This research was concerned with the human's behavior in adapting his response mode to variations of certain conditions of a compensatory tracking task. The task conditions evaluated were quickening level, system gain, task load, and task complexity. The results of the studies show good agreement with the transfer function "adjustment rules" developed by other investigators. When quickening is introduced, the human adjusts his transfer function in a systematic and predictable manner in response to variations of the quickening level. As the amount of quickening increases the operator increases gain and lag but decreases lead — going from a lead-lag form of transfer function for no quickening to a lag form for full quickening. The human adjusts his equalizing parameters to achieve stable loop performance for all quickening levels. Man's ability to reduce the system error is significantly affected by the distribution of gains in the overall man-machine system. The human's transfer function for single and dual task load conditions probably differs. Tracking error was found to be least when the quickening level used in the second axis is identical to that in the axis of primary interest;error increased as the quickening levels for the two axes became more dissimilar. Display error scoring yielded an order of merit for quickening levels that was directly contradictory to that obtained with system error scoring. System error was greater for a quickened system than for an unquickened system. This finding provides strong support of the need for an antibias network in many applications of display quickening to vehicle control problems.
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