bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Relation between Biomechanical Spinal Load Factors and Risk of Occupational Low-Back Disorders
Authors: Granata Kevin P. , Marras William S. , Ferguson Susan A.
Published: January 2012

The objective of this study was to identify individual and combinations of biomechanical parameters which are associated with the probability of risk for occupationally related low-back disorders. Ten subjects performed lifting tasks simulating warehouse order selection. During the lifting exertions dynamic trunk motion, EMG, and workplace data were collected. Risk of low-back disorder was assessed from an epidemiologic model incorporating workplace factors and trunk motion data. Comparison with biomechanical results indicated that static estimates of spinal compression poorly predicts the probability of risk. Spinal compression computed from dynamic models improve the correlation, and regression models including multi-dimensional dynamic spinal loads and load rates best predict the probability of risk. The results agree with biomechanical research demonstrating vertebral failure modes are influenced by complex biomechanical interactions. This study highlights the limitations of ergonomic assessment via static compression, demonstrates the influence of biomechanical interactions upon risk of LBD, and advocate greater efforts toward understanding complex dynamic interactions in human factors research.
Feasibility of Mos Job Analysis and Redesign to Reduce Physical Demands in the U.S. Army
Authors: de Pontbriand Rene J. , Knapik Joseph J.
Published: January 2012

Heavy physical requirements characterize a large number of military occupational specialties (MOSs). Current efforts at reducing some of these physical requirements stem from concerns with health and safety, the need to conserve soldier strength and endurance for other battlefield tasks, and the need to optimize personnel utilization. This paper describes an ongoing feasibility study aimed at identifying and attempting to reduce physical demands in five MOSs. Three data-collection phases involve (a) review of publications describing occupational tasks, (b) structured interviews with subject matter experts (SMEs), and (c) filming the most physically demanding tasks. The fourth phase involves use of SMEs and ergonomists to identify specific redesign solutions. An illustrative example is provided. This technique coupled with others (job selection and physical training) can enhance military operational capability by reducing physical requirements.
Effects of Interdigital Spacing, Wrist Position, Forearm Position, Grip Span, and Gender on Static Grip Strength
Authors: Hansen Angela , Hallbeck Susan
Published: January 2012

To analyze the effects of factors which may decrement static grip strength, a study was performed using 20 subjects (10 males and 10 females). Three levels of interdigital spacing were examined: 0, 4, and 8 mm to correspond to bare hand, a thermal/spectra knit layered glove, and a chemical glove. Three wrist positions (neutral, 45 degree extension, and 45 degree flexion) and three forearm positions (neutral, full supination, and full pronation), as well as two levels of grip spacing (6.1 and 7.4 cm on the hand dynamometer) were varied in the study. Thus, each subject performed 54 trials, which were presented in random order.

The results indicate that the following were significant main effects: gender, grip span, forearm position, wrist position, and interdigital spacing. As expected, males exerted 63.7% more strength, on average, than females. Also, full pronation had a significantly lower mean grasp strength than either neutral or full supination. The 8 mm spacing differed significantly from both 0 and 4 mm spacing and both 4 and 8 mm spacing had a lower mean grasp strength than 0 mm. Also, the 7.4 cm position on the hand dynamometer had significantly lower mean grasp strength as compared with the 6.1 cm position. Wrist position affected mean grasp strength as well; with a neutral wrist position, the strength was significantly higher than either flexed or extended, with a greater decrement from flexion than extension.
Facilitating Information Acquisition for Over-the-Counter Drugs using Supplemental Labels
Authors: Wogalter Michael S. , Magurno Amy Barlow , Scott Kevin L. , Dietrich David A.
Published: January 2012

This study examined the effect of the presence and color of a supplemental cap label on medication information acquisition and container preference. Participants were 75 elders from a retirement community who were asked to examine one of five manipulated labels on a fictitious but realistic-appearing over-the-counter (OTC) pharmaceutical product container and then to respond to questions concerning their knowledge about the medication. Later they were shown all five manipulated bottle labels and asked which they preferred in effectively communicating medication information. The five bottles differed in the use of labeled surface area and color. Two bottles, displaying labels only on the body of the bottle, served as controls. One control had only a front label, and the other control was conventionally labeled with printed information on the front, back and sides of the bottle. The three other bottles were identical to the conventionally labeled control bottle except they included a supplemental cap label that reprinted the most critical product-use information in large type on three different colored backgrounds. The results showed greater medication-related knowledge for the bottles with supplemental cap labels compared to bottles without the supplemental cap label, with no significant difference among the different colored caps. Participants indicated a strong preference for the bottles with supplemental cap labels over the two control bottles. A distinctive cap color (different from the main label color) was most preferred. Making use of extended surface areas on medication containers to print important information in a more noticeable, legible form benefits elders' knowledge about proper use and hazards.
A Field Study of the Product Development Process as a First Step in the Design of a System to Support Concurrent Engineering
Authors: D'Souza Melroy E. , Greenstein Joel S.
Published: January 2012

This paper reports the results of the first phase of an ongoing research study undertaken at a real-world production facility. The purpose of this phase was to use a context-based, ethnographic approach to understand and identify issues relevant to the design of a system to support the product development process. The results of this study yielded information that could not have been obtained by a formal, controlled study in a laboratory setting. In general, the results suggest a need for more efficient storage and retrieval of critical information, for increased communication of that information, and for alternative media to supplement paper-based communication. It appears that a computer-based system could be designed to support a more responsive, more collaborative approach to the product development process.
Active and Latent Failures in Aircraft Ground Damage Incidents
Authors: Wenner C. , Drury C. G.
Published: January 2012

As part of a larger project to identify common human errors and system failures across different reporting systems, a large number of detailed reports of aircraft ground damage reports were analyzed. Such incidents cost major airlines tens of millions of dollars per year in repairs. It was found that consistent repeating patterns of incident emerged from the analysis based upon the final active failure and the resulting damage-causing impact. Behind these final outcomes, however, were numerous latent failures, or resident pathogens, which occurred across many hazard patterns.

When the hazard patterns were expanded as event trees, the latent failures typical of each pattern were seen. For example, when a ground vehicle was driven into an aircraft, poorly maintained or substituted ground vehicles combined with management pressures for on-time departure and inadequate space around the aircraft led to the final or active failure.

From these analyses, strategies for intervention can be derived at all systems levels. System interventions must address latent failures in the system, instead of the “blame and train” philosophy currently in use. The methodology used in this analysis allows the most cost beneficial interventions to be easily determined.
Allocation of Responsibility for Child Safety
Authors: Laughery Kenneth R. , Lowoll David R. , McQuilkin Meredith L.
Published: January 2012

A study was carried out to explore how people allocated responsibility for child safety during the use of or exposure to a product. Thirty-three subjects assigned safety responsibility for twenty-five different products to the manufacturer, the retailer, the parent and the child. The age of the child was varied from 2 to 18, and different combinations of the products were considered for the different ages. Forty percent of the total responsibility for child safety was assigned to the manufacturers of the products and 12 percent was assigned to retailers. These allocations did not vary as a function of the age of the child. Responsibility assigned to the child increased linearly from 6 percent to 40 percent from ages 2 to 18, and the responsibility assigned to parent decreased linearly from 42 percent to 10 percent across the child age categories. At early adolescence, approximately age 13, children begin to be allocated more responsibility for their own safety than their parents. These findings indicate that the tradeoff in a child's responsibility for personal safety moves from the parent to the child with increasing age, while the responsibility assigned to those entities in the chain of product distribution, the manufacturer and the retailer, is stable at about 50 percent.
The Pathology of Everyday Things
Authors: Pauls Jake
Published: January 2012

The most common of buildings—dwellings—are typically perceived by their occupants as safe, indeed even as havens from the dangers of the world outside. However this perception of relative safety is most deceptive; homes are often the site of common hazards such as falls and fires which are addressed in a rather uneven fashion by codes and standards for design and construction. While ergonomics—and ergonomists—should be prominent in the development of such standards and codes, this is the exception not the rule. As a result, there is a pathology in our homes, the most everyday of things we use, as well as a pathology in the process by which the standards and codes for our homes are developed.
Understanding of Aviation Safety Pictograms among Respondents from Europe and the U.S.
Authors: Jentsch Florian
Published: January 2012

Conveying safety information to aircraft passengers is an important task for the designers of aircraft passenger safety information cards. Since the information must be understood by all passengers, regardless of native language or nationality, many designers use pictorial representations that are considered “culture free.” The current study investigated the comprehension of 13 pictograms from a sample of actual safety cards among participants from four language groups in Europe and the U.S. One-hundred-and-fifty students whose native languages were English (British and U.S.), French, or German, respectively, interpreted 13 pictograms. From their responses, three main conclusions can be drawn: 1. Conveying aviation safety information by pictorial means appears to be largely effective, as indicated by general comprehension levels above 85%. 2. While passengers may get the “essence” of a particular pictogram, it is often difficult for them to recognize specific details. 3. There are relatively small differences in the comprehension levels between participants from different language groups, pointing towards the “universality” of pictograms in conveying safety information. Future research needs to focus on identifying exactly which features of pictograms are most effective in conveying safety information, without introducing cultural or language biases.
Analysis of the Causes of Ergonomics Related Injuries at a Multifaceted Public University
Authors: Kraft E.M.
Published: January 2012

At present there is no evidence of a university ergonomics program in the literature. A preliminary review of 2186 accident records from a public university established a need for a university ergonomics program by revealing that ergonomics related injuries, primarily sprains/strains and joint/muscle/tendon injuries accounted for 35.92% of the lost workday injuries. Sprains/strains and joint/muscle/tendon injuries were further analyzed to determine the causes of these injuries, body areas injured, and to determine whether there were differences in the causes of back, upper, and lower extremity ergonomics related injuries. Overexertion and manual material handling of heavy objects were the causes, respectively, of 36.30% and 10.56% of employee sprains/strains and 38.75% and 12.5% of employee joint/muscle/tendon injuries. The results of the study indicated that a university ergonomics program should focus on reducing sprains/strains of the back and upper extremities caused by lifting heavy objects and overexerting muscles in these body areas.
Differentiated Alarms for Carbon Monoxide Detectors
Authors: Pollack-Nelson Carol
Published: January 2012

Carbon monoxide detectors with differentiated (e.g., dual-signal) alarms were recently introduced to the home market. Public hearings held earlier this year by the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission debated the value of dual-signal versus single alarm detectors. Several issues relevant to this topic include: (1) vulnerable populations who would benefit from early warning alarms; (2) human capability to distinguish between dual-signal alarm sounds; and (3) burden to first responders. Each of these factors and relevant research is discussed.
Bridging the Research/Practice Gap: Human Factors Practitioners' Opportunity for Input to Define Research for the Rest of the Decade
Authors: Sind-Prunier Paula
Published: January 2012

The purpose of this session(s) is to attempt a novel forum for bridging the researcher/practitioner dichotomy that divides the human factors professional community. The objective of this session(s) is to convene a group of attendees to formulate a detailed list of critical human factors research needs. Attendees will suggest and discuss critical needs they have for human factors data, research, and analyses. The purpose of discussion will be to embellish and clarify initial suggestions, rather than to limit or discourage specific suggestions. This is not a forum for researchers to discuss their work, but rather a forum for practitioners to discuss their current work and the informational needs that serve as barriers to their effectiveness. Individual Technical Groups co-sponsored component discussions as a means for targeting their application areas of interest. The Strategic Planning Focus Groups held at the 1995 Annual Meeting served as the model for interaction among attendees. A publication will be produced following the Annual Meeting which identifies critical human factors research needs, based on direct input from industry practitioners– the direct consumers of such research. As such, it differs from similar publications extant (e.g., those of the National Research Council) which are driven by researchers' perceptions of research needs. By using the interactive “focus group” format that was so successful at the 1995 Annual Meeting, it is anticipated that this session will be able to make great strides toward bridging the research/practice gap that currently exists in the human factors profession.
Braking Response Times for 100 Drivers in the Avoidance of an Unexpected Obstacle as Measured in a Driving Simulator
Authors: Broen Nancy L. , Chiang Dean P.
Published: January 2012

This study examined the effect of brake and accelerator pedal configuration on braking response time to an unexpected obstacle. One hundred subjects drove in the Dynamic Research, Inc, (DRI) Interactive Driving Simulator through a simulated neighborhood 21 times, each time with a different pedal configuration. Each subject was presented with an unexpected obstacle only one time, for one of three previously selected pedal configurations, to which he or she was instructed to brake as quickly as possible. Foot movements were recorded with a video camera mounted above the pedals. Data were analyzed manually, using time and course location information superimposed on the video data. Response times were analyzed using ANOVA to determine effects of pedal configuration and various driver factors. Response times ranged from 0.81 sec to 2.44 sec with a mean of 1.33 sec and a standard deviation of 0.27 sec. There was no significant effect of pedal configuration on response time. Driver age was significant, with increased age corresponding to increased response time. Car normally driven, gender, driver height, and shoe size had no significant effect.
Measuring the Impact of Ecological Interface Design on Operator Skill Acquisition
Authors: Howie Dianne E. , Vicente Kim J.
Published: January 2012

This paper examines the effect of interface design on participants' adaptation with experience using a process control microworld. The experiment was conducted using DURESS II, an interactive thermal-hydraulic simulation with two interfaces: traditional (including only physical information) and ecological (including both physical and functional information). The experiment was 6 months in duration and included a variety of conditions. A group of early and late startup trials were analyzed in detail in order to investigate changes in expertise. Previously, trial completion time (or steady state time) has been used as the primary measure of performance on normal trials. In this paper, a series of additional measures were developed. These measures included: action transition graph complexity, path length in state space, deviation from the temperature goal line in mass versus energy inventory graphs, and proportion of early control actions on timelines. These performance measures revealed larger magnitude performance improvements in the ecological interface group.
Function Allocation for Future Systems: Developing an Improved Methodology
Authors: Cook Catherine A. , Corbridge Colin , Older Melanie T. , Clegg Chris W. , Waterson Patrick E.
Published: January 2012

The Defence Evaluation & Research Agency (DERA) is investigating methods of function allocation for future military systems, which could be usefully applied within the Ministry of Defence procurement cycle. A drive for manpower reduction has highlighted the requirement for optimum allocation of tasks between human and machine and also between humans within teams. Over reliance on automation may have significant adverse consequences for the human operator, ranging from loss of situational awareness in the short term, to reduced job satisfaction in the longer term. This paper describes work that has been carried out to investigate the suitability of existing methods of function allocation for complex systems within the Naval domain. To address deficiencies which were identified, a new method of function allocation has been developed and is briefly described. This new method attempts to integrate the two previously disparate literatures concerning function allocation and job design, to ensure the optimal allocation of functions in future systems.
Human Performance Modeling of Reduced Manning Concepts for Navy Ships
Authors: Archer Rick D. , Lewis G.W. , Lockett John
Published: January 2012

WinCrew is a human performance assessment tool developed by the Army Research Laboratory, Human Research and Engineering Directorate that implements the Wickens' Theory of Multiple Resources. WinCrew supports the hierarchical decomposition of missions into functions and tasks. As a demonstration of the capability of WinCrew, simulation models of the activities performed by bridge personnel on a Navy Guided Missile Destroyer DDG51 were developed. The scenarios were chosen to illustrate the potential of task network based human performance modeling to address reduced manning issues for naval ship operations. In order to fully exercise the functionality of WinCrew, four bridge models were developed. One scenario was modeled for four different manning, automation, and task allocation configurations. The scenario modeled was entry into San Diego Harbor. The major events for the bridge team were: bearing fixes, gyro error checks, turns, precision anchoring, and obstacle avoidance. Results of the effort demonstrated the utility of workload modeling for assessing human system integration alternatives for shipboard manning.
An Application of Auditory Alarm Research in the Design of Warning Sounds for an Integrated Tower Air Traffic Control Computer System
Authors: Wolfman G. Jonathan , Miller Douglas L. , Volanth Alton J.
Published: January 2012

Auditory alarms are often determined by different manufacturers in isolation without any guidelines or standards. The result is an environment filled with inconsistent, confusing, meaningless, and often annoying alarm sounds. Such factors have been considered in the design of a Tower Air Traffic Control computer system (referred to as TCCC) currently under contract with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), which will serve to integrate and standardize the various systems in the tower. One of the many benefits of this new automation will be that the warning sounds in use today will be replaced with standard, ergonomically designed alarm sounds. This paper follows the process the authors used in constructing TCCC auditory alarms, combining a detailed analysis of the common problems associated with auditory alarms with a review of alarm construction theories and standards. The results of this process, the proposed TCCC auditory alarm attributes, are then presented.
Effects of Performance Strategies on the Air Traffic Control Simulation Test
Authors: Seamster Thomas L. , Redding Richard E. , Broach Dana L.
Published: January 2012

A key component of the FAA's selection battery for air traffic controller trainees is the air traffic simulation test (ATST), developed as a job sample and simulation of air traffic control tasks. This study determined whether candidates taking the ATST could be taught strategies to help them achieve superior test performance. In this study, 51 participants completed a two day strategy training and testing session. The experimental group received explicit strategy training, and the control group received equivalent practice but with no strategy training. Strategy training improved key aspects of ATST performance. Training on simple strategies allowing automatic information processing was successful at improving some key aspects of ATST performance, while training on more complex strategies requiring controlled processing did not improve performance. Implications for future research and for short-term strategy training for technical tasks is discussed.
Spatial Perception in Desktop Virtual Environments
Authors: Neale Dennis C.
Published: January 2012

This study investigated perceptual and cognitive issues relating to manipulations of geometric field of view (GFOV) in three-dimensional perspective displays and the effects of incorporating virtual environment enhancements in the interface based on visual momentum (VM) techniques. Sixty participants, who were pretested for spatial ability, were required to navigate through a virtual office building while estimating space dimensions and performing spatial orientation tasks. A 3 − 2 − 2 mixed-subjects design compared three levels of GFOV, two levels of VM, and two levels of Difficulty. This study effectively demonstrates that the spatial characteristics of architectural representations in perspective displays are not always accurately perceived. Furthermore, the results indicate that manipulations in GFOV can produce perceptual and cognitive errors for the basic space dimensions in perspective displays; however, VM can be used to compensate for many of the biases shown to occur.
Effect of Visual Display Parameters on Driving Performance in a Virtual Environments Driving Simulator
Authors: Levine Oren H. , Mourant Ronald R.
Published: January 2012

In virtual environment applications, there is a tradeoff between the quality of the graphic image and the speed at which the application runs. In driving simulation, the content and quality of the visual image are particularly important, which suggests that there are limits to the degree they can be reduced. A virtual environments driving simulator was used to investigate the effects of visual display parameters on driver performance and perception. A road tracking study compared two display devices, two rendering algorithms, and three levels of road side delineation poles. Subjects drove the simulator through a series of road courses, and answered questionnaires designed to evaluate their perception of the realism of the simulator and the sense of immersion in the virtual environment. The results of the study confirm previous work on the beneficial effects of road side delineation poles on driving performance. They also suggest the importance of lag in the perception of driving performance and immersion, and the importance of shaded images in actual driving task performance.
The Effect of Configural Graphs on Concurrent and Retrospective Performance
Authors: Hurts Karel
Published: January 2012

Following up on a previous study showing the performance on integrated tasks for non-configural graphs to be superior to that for configural graphs if the memory for the graph is tested (retrospective or memory-based conditions), this paper further contrasts retrospective and concurrent (display-based) task performance. This was done by experimentally investigating the effect of various configural and non-configural static graphs on integrated task performance (requiring the consideration of lower-level graph information as well as higher-level graph information), using both retrospective and concurrent conditions. Subjects were asked to answer a question about each graph, which was phrased in terms of the domain of the data and which could not be easily anticipated. Graphs also differed in the amount of fit between graph structure and data structure (data-graph compatibility). The results confirmed the expectation that the reversal effect (inferior performance for configural graphs) is only found under memory-based conditions. Both display-based and memory-based performance were better for the configural graphs with high data-graph compatibility, although only significantly so for display-based search time. The two separable types of graphs could only be compared with respect to the amount of time needed to memorize the graphs: longer times were found for the graph type with low data-graph compatibility. However, the latter effect may also be due to a difference in data structure complexity, as this factor was confounded with data-graph compatibility in the two separable graph types. Although more research is needed to disambiguate some of the present results and to make other and better comparisons, the results of this study still show the importance of structural and semantic factors in determining the effectiveness of configurality in statistical graphs.
Effects of Age on the Judged Distance to Virtual Objects in the near Visual Field
Authors: Ellis Stephen R. , Menges Brian M.
Published: January 2012

The following experiment examines effects of observers' age on their judged depth of nearby virtual objects displayed with see-through, Helmet Mounted Displays (HMDs). Monocular, biocular or stereoscopic viewing conditions were used. Two previous finding were investigated: 1) the effect of accommodative demand on judged target depth (Ellis & Menges, 1995) and 2) the change in judged depth of a virtual object due to the introduction of a physical surface at its previously judged depth (Ellis, Bucher & Menges, 1995). Observed effects were consistent with the older subjects' loss of accommodative response and reflexive accommodative vergence. In the present study it was found that only subjects younger than 38 yrs were able to benefit from correctly presented accommodative demand in the monocular viewing situations. Older subjects were especially likely to make greater depth judgment errors in the monocular viewing situations and would especially benefit from compensatory design of the stimulus to correct their larger judgment errors. Biocular and stereo viewing conditions were approximately equivalent with respect to observed judgment bias and produced roughly comparable accuracy for young and old subjects.
Research Paradigm as a Factor Influencing Estimates of Time-to-Contact
Authors: Manser Michael P. , Hancock Peter A. , Kinney Carolyn A.
Published: January 2012

‘Time-to-contact’ is a practical and theoretical construct. It is of practical significance since it plays a central role in how humans perceive and avoid collisions with the objects in their environment. Its theoretical importance lies in its recognition as a central pillar of the ‘ecological’ movement which emphasizes the environment in which action occurs. Time-to-contact studies have employed a paradigm to investigate time-to-contact which has included having a computer generated vehicle travel to a participant and be subsequently removed from the scene. A more ecologically valid scenario, which occurs everyday around the world, is to have the approaching vehicle become occluded by some naturally occurring object. The present investigation into the effects of a naturally occurring research paradigm versus a traditional time-to-contact research paradigm has revealed that participants were more accurate estimating time-to-contact when the approaching vehicle became occluded by a naturally occurring object. The theoretical and practical ramifications of the present research are discussed.
Active Control vs. Passive Perception of Heading: Evidence for Different Perceptual Mechanisms
Authors: Dyre Brian P. , Warren Rik , Garness Sheila A.
Published: January 2012

Traditional psychophysical research on perception of heading is characterized by an observer passively viewing a self-motion display. However, some studies suggest that active observers form different perceptions than passive observers, which challenges the relevance of traditional studies of heading to issues of vehicular control. The present study examined whether observers who actively control their self-motion perceive heading differently than those who passively view a self-motion display. We examined heading performance during both active control of yaw and passive observation using a manual control paradigm. The results indicated that observers who actively controlled their yaw perceived heading in a manner that was qualitatively different than observers who passively viewed a self-motion display. Moreover, the results suggest that active observers learn to use relevant display information that passive observers overlook. These results cast doubt on the relevance of traditional psychophysical research on heading to the issue of vehicular control.
The Effects of Field-of-View on Pilot Head Movement during Low Level Flight
Authors: Gallimore Jennie J. , Brannon Nathan G. , Patterson Frederick R.
Published: January 2012

Helmet mounted displays are being considered for a variety of uses in military aviation including training, mission rehearsal, and as a primary flight display in the cockpit. There is a need for considerable research into issues related to the use of this technology and the effects on pilot performance, particularly with respect to spatial orientation. One critical issue is the field-of-view (FOV) necessary when flying military aircraft. The purpose of this research was to investigate the effects of FOV on pilot head movement. Head tilt, pitch, and yaw data were collected in a dome simulator during a low level VMC flight task under three FOV conditions (40, 60, and 100 degrees). Results indicated that pilots exhibited reflexive head tilt movements (Opto Kinetic Collic Reflex) regardless of FOV. Head pitch and yaw varied as a function of FOV. Pilots made significantly more downward pitch movements with the 40-degree FOV over a wider range of aircraft bank. Head yaw was more prevalent as FOV decreased.
Costs and Benefits of Head-Up Display Use: A Meta-Analytic Approach
Authors: Fadden Steven , Ververs Patricia May , Wickens Christopher D.
Published: January 2012

Costs and benefits associated with head-up display (HUD) use were assessed by analyzing data obtained from studies in the aviation domain. Eighteen studies investigating the use of HUDs, head-down displays, and conformal displays were included in analyses of flight path tracking and event detection performance. HUD and conformality benefits consisted of faster detection responses to changes in symbology and presentation of traffic, as well as increased flight path tracking accuracy. Further investigation into the HUD data revealed a heterogeneous component, suggesting that factors other than display location were contributing to pilot performance. One factor modulating performance was the relative expectancy of the event. HUD use was advantageous if an event in the environment was expected. However, when an event was unexpected, detection was degraded with the presence of HUD instrumentation. This finding reveals a potential cost due to HUD use when confronted with anomalous situations.
Managing the Future National Airspace System: Free Flight or Ground-Based Control with Increased Automation?
Authors: Parasuraman Raja
Published: January 2012

Two main alternatives to managing the future national airspace system have been proposed: Free Flight, in which responsibility for aircraft separation is shifted increasingly to the air, and an extension of the current system of ground-based control with the addition of advanced automation tools. This panel will examine the human factors aspects of these two approaches, focusing on the results of a three-year study carried out by the National Research Council. Free Flight design concepts that assume a high level of airborne authority have more uncertainties than design options involving ground-based authority. The panel will present arguments that ground-based control should add high-level automation for information acquisition, integration, and presentation for aiding controller decision making. High levels of automation are also recommended for automation of decision and action selection for system tasks involving relatively little uncertainty and risk. However, for system tasks associated with greater uncertainty and risk, automation of decision and action selection should not proceed beyond the level of suggesting a preferred decision/action alternative.
Evaluation of a Formal Methodology for Developing Aircraft Vertical Flight Guidance Training Material
Authors: Feary Michael , Sherry Lance
Published: January 2012

Aircraft automation, particularly the automation surrounding vertical navigation, has been cited as an area of training difficulty and a source of confusion during operation. A number of incidents have been attributed to a lack of crew understanding of what the automation is doing. This paper describes the translation of information from a formal methodology used in design of an automated vertical guidance system to a training package, and an experiment that tested the new training. This study is part of a larger project to improve the recognition and understanding of the “objectives and behaviors” of automated systems through a formal methodology. The formal method, referred to as the operational procedures methodology, integrates the design of the system with the design of the training and display information requirements for that system (Sherry, 1995). The study utilized a training package designed to teach the vertical guidance portion of the Flight Mode Annunciator (FMA), as seen in normal operations of the Boeing MD-11. The results of the study showed that this type of training can be successfully delivered via a computer based training device. Additionally, a study in a full cockpit simulator showed that the training, coupled with the new display, provided significantly less errors on a simulated flight, although the training alone did not provide significantly better performance.
Uninhabited Combat Aerial Vehicles: Who's Driving?
Authors: Flach John , Eggleston Robert , Kuperman Gil , Dominguez Cynthia
Published: January 2012

The acronym UCAV is typically associated with Uninhabited Combat Aerial Vehicles, but it might alternatively stand for Unspecified, Collaborative, Adaptive, and Vulnerable. This paper considers Rasmussen's approach to Cognitive Systems Engineering as a possible framework for designing the interfaces and support systems needed to effectively manage the information technology.
Crew Selection for Uninhabited Air Vehicles: Preliminary Investigation of the Air Vehicle Operator (AVO)
Authors: Tirre William C.
Published: January 2012

Because of the similarity of the AVO console to a desktop flight simulator, a preliminary idea of what aptitude factors would predict success in AVO training might be obtained through a validation study using a desktop flight simulator as the criterion task. In this study, 171 young men and women learned to fly a simulated light aircraft. The participants also took a comprehensive 8-hour battery of computer-based tests. Results indicated that learning was predicted well by general cognitive ability (g)/ working memory (WM) and multilimb coordination. When structural equation modeling was used to distinguish declarative and procedural learning, declarative learning was found to be strongly dependent on g/WM, which is consistent with previous research. That g/WM did not correlate with procedural learning explains why correlations of this ability with learning diminished as instruction moved from a declarative to procedural emphasis. Only multilimb coordination ability was strongly related to procedural learning.
Crew Simulations for Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) Applications: Sustained Effects, Shift Factors, Interface Issues, and Crew Size
Authors: Barnes Michael J. , Matz Michael F.
Published: January 2012

The Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) offers the potential to view future battlespaces at low cost while increasing crew survivability. The purpose of the two simulation experiments was to examine crew performance in controlling the UAV and exploiting close and short-range targets for 12-hour shifts in both day and night conditions during 72-hour operational tempos. In the first experiment, four two-person crews each conducted three 8 to 10 hour missions. The data indicated no performance decrements over either mission length or mission day but did suggest possible problems with nocturnal operations. The second experiment investigated a single operator workstation configuration. The 16 operators evinced training problems but showed no significant effects for rotation schedule and day and night conditions. Analysis of simulated crashes indicated flight control problems related to training, split attention, and display size constraints.
Age-Related Differences in Performance Using a Mouse and Trackball
Authors: Bohan Michael , Chaparro Alex
Published: January 2012

Aging is marked by changes in motor control which may be expected to affect performance using computer pointing devices. In this experiment, we compared older and younger adults' ability to acquire on-screen targets of varying distance and size using a mouse and trackball. The older adults moved consistently slower than their younger counterparts with both devices, particularly when making large amplitude movements. Error rates were equivalent for both age groups across all conditions. Analysis of throughput values indicated a significant interaction between age and device in which the younger adults' performance was more degraded when using the trackball than the mouse, while the older adults' performance did not vary across devices. These results are discussed in terms of potential error-averse strategies employed by the older participants in an attempt to compensate for age-related declines in motor control. Although the performance measures obtained in this study imply that older adults would perform equivalently using either the mouse or the trackball, it is not known whether these results generalize to other experimental conditions including different movement tasks, and target characteristics.
Age Differences in the Functional Field-of-View while Driving: A Preliminary Simulator-Based Study
Authors: Schieber Frank , Benedetto Joanne M.
Published: January 2012

This study represents an initial exploration of a new technique developed to permit the assessment of age differences in the “useful field of view” (Ball, et al., 1993) while simultaneously operating a motor vehicle. Due to necessary safety precautions, this novel approach was first evaluated using a simulated rather than a real-world driving context. Data was collected from seventeen young (mean age = 19.8) and eight older (mean age = 72.9) adult volunteers. Preliminary data analyses indicated that the technique was sensitive to “tunnel vision” effects resulting from experimentally induced limitations in the time available to process stimulus target “onset” events in the visual periphery. The magnitude and time-course of these effects differed markedly as a function of the age of the observer. Shortcomings in the current implementation of the technique and planned improvements are also discussed.
How do Flight Crews Detect and Prevent Errors? Findings from a Flight Simulation Study
Authors: Orasanu Judith , Fischer Ute , McDonnell Lori K. , Davison Jeannie , Haars Keri E. , Villeda Eric , VanAken Christina
Published: January 2012

In order for a team to maintain safety in a high-risk engineered environment, its members must monitor each other's behavior, as well as the situation. The advantage of a team structure is that members can support each other, catching errors and preventing problems from developing into serious situations. In its analysis of aviation accidents in which crew behavior played a role, the National Transportation Safety Board (1994) observed that most of those accidents involved “monitoring and challenging” errors. After an error occurred, the crew either failed to detect it or to communicate effectively in order to ameliorate the outcome.

This paper describes a simulator study that examined two factors thought to affect monitoring and challenging: (a) level of physical risk in a developing situation and (b) degree of face threat involved in a challenge. Events were scripted to present errors committed by a confederate pilot (high face threat) or problems developing outside the flight deck (low face threat). Videotapes of performance showed that captains were more assertive and responded earlier than first officers, often preventing the problems from developing. This difference, however, was only evident in high-risk situations. First officers were more sensitive to face threat than captains, indicating a need for techniques to overcome limits to error mitigation in high-face threat situations.
ORGNET/PRO Methodology and Toolset for Redesigning Organizations
Authors: Weiland Monica Z. , Zachary Wayne W. , Le Mentec J-C
Published: January 2012

Both military and commercial institutions are moving rapidly toward systems that increase use of automation while dramatically decreasing the number of people performing the work. With more automation and fewer people, these systems will place more emphasis on human cognitive performance. Thus, these changes will require new organizational designs that are optimized for the cognitive role of humans. This paper discusses the Process for Redesign of Organizations (PRO) methodology and associated toolset that is being developed for aiding analysts in designing teams and optimizing the allocation of functions within these teams. The PRO methodology is based on extensions to the COGNET architecture to allow the modeling and measurement of organizational structures.
Exploring Measures of Team Knowledge
Authors: Cooke Nancy J. , Stout Rene'e , Rivera Krisela , Salas Eduardo
Published: January 2012

Team cognition is more than the aggregate cognition of team members. It is an emerging feature, worthy of study in its own right. In this paper we investigate potential metrics of team knowledge in the context of a broader exploratory study on measures of team knowledge, performance, and situation awareness. Team members assumed different roles in a three-person synthetic task in which they were presented with unique role-relevant information. Successful accomplishment of team objectives required team members to share information. The focus of this paper is on one of several measures collected which required judgments of pairwise relatedness ratings for mission-relevant terms. These data were submitted to Pathfinder network scaling and used to derive three metrics of team knowledge: knowledge accuracy, interpositional knowledge, and knowledge similarity. The metrics revealed different perspectives on team knowledge and were generally predictive of team performance and team situation awareness.
Multisensory Feedback in Support of Pilot-Automation Coordination: The Case of Uncommanded Mode Transitions
Authors: Nikolic Mark I. , Sklar Aaron E. , Sarter Nadine B.
Published: January 2012

The introduction of advanced automation technology to the modern cockpit has created new attentional and monitoring demands for pilots whose primary role has shifted towards supervisory control. Observed breakdowns in pilots' mode awareness, i.e., in their knowledge and understanding of the current and future system configuration, suggest that these demands are not adequately supported by existing automation feedback. In particular, current feedback fails to highlight unexpected changes in system status and behavior due, in part, to designers' tendency to increasingly rely on focal visual attention instead of exploiting the wide range of sensory modalities available to human operators. In this study, we examined the feasibility and effectiveness of multisensory feedback for providing attentional guidance to pilots in case of unexpected mode transitions. Tactile or peripheral visual cues were presented in the context of a simulated flight scenario involving varying levels of competing visual demands. The results of this study indicate that the introduction of multisensory feedback is one effective way of capturing pilots' attention without necessarily affecting their performance on concurrent tasks.
Supporting Situation Awareness of Individuals and Teams Using Group View Displays
Authors: Roth Emilie M. , Lin Laura , Thomas Vaughn M. , Kerch Steven , Kenney Stephen J. , Sugibayashi Nubuo
Published: January 2012

This paper describes a project to design and test a large wall-mounted group view display intended to support situation awareness of individuals and multi-person teams in an advanced power plant control room. The design process began with an analysis of the requirements for situation awareness of individuals and teams to establish the design basis. A function-based cognitive task analysis was then used to define the plant state information to be included in the group view display. A phased test program was then initiated to establish the adequacy of the design concept. The first study employed sequences of static displays representing “snapshots” of evolving normal and emergency events. The second study tested dynamic group view displays (three 100 inch wall mounted displays) driven by a high-fidelity plant simulation. The study compared operator performance with the function-based group view display to operator performance using a more traditional physical mimic overview display. Dependent measures included (1) objective measures of performance, (2) operator ratings of the displays, and (3) workload measures. The measures provided statistically significant, converging evidence of the superiority of the function-based group view display. The implication of the results for design of group view displays to support individuals and teams are discussed.