The benefits of automation transparency are dependent on human attention control capacity

Abstract

Increasing automation transparency can improve human decision-making by facilitating appropriate reliance on automated advice. Individual differences in human information processing capacity, or attention control capacity (ACC), may determine how effectively transparency information can be processed and used. We examined the extent to which ACC moderates the relationship between increased transparency provision and accuracy of automation use. Participants completed a simulated uninhabited vehicle (UV) task and were provided automated advice regarding which UV to select to complete missions, accompanied by either no, medium, or high automation transparency. Participants with higher ACC benefitted more from the provision of increased transparency. Specifically, transparency increased the accuracy of automation use for participants with higher ACC, but did not benefit participants with lower ACC. These findings indicate that human ability to effectively process and use transparency information may be dependent on their ACC, which may have implications for interface design, and operator selection and training.