The Burden of Communication: Effects of Automation Support and Automation Transparency on Team Performance

We conducted two experiments to examine the effect of providing automation support and communicating the limitations of the automation on team performance in a simulated navy environment. Two-person teams engaged with a picture compilation task with or without automation support. In the first experiment, there was no explicit explanations provided regarding the automation's limitations. In the second experiment, limitations of the automation were communicated to the participants verbally. A comparison of two experiments revealed that participants classified fewer contacts when the automation support was present. Moreover, communicating the limitations of automation resulted in even fewer classifications than when no information was provided. Possible reasons for these results include confusion created by the additional information and reprioritization. These results highlight the complexity of delivering automation transparency to operators in safety-critical environments. We conclude that automation transparency should be carefully designed and delivered to avoid negative impacts on performance.