Type of automation failure: the effects on trust and reliance in automation

Abstract

Past automation research has focused primarily on machine-related factors (e.g., automation reliability) and human-related factors (e.g., accountability). Other machine-related factors such as type of automation errors, misses or false alarms, have been noticeably overlooked. These two automation errors correspond to potential operator errors, omission (misses) and commission (false alarms), which have proven to directly affect operators trust in automation. This research examined how automation-error-type affects operator trust and reliance in and perceived reliability of automated decision aids. This present research confirmed that perceived reliability is often lower than actual system reliability and that false alarms significantly reduced operator trust in the automation more so than do misses. In addition, this study found that there does not appear to be an effect on the level of subjective trust within each experimental condition (i.e., type of automation error) based on age. There does, however, appear to be a significant difference in the reliance on automation between older and younger adult participants attributed to differences in perceived workload.