AN EXPERIMENTAL COMPARISON OF ALPHANUMERIC AND ICONIC FORMATS OF THE FLIGHT MODE ANNUNCIATOR

An iconic alternative was designed for the conventional alphanumeric F light Mode Annunciator (FMA) display. The two FMA types were compared in three experiments. In the first experiment, participants had to rec all an FMA display that was presented for a short period of time. In t he second experiment, participants had to memorize the order in which three FMAs were presented. In both experiments, performance was better for the iconic FMA. Furthermore, an experiment was performed to test which FMA type produces the best comprehension of flight modes. The re sults of this experiment showed no advantage for either FMA type.