Types of errors in location judgments on scaled surfaces. II. Random and systematic errors

Abstract

This experiment was designed to study random errors, confusion errors, and persistence errors, particularly applied to the radar scope. The results indicate that finer scaling, with minor scale division to tenths of an inch viewed at 16 inches, reduces random errors, but produces a proneness for confusion errors which may be large enough to endanger aircraft guided by such operating reports. There was an increase of about 30% in the size of the random error when the operator was required to alternate between two tasks in rapid succession. Some subjects showed a tendency to bias each report in a series by the mental persistence of the previous report. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved)