TY - JOUR
T1 - Nonroutine transactions in controller-pilot communication
AU - Morrow, Daniel
AU - Lee, Alfred
AU - Rodvold, Michelle
N1 - Funding Information:
Daniel Morrow is now at the University of New Hampshire. This research was supported by NASA-Ames Research Center under a contract to Sterling Software (#2000-00342240). We thank the FAA for permission to obtain the communication samples. We also thank Herbert H. Clark for his many comments on the research and the paper. Partial results were presented at the Psychonomics Society Meetings, New Orleans, LA, November 1990.
PY - 1994/3/1
Y1 - 1994/3/1
N2 - People use a variety of strategies and devices to make themselves understood, partly in response to different communication constraints. The present study examined how communication during routine Air Traffic Control operations is shaped by accuracy and efficiency constraints. Controllers and pilots use a combination of English and special conventions that have developed in response to these constraints. One convention is the collaborative scheme, in which the speaker initiates a transaction, presents new information, and collaborates with the addressee to accept the information as mutually understood and appropriate (Clark & Schaefer, 1987). We examined how this scheme is used to balance the demands of accuracy and efficiency during routine pilots-controller communication. This scheme also organizes nonroutine communication, where pilots and controllers interrupt routine communication in order to resolve communication problems. Findings suggest that several communication problems can be traced to nonstandard collaborative practices that tax controller and pilot attention and memory. In addition, the accuracy and efficiency constraints influence which strategies and devices are used to resolve these problems.
AB - People use a variety of strategies and devices to make themselves understood, partly in response to different communication constraints. The present study examined how communication during routine Air Traffic Control operations is shaped by accuracy and efficiency constraints. Controllers and pilots use a combination of English and special conventions that have developed in response to these constraints. One convention is the collaborative scheme, in which the speaker initiates a transaction, presents new information, and collaborates with the addressee to accept the information as mutually understood and appropriate (Clark & Schaefer, 1987). We examined how this scheme is used to balance the demands of accuracy and efficiency during routine pilots-controller communication. This scheme also organizes nonroutine communication, where pilots and controllers interrupt routine communication in order to resolve communication problems. Findings suggest that several communication problems can be traced to nonstandard collaborative practices that tax controller and pilot attention and memory. In addition, the accuracy and efficiency constraints influence which strategies and devices are used to resolve these problems.
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U2 - 10.1080/01638539409544868
DO - 10.1080/01638539409544868
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:84937302113
SN - 0163-853X
VL - 17
SP - 235
EP - 258
JO - Discourse Processes
JF - Discourse Processes
IS - 2
ER -