COMPIT 2005 in Hamburg - TUHH

Highest degree
received
Number of
subjects
% Participation in
Pre-AIS survey
Number of
subjects
% Participation in
Post-AIS survey
Undergraduate 5 23.81% 7 25.92%
Graduate 4 19.04% 0 0%
Professional
Training
7 33.34% 16 59.26%
Other 5 23.81% 4 14.82%
Total 21 27
In terms of educational background, in the pre-AIS condition, respondents were fairly evenly split,
with 33% of the respondents reporting having received professional training, 23% of respondents reporting
having received an undergraduate degree, and 19% of respondents reporting having received a
graduate degree. This educational background breakdown was echoed in the post-AIS condition, despite
the overwhelming number of ship’s captains in the post-AIS condition response pool. In the
post-AIS condition, almost 60% of the respondents reported receiving professional training, such as a
maritime school or union training course; about 25% reported receiving an undergraduate degree. All
subjects in both treatments were highly experienced, with an average of 23 years of sailing experience
in the pre-AIS condition, and an average of 26 years of sailing experience in the post-AIS condition.
The average age of participating subjects in the pre-AIS condition was about 45 years while that of
those participating in post-AIS was 47 years. Note that the mates were a younger group of subjects,
particularly in the post-AIS group. All the subjects reported a familiarity level of 2.3 to 2.5 out of 7
with the system in use. The familiarity level was measured on a scale of 1 to 7 with 1 being ‘Very
Familiar’ and 7 being ‘Very Unfamiliar’. Table V shows that the TMS operators indicated the highest
level of familiarity with the AIS technology.
4.2. Experimental Design
The experiment was a 3 x 2 design: three types of subjects – Masters (captains), Mates and Traffic
Management System Operators – were exposed to two technology treatments: the pre-AIS condition,
and the post-AIS. AIS transits varied according to the participating vessels’ schedules throughout the
data collection period. Data were captured in form of the questionnaires and workload index surveys
for both technology treatments. Not all transits involved data collection from subjects, and because
the number of respondents was small, the replications in Table VI are also small.
Table V: Participating Subjects’ Demographic Information
Subject Type Pre-AIS Post-AIS
Average Age Familiarity to system Average Age Familiarity to system
Overall 45.71 2.3 47 2.52
Masters 50.33 2.33 50.13 2.88
Mates 41.63 2.36 32 2
TMS
Operators
50 2 49.25 1.33
Table VI: Subjects Exposed to Technology Treatments
10