The impact of navigational alarms in ECDIS training : assessing physiological signals

Žagar, Dejan (author), Svetina, Matija (author), Brcko, Tanja (author)

The increasing reliance on ECDIS in maritime operations underscores the need to understand how navigational alarm affect human performance, yet evidence on their physiological impact during training remains limited. The study aimed to explore the effects of a stressful event on general autonomic arousal during navigational operations and how this relationship changes over the course of ECDIS training. A longitudinal design was employed with nine novice participants (N = 9), who completed repeated simulator sessions while physiological signals (EDA, ECG, PPG) were recorded and combined into a composite arousal index. The results showed that alarms significantly increased physiological arousal, with an initial rise followed by gradual attenuation across sessions. The findings indicate adaptation to repeated exposure and demonstrate that objective physiological measures capture dynamic training responses, supporting the need for their integration into simulator-based training to improve situational awareness, workload regulation, and maritime safety.

• Language: English
• Keywords: ECDIS simulator, EDA measurements, maritime safety, maritime transportation, navigational alarms
• Work type: Article
• Typology: 1.01 - Original Scientific Article
• Organization: FPP - Faculty of Maritime Studies and Transport
• Publication status: Published
• Publication version: Version of Record
• Year: 2026
• Number of pages: Str. 1-12
• Numbering: Vol. 7
• PID: 20.500.12556/RUL-187375
• UDC: 656.1:614.8
• ISSN on article: 2673-5210
• DOI: 10.3389/ffutr.2026.1792757
• COBISS.SI-ID: 289501187
• Publication date in RUL: 10.09.2026

Record is a part of a journal

• Title: Frontiers in future transportation
• Shortened title: Front. future transp.
• Publisher: Frontiers Media SA
• ISSN: 2673-5210
• COBISS.SI-ID: 68365827

Licences

• License: CC BY 4.0, Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International
• Link: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
• Description: This is the standard Creative Commons license that gives others maximum freedom to do what they want with the work as long as they credit the author.

Secondary language

• Language: Slovenian
• Keywords: simulator ECDIS, meritve EDA, pomorska varnost, pomorski promet, navigacijski alarmi