Complex Skill Learning and ATC: Examining Stress Response and Distress Mitigation With EEG and ECG

Air Traffic Control (ATC) trainees at the FAA Academy and developmentalcontrollers in the field often face dynamic and unexpected events in training,which may impact safe and effective human performance if certain vulnerabilitiesare not properly managed or mitigated. We integrate theory on self-regulatedworkplace training with a cognitive neuroscience perspective on attention touniquely examine the effects of surprise and stress on performance. Our near-termgoal is to demonstrate the viability of using physiological measures to predictperformance changes in a laboratory study of young adults learning a complexvideogame. We use a novel, event-marked and person-centric longitudinalapproach to the analysis of physiological variables to distinguish shifts in effortfulperformance in terms of exploration (discovering new possibilities) andexploitation (refining skill) to predict changes in performance in response to asurprise event. Preliminary findings are presented.