The Out-of-the-Loop Performance Problem and Level of Control in Automation

Notes

## Bibliographic Note

Endsley, M. R. & Kiris, E. O. (1995) 'The out-of-the-loop performance problem and level of control in automation', *Human Factors*, 37(2), pp. 381–394. doi: 10.1518/001872095779064555.

Empirical study and review establishing the out-of-the-loop (OOTL) performance problem — the diminished ability of operators of automated systems to detect failures and resume manual control. The authors argue that a loss of situation awareness (SA) underlies much of the decrement, arising from (1) vigilance/complacency under a monitoring role, (2) a shift from active to passive information processing, and (3) reduced or altered feedback. A between-subjects experiment (80 undergraduates) automated a simulated automobile navigation decision task via an expert system across five levels of control (manual, decision support, consensual AI, monitored AI, full automation); the system "broke down" after the fourth of six scenarios. Decision time after breakdown rose with prior automation level (significant only for manual vs full automation); Level 2 SA (comprehension) was lowest under full automation while Level 1 SA (perception) was unaffected; workload was not reduced. The shift from active to passive processing is identified as the most likely cause of the SA loss, and intermediate levels of automation — keeping the operator in the decision loop — are recommended to ameliorate the OOTL problem. Compiled in full into [[out-of-the-loop-performance-problem]]; the five-level control scheme is the precursor to the ten-level Endsley & Kaber taxonomy compiled in [[levels-of-automation-taxonomy]]. Figures 3 and 5 extracted to Wiki/images/out-of-the-loop-performance-problem/. PDF→orig offset +380 (PDF p. N = orig. p. N+380).

```bibtex
@article{endsley1995loop,
  author  = {Endsley, Mica R. and Kiris, Esin O.},
  title   = {The Out-of-the-Loop Performance Problem and Level of Control in Automation},
  journal = {Human Factors},
  year    = {1995},
  volume  = {37},
  number  = {2},
  pages   = {381--394},
  doi     = {10.1518/001872095779064555}
}
```

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