People are inherently bad at watching computers work, and unlikely to get any better, no matter how much training we get, new research with airline pilots shows.
“Our study really does suggest that vigilance is a very difficult task for people,” says Jonathan Schooler, professor of psychological and brain sciences at the University of California, Santa Barbara.
“Extended uninterrupted monitoring can be draining. The antidote to that is interruptions that break up the monotony, but we also found that the interruptions themselves contributed to lapses. And people will spontaneously mind-wander, and that can also contribute to monitoring difficulties.
This is a job for a robot, not a human being.
