Flight Crew Vigilance and Monitoring

 The document discusses alertness and monitoring in the context of aviation and defines alertness as sustained attention to detect unusual events, especially in relation to automated systems. It highlights that alertness declines significantly over time—known as vigilance decrement—even within 15 minutes, and that this is not due to boredom but rather high workload, frustration, and stress. The document distinguishes between alertness (general awareness) and monitoring (gathering and interpreting information), noting that monitoring can deteriorate independently of alertness decline. It emphasizes that training can teach pilots to understand vigilance decrement but cannot eliminate it, and suggests training exercises that focus on risks, solutions, and discussion rather than dictating what pilots should monitor. Finally, it notes that monitoring performance is closely linked to workload and situational awareness, making the latter difficult to assess based solely on observation of monitoring.