, word shadowing lists, or memory lists (secondary task conditions). SPAM was no different from our baseline conditions in terms of subjective workload. In comparison to other secondary tasks, SPAM tended to yield workload levels intermediate to List Memory (high cognitive load) and Word Shadowing (low cognitive load). SPAM was found to lower performance relative to baseline conditions in three of the seven observed performance measures. These findings suggest that the use of a “ready” prompt for probe question administration is not sufficient for reducing performance decrements associated with secondary tasks.