Automation Reliance on a Combat Identification System

Several combat identification systems have been designed to reduce fratricide by providing soldiers the ability to “interrogate” a potential target by sending a signal that, if returned, identifies the target as a “friend.” Ideally soldiers will appropriately rely on these automated decision aids. However, research has found human operators often under-utilize (disuse) or overly rely on (misuse) automated systems (cf. Parasuraman & Riley, 1997). The purpose of this study was to examine the extent to which experience and training would lead participants to appropriately rely on an automated decision aid. Participants provided with the automated aid were unable to adjust their reliance strategy to the reliability of the automated aid; results indicated aided participants made more errors than unaided participants did. Future studies should examine the processes underlying the automation reliance decision.