How in the World Did We Ever Get into That Mode? Mode Error and Awareness in Supervisory Control¶
Sarter, N. B., & Woods, D. D. (1995). How in the World Did We Ever Get into That Mode? Mode Error and Awareness in Supervisory Control. Human Factors, 37(1), 5-19.
Cited by¶
7 citations across 7 artifacts.
Each citation links to the sentence it supports in the citing article.
Domain-specific¶
- Mode Error
- Text editors and modal interfaces — vi/vim insert-versus-command confusion, Emacs prefix-key state, modal-dialog focus traps, and touchscreen edit/view/select modes. Aviation autopilot and autothrottle modes — Sarter and Woods's glass-cockpit incidents and FLCH/V·S/VNAV confusion, where a held thrust the crew expected to advance can be catastrophic
This sourceStudy of pilot-automation interaction in commercial glass-cockpit aircraft reporting that proliferating modes without supporting the new cognitive demands creates new mode-related error forms and failure paths.
Supported in partVerified against the publisher's abstract
“In particular, we draw on empirical data from a series of studies of pilot-automation interaction in commercial glass cockpit aircraft to illustrate the nature, circumstances, and potential consequences of mode awareness problems in supervisory control of automated resources.”
- Text editors and modal interfaces — vi/vim insert-versus-command confusion, Emacs prefix-key state, modal-dialog focus traps, and touchscreen edit/view/select modes. Aviation autopilot and autothrottle modes — Sarter and Woods's glass-cockpit incidents and FLCH/V·S/VNAV confusion, where a held thrust the crew expected to advance can be catastrophic
- Orientation Loss
- . Control rooms and aviation cockpits. The extensively documented mode-confusion class on highly-automated flight decks, plus shift-handover in plant control rooms where the relief operator cannot locate the current state of the system
Supported in partVerified against the publisher's abstract
“we draw on empirical data from a series of studies of pilot-automation interaction in commercial glass cockpit aircraft to illustrate the nature, circumstances, and potential consequences of mode awareness problems in supervisory control of automated resources.”
- . Control rooms and aviation cockpits. The extensively documented mode-confusion class on highly-automated flight decks, plus shift-handover in plant control rooms where the relief operator cannot locate the current state of the system
Mechanisms¶
- Active-Map Status Indicator
- The discipline is to bind it to actual state, test that it tracks real switches, and design for the change-moment rather than the steady state.
This sourceShows that automation mode awareness depends on salient, timely feedback about the system’s actual state and transitions.
- The discipline is to bind it to actual state, test that it tracks real switches, and design for the change-moment rather than the steady state.
- Channel Mode Indicator
- It misleads precisely when it becomes invisible, stale, or decorative — the setup for a mode error,
This sourceShows that inadequate or indirect feedback about the active automation mode can leave operators acting on an incorrect mode assumption, producing mode errors.
- It misleads precisely when it becomes invisible, stale, or decorative — the setup for a mode error,
- Configuration Profiles
- Its failure mode is mode error — acting as though one profile is active when another is, so the coupled settings behave in ways the actor didn't intend.
This sourceExplains mode error as action based on an incorrect understanding of which automation mode is active and how that mode is controlling the process.
- Its failure mode is mode error — acting as though one profile is active when another is, so the coupled settings behave in ways the actor didn't intend.
- Context-Aware UI Label
- It misleads when the label resolves to the wrong state — if it lags the real context, it now confidently shows a target that has moved, and a trusted label is more dangerous than an honest generic one.
This sourceShows that ambiguous mode indications can cause operators to act on the wrong system state.
- It misleads when the label resolves to the wrong state — if it lags the real context, it now confidently shows a target that has moved, and a trusted label is more dangerous than an honest generic one.
Verification¶
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