Comparing Two Control Room Intervention Procedure Formats: Preliminary Insights from Eye Tracking Measures

Abstract

Control rooms rely on operating and emergency procedures to facilitate human-machine interaction and uphold safety in critical systems. These procedures can significantly affect operators' cognitive states, including situational awareness and performance. Therefore, it is imperative to thoroughly examine the impact of diverse procedure designs on operators' cognitive states and behaviour during process intervention. This study scrutinised two intervention procedure representation formats—paper-based and digitised screen-based procedures—originally designed for a prior experimental study. Employing the eye-tracking technique from cognitive science studies during data collection provided comprehensive insights into these two supports. The paper outlines design disparities and potential effects on operators' cognitive states, using eye movement metrics such as fixation, saccade parameters, visits to areas of interest (AOI), and pupil diameter for comparison. Results indicated that participants with paper-based procedures exhibited fewer fixations and longer saccade parameters than those using screen-based procedures, highlighting the impact of design choices on support tools for control room operators.