Combining our interests in aviation operations and cognitive psychology, we will from time to time post a “hot topic” of cross-disciplinary interest. This will be a short (1 to 4 pages) discussion of research ideas or operational issues.

Our goal in posting a “hot topic” is to gather perspectives from our broad readership and to foster an ongoing discussion about issues and questions involving cognitive processes in real-world settings such as aviation operations. Hot topics may range from a theory of prospective memory, to practical countermeasures that may help individuals remember to perform deferred tasks, to the ways that concurrent task demands affect crew performance. We hope that the aviation community will find these discussions useful in understanding how cognitive processes affect aviation operations, and we hope that these discussions will help cognitive scientists understand operational issues to which their work might contribute.

We invite your thoughtful feedback and comments on each hot topic when it appears, and we encourage you to submit opinions, anecdotes, personal experiences, and ideas that relate to each topic. The author of each article will compile a summary of the responses received and post it under that article before the next hot topic is presented. At the bottom of each article will be a link that will allow you to email your response.

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