Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
Fig. 5 The MLD, consisting of two overlapping LCD displays. The mission-critical information
has been promoted to the front layer (from Hayes et al.
2006
)
MLD 9 levels of task difficulty) factorial design. For each participant the
experiment consisted of 24 trials, six tasks in each of the four task difficulty levels
or categories of dispatch problem (the same four levels as in study 1). The dispatch
decision-making times were measured and analysed by trial and by category like
study 1 (as a measure of efficiency); the number of errors made was also noted (i.e.
if the nearest ambulance was not dispatched, measuring effectiveness as in study
1).
The results of the study show that participants completing simulated dispatch
tasks in the MLD condition performed faster on average (though not significantly
so) on all categories of task difficulty (9.57 s) compared to participants using a
standard single layer display (10.56 s). Furthermore, there was no significant
relationship
between
efficiency
and
complexity
of
task.
Finally,
there
were
