Cognitive mismatches in the cockpit: Will they ever be a thing of the past?

Changes in aviation over the last 30 years have dramatically affected the way that flight crews fly aircraft. The implementation and evolution of the glass cockpit, however, has happened in an almost ad hoc fashion, meaning that it does not always properly support the flight crew in carrying out their tasks. In such situations, the crew's mental model of what is happening does not always match the real state of affairs. In other words, there is a cognitive mismatch. An initial taxonomy of cognitive mismatches is defined, and the problem illustrated using an example from an aviation accident. Consideration is then given to how cognitive mismatches can be managed. A call is made for the development of an integrated cockpit architecture that takes better account of human capabilities and allows for new developments to be added to the cockpit in a more seamless manner. (C) 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.