bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Effects of Mental Workload on Objective and Subjective Measures of Postural Stability
Authors: DiDomenico Angela , Nussbaum Maury A.
Published: January 2012

A substantial number of injuries and fatalities within occupational environments are due to falls, the majority of which are believed to be a result of loss of balance. This study investigated the effects of postural demands, visual cues, and mental activity on objective measures of postural sway and subjective assessment of postural stability. Measures of postural sway (mean distance, mean velocity, sway area) were obtained using a force plate, both during quiet standing and while performing mental arithmetic. In addition, a subjective postural stability scale was used to record perceptions of postural stability. Thirty participants completed all conditions with the effects of postural stance and visual cues being significant (ANOVA, α=0.05). Mental workload did not substantially alter postural sway or sensations of stability. High negative correlations between the objective and subjective measures were calculated (r = −0.81–0.95), with increases in subjective postural ratings corresponding to decreases in objective postural sway measures. Perceptions of postural stability seemed to accurately reflect actual postural sway.
Developing an Instrument to Measure Keyboarding Style: Obtaining Content Validity
Authors: Baker Nancy A. , Redfern Mark S.
Published: January 2012

There is no observational instrument that can be used to document hand and finger use during computer keyboarding that may put a user at risk for musculoskeletal disorders of the upper extremity (MSD-UE). This paper describes a method used to obtain content validity for a new observational instrument, the PeCKS (Evaluation of Personal Computer Keyboarding Style), which can be used to document and assess these parameters of keyboarding style. Parameters of keyboarding style that might be risk factors for MSD-UE were developed through a review of the literature and interviews with MSD-UE experts. From these parameters a beta-1 version of the PeCKS was created and sent to seven experts to rate the content. Intraclass correlation coefficients were calculated to establish the agreement between raters concerning each parameter's importance as a risk factor for MSD-UE. There was good agreement among the raters about the importance of each parameter in the PeCKS (beta-1) and for the overall instrument. The instrument was subsequently modified and refined based on the experts' feedback.
Increasing the Distance between Lift Origin and Destination to Influence Stepping Does Not Improve Torso Kinematics
Authors: Jorgensen Michael J. , Handa Amit , Veluswamy Prabahran , Bhatt Manish
Published: January 2012

Much of the intervention research for prevention of occupational low back injuries has focused on reduction of torso flexion and the external moment. Little is known about prevention strategies for torso twisting and lateral bending. It was hypothesized that increasing the distance between the lift origin and the pallet would require subjects to take an extra step, and reduce the torso kinematics and resulting LBD Risk. Fifteen males transferred 11.3 kg boxes from a constant origin to a destination pallet at two different distances. Analysis of Variance results indicated that increasing the pallet distance from the lift origin resulted in increases in velocities and accelerations, and the LBD risk at the lower regions of the pallet. These results suggest that increasing the pallet distance from the lifting origin does not appear to be an effective intervention strategy to reduce the risk of occupational LBD associated with torso kinematics.
Estimation of EMG Activity of Trunk Muscles in Manual Lifting Tasks Based on Trunk Dynamics Using the Fuzzy Relational Rule Network
Authors: Karwowski Waldemar , Gaweda Adam , Marras William S. , Davis Kermit , Zurada Jacek
Published: January 2012

The main objective of this study was to demonstrate feasibility of predicting the electromyographic (EMG) activities of trunk muscles in manual lifting tasks. The applied data-driven fuzzy model with relational rule network utilized trunk dynamics as input variables, including sagittal and lateral trunk moments, pelvic tilt and rotation angles, and sagittal, lateral, and twist trunk angles. The data for model training and testing were randomly selected from a data set of EMG time domain values collected for 20 male college students. The utilized EMG data represented a total of 24 combinations of weight (15, 30, 50) lifted, asymmetry (0–60 degrees), and the origin and destination of lift (floor-waist, floor-102 cm, knee-waist, knee-102 cm), with two replications of each condition. The model was trained using the data for ten subjects and 18 randomly selected trials, and was then tested based on the EMG data for another ten subjects using randomly selected 6 trials. The model allowed for estimating EMG responses (in time domain) for the ten trunk muscles with the mean absolute error ranging from 0.91% to 11.8%. The study showed that it is feasible to estimate the time domain EMG responses of human trunk muscles due to manual lifting tasks with the acceptable level of accuracy.
Perspectives in Powered Nutrunner Torque Reaction: Handle Displacement and Grip Force
Authors: Lin Jia-Hua , McGorry Raymond W. , Chang Chien-Chi , Dempsey Patrick G.
Published: January 2012

Powered hand tools have the potential to produce reaction forces that may be associated with upper extremity musculoskeletal disorders (UEMSDs). This paper reports an ongoing study to quantify how operators respond to nutrunner reaction forces, with results from twelve male subjects. Three work configurations using pistol grip and angle tools were tested in the laboratory. Handle displacement due to torque reaction was recorded using a cable potentiometer. Grip force was measured on an instrumented handle attached to each tool. A full factorial experiment was designed considering working height, distance, tool, and fastener joint hardness. The results show that working height significantly affected grip force and handle displacement. The mean displacement was 22.75 mm when using pistol grip tools on a horizontal surface on a soft joint, and was 7.15 mm on the hard joint. This study provides information regarding the workstation design and tool selection that could minimize the torque reaction experienced by nutrunner operators.
Effect on Flat Surface Postural Stability following Extended Durations on a Pitched Roof Setting
Authors: Wade Lloyd R. , Weimar Wendi H. , Davis Jerry
Published: January 2012

A total of 8, 786 fatal work injuries were reported in 2001, one half of these fatal fall incidents were a result of falls from a pitched roof setting, as indicated by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The Bureau of Labor Statistics indicated nearly 4,000 serious injuries were associated with industry related falls from roofs in 2001. Previous roofing construction related research has focused on the changes on postural sway velocity as a result of decrements in one or more of the three major systems associated with balance (somatosensory, vestibular, and visual). Purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of exposure to a pitched roof setting on postural stability. All subjects who volunteered as participants (n=20; males,) were tested under three conditions: ten, twenty and thirty minute duration on a 12 × 15' pitched roof segment to determine if there was a difference in sway velocity following various exposure durations. Data were collected over four, ten-second trials, under eyes open and eyes closed conditions. Performance was measured using the recordings made by the NeuroCom Balance Master® System. Balance was recorded in sway velocity (degrees/second), where the value was representative of the change in center of gravity (COG) in the anterior, posterior, medial, or lateral directions. The angular change of the COG per unit time was summed and divided by ten-seconds to achieve an average sway velocity of the COG. The data were evaluated using 2 (eye) × 3 (duration) repeated measures analysis of variance (ANOVA). The analysis concluded that the average sway velocity of the COG resulted in a significant main effect at each level of duration (10, 20, 30 minute): p10= .041, p20= .034, p30= .029. The findings have practical implications when dealing with the construction industry. On a daily basis, roofers ascend and conduct roofing related tasks for prolonged periods of time. Following exposure to the pitched roof setting, roofers must move from the roof to scaffolding or a ladder to descend. These findings suggest that there is a significant decrement in postural stability due to exposure to inclination. Postural stability is critical in ascending and descending ladders and scaffolding on flat surfaces. Possible areas of future research that might impact postural stability could potentially involve roof jacks, work boot design, and work rest cycles.
The Effects of Line Length on Children and Adults' Perceived and Actual Online Reading Performance
Authors: Bernard Michael L. , Fernandez Marissa , Hull Spring , Chaparro Barbara S.
Published: January 2012

This study examined reading time, reading efficiency, perceived reading efficiency, and preference for three online-text length conditions, narrow, medium, and full, for both adults and children. No differences were found for either reading time or efficiency for either adults or children. However, adults preferred shorter line lengths to full-screen line lengths. In examining perception of reading efficiency, the results were mixed. For adults, the full text lengths were perceived as providing the optimal amount of scrolling in comparison to the two other narrower line length conditions. The narrowest line length condition was perceived as promoting the highest amount of reader concentration, while the medium line-length condition was considered to be the most optimally presented length for reading. Examining children's perceptions of reading efficiency for each of the line lengths revealed no significant differences in perceived reading efficiency or preference.
Selection of Web Browser Controls with and without Impenetrable Borders: Does Width Make a Difference?
Authors: Johnson Brian R. , Farris J. Shawn , Jones Keith S.
Published: January 2012

Graphical user interface elements can be selected faster if they are placed against the edge of the screen. Doing so creates an impenetrable border between the element and the edge of the screen that the mouse cursor cannot penetrate, which changes how users move the mouse resulting in quicker selection times. This study assessed the influence of visible width on selection time when targets did or did not have impenetrable borders. Ten participants selected targets that varied in Target Type (with or without impenetrable borders), Width (1, 2, 3, 4, 5 cm), and Distance (2, 4, 8, 16, 32 cm). For a given width, targets with impenetrable borders were always selected faster than targets without impenetrable borders. Also, increasing the width of targets with impenetrable borders had little effect on selection time, whereas doing so when targets did not have impenetrable borders resulted in a substantial effect on selection time. The results indicate that a 1 cm wide target is adequate to make use of the advantage of edge targets in GUI design.
Macroergonomics in Health Care: Improving Work Design to Improve Employee and Patient Safety
Authors: Karsh Ben-Tzion
Published: January 2012

Improving the safety and health of health care employees and their patients has become a high profile national priority. To address this priority, the Institute of Medicine, in their report “To Err is Human”, called upon human factors engineering researchers and practitioners to contribute to the solutions. Macroergonomics is a specialty within human factors and ergonomics concerned with the design of work systems to meet the needs of the employees, business, and customers — making macroergonomic methods and theories well suited for helping to improve the safety of heath care for employees and their patients. This symposium will showcase how macroergonomics can be used to improve work design within health care for the simultaneous benefit of the employees and patients.
Visually Perceived Force Feedback in Simulated Robotic Surgery
Authors: Cao C. G. L. , Webster J. L. , Perreault J. O. , Schwaitzberg S. , Rogers G.
Published: January 2012

Current robotic systems for minimally invasive surgery do not have effective means of providing haptics to the surgeon. It was hypothesized that providing an analog for force feedback through the visual channel could benefit performance in the absence of actual force feedback. An experiment was conducted to examine performance in a simple line-drawing task in a simulator box using a conventional laparoscopic grasper with inherent force feedback and a robotic manipulator with no force feedback. The task was performed on a hard surface and a soft surface. Physical deformation on the soft surface provided additional visual cues regarding the forces applied during the task. Results showed better performance, in the absence of force feedback, when the visual analog of force was provided. Task completion time was best when physical force feedback was combined with augmented visual feedback. This research has implications for the implementation of haptics in robotic surgical systems.
Scenario-Based Teamwork Skills Training for Geographically Distributed Teams
Authors: Entin Eileen B. , Lai Fuji , Mackenzie Colin , Xiao Yan , Seagull F. Jacob , Malone Debra , Neal Lisa
Published: January 2012

In this presentation we describe the development of a distributed teamwork skills training program for co-located or distributed teams performing complex, highly interdependent tasks that require overlapping expertise and shared knowledge, flexibility, and the capability for rapid organization and deployment to respond quickly to a changing situation. Our goal is to develop and demonstrate a training approach that uses advanced distance learning technology to provide portable training to small, flexible, quickly reconfigured, rapidly deployed military teams. The program is a web-enabled, scenario-based teamwork skills training program comprised of: information about and examples of teamwork skills; scenario-based training exercises that provide practice in teamwork skills; guidelines for team-conducted exercise debriefings that do not require the presence of a training instructor; and a leader's manual that helps team leaders to conduct web-based training sessions. The version we are currently developing is focused on physicians under training (fellows and residents) working in an academic trauma center.
Medical Error Reporting System Design: Multiple User Considerations and their Implications
Authors: Hamilton Kamisha , Karsh Ben-Tzion , Beasley John
Published: January 2012

The purpose of this paper is to examine the differences between the preferences of physicians and clinical assistants for the design of a statewide medical error reporting system. The study employed a series of separate focus groups composed of physicians and clinical assistants. The focus groups covered a wide range of relevant topics based on the previous literature on error reporting both in and outside of healthcare. Focus group transcripts were subject to a content analysis resulting in a total of 86 major and minor themes. While physicians and clinical assistants shared similar preferences and beliefs surrounding error reporting such as its educational potential and fear of punitive repercussions, they differed as well. Some of the differences uncovered included the rules and regulations governing the use of the system, the medium of reporting, and aspects of the organization that may affect reporting levels. The design implications for considering these issues are discussed.
Medical Product Labeling: The Evaluation of Latex Glove Warnings in a Realistic Setting
Authors: Vredenburgh Alison , Longden Shannon , Williams Kevin , Kalsher Michael
Published: January 2012

Healthcare workers sometimes develop a deadly allergic reaction through repeated exposure to proteins in latex gloves. Although die latex glove industry apparently developed warnings to alert healthcare workers to the hazards associated with exposure to latex, none of these warnings actually appeared on latex glove packaging. This field study evaluated three label configurations. The first configuration merely stated that the gloves contain natural rubber latex (content statement). A second configuration mirrored current labeling and contained both the content statement and the admonition that natural rubber latex can cause allergic reactions. A third label developed specifically for this study comported to existing warnings guidelines (ANSI Z-535). Participants examined one of the three boxes and were men asked to complete a questionnaire gauging their opinions and perceptions regarding the labeling. Results showed that the ANSI warning was rated as more noticeable and more effective than the other label configurations. Well-designed instructional warnings can be an effective method of informing workers of the significant risks associated with exposure to latex. The informational component of warnings labeling is particularly critical for apparently benign products that bear a hidden hazard.
Divided Attention during Adaptation to Visual-Motor Roatation in an Endoscopic Surgery Simulator
Authors: Tollner Alison M. , Riley Michael A. , Matthews Gerald
Published: January 2012

Endoscopic surgery has gained popularity due to its minimally invasive nature and reduced patient recovery times. Due to the use of video images and long, thin surgical tools a surgeon's perceptual motor skills can be inhibited. Surgeons need to adapt to these perceptual-motor disruptions before operating on patients. Besides having to adapt to altered perceptual-motor conditions surgeons also have to deal with many other simultaneous demands, such as monitoring vital signs. Having to perform other simultaneous tasks during endoscopic surgery may divert or drain attention necessary for the complex movements demanded by the surgery. We investigated whether adaptive performance in an endoscopic surgery simulator suffered under dual-task conditions. Performance was significantly disrupted under altered perceptual-motor conditions during early simulator performance and the addition of a concurrent short-term memory task caused additional initial performance decrements, but those decrements were quickly overcome.
Use-Error Focused Risk Analysis for Medical Devices: A Case Study of the Therac-25 Radiation Therapy System
Authors: Israelski Edmond W. , Muto William H.
Published: January 2012

Risk analysis or hazard analysis has been used as an engineering tool for many years to identify system risks and control system modes of failure. In alignment with the recent emphasis on patient safety, the tools of risk analysis have seen increased attention. These tools and related methods have been applied to understanding “use-errors” made with medical devices. Use-errors are defined as a pattern of predictable human errors that can be attributable to inadequate or improper design. Use-errors can be predicted through analytical task walkthrough techniques and via empirically based usability testing. This paper explores the methodology of use-error focused risk analysis and some of its history. An example is offered on how it can apply to a well-known but no longer marketed medical device, the Therac-25 computer controlled radiation therapy system, which was the inspiration for Steve Casey's highly regarded book Set Phasers on Stun.
A Functional Model of the Operating Room
Authors: Funk Kenneth H. , Doolen Toni L. , Botney Richard , Bauer James D.
Published: January 2012

The hospital operating room (OR) is a complex, human-machine system whose performance is vulnerable to the errors of fallible human beings. This paper describes the initial development of a functional model of the OR designed to help identify the interaction of those vulnerabilities and fallibilities so as to improve OR performance.
Perceiving Object Rotations — Effects of Egocentric Perspective and Observer Orientation
Authors: Finkelmeyer Andreas E. , Werner Steffen
Published: January 2012

Indicating the orientation of the axis of rotation of a rotating object is a fundamental part of an operator's ability to understand the motion of the object. Prior research has shown that this ability depends heavily on the orientation of the rotational axis with respect to the observer, the environment and the object. The present study is the first to distinguish between the involvement of egocentric and environment-centered spatial reference systems in rotation perception. Observers indicated the orientation of the axis of rotation for visually displayed motion while sitting upright or being tilted sideways or backwards. Accuracy and response time were recorded. The results showed that egocentric and environment-centered reference systems appear to play differential roles in the ability to accurately indicate the axis of rotation depending on the orientation of the observer. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.
Effects of Practice on Font Legibility
Authors: Zineddin Abdulilah Z. , Garvey Philip M. , Carlson Richard A. , Pietrucha Martin T.
Published: January 2012

Highway sign font legibility has been studied extensively over the past 50 years; however only limited research has been conducted on the range of fonts used for commercial signage. While earlier research has demonstrated that some of these fonts are more legible than others, difficulties have arisen in ascribing these differences to visual factors alone. The objective of this experiment was to determine if some of the font superiority effect is due to the level of font familiarity. Visual acuity thresholds for letter and words displayed in three fonts were recorded for a group of 72 younger and older subjects. The subjects read aloud two pages of text displayed in those fonts. Acuity thresholds for the three fonts were then reevaluated. The results showed that familiarity with a specific font significantly influences that font's legibility and that this effect was greater for older than younger subjects.
Age-Related Effects of Training on Developing a System Representation
Authors: Hickman Jamye M. , Rogers Wendy A. , Fisk Arthur D.
Published: January 2012

Technology varies in complexity and requires different types of training for proper use. The present study focuses on the design of training materials to facilitate the development of a system representation of a complex task which may improve product usage. Previous research suggests that understanding the structure, or representation, of a complex system may help in performing infrequent tasks and troubleshooting system failures. The type of training participants receive may facilitate the development of task components necessary to enhance the skills needed for navigation which includes understanding the system representation. The current study examines two questions 1) does the type of training received affect the development of a system representation? and 2) are there age-related differences in the training effects? The discussion of the results will focus on training and age differences on the assessment measures which assess different aspects of learning.
Differences in Remote versus in-Person Communications While Performing a Driving Task
Authors: Gugerty Leo , Rando Cynthia , Rakauskas Michael , Brooks Johnell , Olson Heather
Published: January 2012

In Experiment 1, 29 participants performed a simulated driving task both alone and while talking with another participant. Half of the non-driving participants could see the driving scene (in-person communication group) and half could not (remote communication group). When participants performed the driving task while talking with a partner, their situation awareness was significantly less than when they performed only the driving task. Thus, concurrent verbal interactions degraded situation awareness for the driving task. However, the amount of degradation in situation awareness during in-person and remote interactions did not differ significantly. The pace of the in-person and remote verbal interactions differed, suggesting that remote verbal interactions may be more difficult for drivers. Also, drivers talking with remote partners generated more long pauses than drivers talking with in-person partners, suggesting that drivers engaged in remote verbal interactions were modulating their verbalizations in order to maintain adequate driving performance. Experiment 2 replicated the finding that both in-person and remote verbal interactions degraded driving situation awareness, with no significant difference in the amount of degradation for the two types of verbal interaction.
Modeling of Driving Behavior When Approaching an Intersection Based on Measured Behavioral Data on An Actual Road
Authors: Akamatsu Motoyuki , Sakaguchi Yasuo , Okuwa Masayuki
Published: January 2012

It is important to develop a driving assistance system that conforms to individual driving behavior. An individual's usual driving behavior is generally adapted to road and traffic situation; therefore, we propose that assistance be provided when that behavior deviates from normal. We developed specially equipped vehicles to collect natural behavioral data from repeated driving experiments on an actual road. We subsequently developed a Bayesian network model of occurrence of behavioral events from the data obtained when approaching a specific intersection with a stop sign. Any deviation from usual operation behavior can be estimated using this model. Unusual behavior can be regarded as inappropriate behavior and therefore its detection can be applied to driving assistance methods, such as warning presentation.
Animation of Pictorial Icons
Authors: Donahoo Carlton , Biers David W. , Revels Allen , Quill Laurie
Published: January 2012

This laboratory investigation stems from an Air Force command and control research program in which the status of squadrons and individual aircraft in flight is communicated through pictorial icons. The study investigated the use of animation as cue for remembering the status of aircraft presented in a 3 × 3 display of pictorial icons. Pictorial icons were present to participants in both a homogeneous context (all non-animated) and a mixed context of animated and non-animated icons in a crossover design extending over two sessions. Results indicated the animation facilitated memory, but suggest that the effects may be short-lived. Animation is discussed in terms of its possible beneficial effects (saliency, isomorphism, highlighting distinguishing features, and information chunking) as well as its costs.
Post-Training Feedback: The Relative Effectiveness of Team- versus Instructor-Led Debriefs
Authors: Beaubien J. Matthew , Baker David P.
Published: January 2012

In many high-risk domains, simulators are used for training and evaluating team performance under realistic conditions. Once the simulation is complete, the teams review their performance to identify the lessons that they have learned. These post-training debrief sessions may be either instructor- or team-led. Unfortunately, the relative effectiveness of instructor- versus team-led debriefs remains unclear. To address this question, we surveyed a nationwide, representative sample of over 30,000 pilots from 24 U.S. airlines. Despite having a high degree of statistical power and a reliable scale, we found no statistically or practically significant differences among the four most common approaches to post-training feedback: team debrief with videotape, team debrief without videotape, instructor debrief with videotape, and instructor debrief without videotape. The results suggest that all four approaches may be equally effective.
Effect of Alternate Feedback Strategies on Performance for a Synthetic Aircraft Visual Inspection Task
Authors: Desai Rahul R. , Gramopadhye Anand K. , Melloy Brian J. , Duchowski Andrew
Published: January 2012

Feedback training has been shown to be one of the most effective ways of improving inspection performance. One important issue surrounding the use of feedback is providing the type of information that inspectors find most useful, including determining the format for presenting this information in a way easy to interpret and utilize. The objective of this study was to conduct subjective and performance evaluations of graphical displays used to provide performance and process feedback. Ten subjects, randomly assigned to one of the two sequences in which they underwent two treatment levels (performance feedback, process feedback), inspected a simulated aircraft cargo bay for three types of defects (crack, corrosion and damaged conduit). The subjects then filled out a subjective questionnaire on the content, format and usefulness of the feedback information provided and the display used to provide the information. The results on performance and subjective evaluation of feedback information are analyzed and reported as a part of the study.
UTSAF: Getting The Best of Consumer Graphics into Military Simulations
Authors: Manojlovich Joseph , Prasithsangaree Phongsak , Hughes Stephen , Chen Jinlin , Lewis Michael
Published: January 2012

Rapid advances in consumer electronics have led to the anomaly that consumer gaming hardware and software now provide better interactive three-dimensional graphics than military and other specialized systems costing orders of magnitude more. UTSAF is bridging software written to take advantage of the power of modern gaming systems by allowing them to participate in distributed simulations with military simulators such as the Modular Semi-Automated Forces (ModSAF). UTSAF parses the ModSAF network protocol and uses the information gained to control entities within the Unreal Tournament video game, using the Gamebots modification. This paper describes the advantages of game-based simulation, and the UTSAF bridging and control architecture.
A Visual Display of Flight Time and Distance
Authors: Nadimian Roshanak M. , Burns Catherine M.
Published: January 2012

A flight simulation study was conducted to examine the effect of a visual display of flight time and distance added to a pathway prediction symbology on pilot's flight time management. Twelve participants flew a standard flight path with a time-constrained landing task. Some conditions such as flight under various wind and visibility levels, or instrumentation failures were also applied to the flight tests to measure performance in more challenging conditions. We measured flight's time error as our measure in this study. The results showed that participants flew more accurate flights and landed closer to the required landing time with the visual display particularly under challenging conditions. We concluded that the enhancements made to the pathway prediction display by adding the time-distance gauge supported improved flight time management and flight control.
Adaptability and Flexibility are Key! Benefits of the “Playbook” Interface for Human Supervision of Multiple Unmanned Vehicles
Authors: Squire Peter , Furukawa Hiroshi , Galster Scott , Miller Christopher , Parasuraman Raja
Published: January 2012

There is increasing empirical evidence supporting the “Playbook” interface as an effective method for controlling multiple unmanned vehicles (UVs). To better understand the benefits provided by a flexible Playbook interface, participants controlled either four or eight robots in a simulated UV mission with different forms of restricted or flexible Playbook interfaces in the Roboflag environment. Level of abstraction (robot behavior) and level of aggregation (unit of robot selection) were manipulated to yield different restricted or flexible interfaces. The results confirmed the benefits provided by a flexible Playbook interface in which operators are empowered to delegate (or not) tasks to automated agents, compared to less flexible interfaces which are susceptible to negative effects due to suboptimal automation or unexpected events.
Human Factors Engineering for Space Exploration Missions
Authors: Peacock Brian , McCandless Jeffrey , McCandless Jeffrey , Rajulu Sudhakar , Mount Frances , Mallis Melissa , Whitmore Mihriban , Null Cynthia
Published: January 2012

NASA now has a focused mission for space exploration. We will continue to use ground based analogs and simulators, the Space Shuttle and the International Space Station as research and development platforms, but the challenges of time, distance and very hostile environments raise the challenges to human factors engineering designers to an even greater level. We will have a new generation of vehicles, equipment, habitats and space suits; operations and activity management will present novel scheduling, training and task allocation opportunities. The safety stakes will also be higher and the cold euphemisms of risk management will require some humanization, both for the crew and the public.

Space vehicle launch, docking, navigation and landing will require complex interactions between automation and human operators. Commanders and pilots will require considerable simulator training and will be expected to perform flawlessly despite the debilitating exposure to extended time in space. Physical tasks on planetary surfaces will require protective suits that allow explorers to function effectively without the risk of excessive fatigue. Deviations from our familiar 24 hour day night cycle will demand innovative countermeasures if crew members are not to succumb to performance decrements due to cumulative sleep deprivation. Operation of complex life support, transportation, emergency response and scientific systems will require the development of effective and efficient job aids and procedures. Planetary surface habitats will be designed with the life support systems and home comforts necessary for long duration tenure. Finally, the safety of the human crew will be paramount and will require robust hybrid human-robotic systems, activity schedules and operations management.

The NASA space human factors community is addressing these challenges by observing the performance of crew members in analogs, simulators and real missions and supporting this activity by basic and applied research in NASA laboratories and in collaboration with external scientists. The presentations in this panel will describe some of the current efforts to support this focused NASA exploration mission.
Effects of Task Demand and Time-on-Task on Psychophysiological Candidates for Biocybernetic Control
Authors: Fairclough Stephen H , Venables Louise
Published: January 2012

Biocybernetic control refers the use of psychophysiology as a real-time input to a computerised system. Psychophysiology may be used to monitor relevant variables such as subjective mental workload in order to drive the control of adaptive automation. This study was concerned with the sensitivity and diagnosticity of psychophysiological measures to subjective mental workload and time-on-task. Thirty participants performed the Multi-Attribute Test Battery (MATB) for a period of sixty-four minutes. The results revealed an augmentation of in conjunction with a suppression of α activity from parietal sites in response to high workload. In addition, heart rate, vagal tone and blink duration were sensitive to mental workload. The implications for the selection of psychophysiological variables for biocybernetic control are discussed.
Using Cognitive Modeling to Understand Crew Behavior
Authors: Boehm-Davis Deborah A. , Holt Robert W. , Chong Ronald , Hansberger Jeffrey T.
Published: January 2012

The ACT-R cognitive architecture has been used successfully to model aviation crew performance during the descent phase of flight. This study extended that approach by simulating the duties of a pilot flying (PF) and Pilot Not Flying (PNF) in separate ACT-R models which then were run jointly across several executions. For each set of executions, level of expertise and taskload of the PF and PNF were varied. The models were further tested by implementing interruptions through Air Traffic Control (ATC) calls. The results showed that both expertise and taskload affected performance. Further, ATC interruptions produced crew miscommunication, differential situation awareness, and forgetting relevant goals.
Examining new Flight Deck Technology using Human Performance Modeling
Authors: Deutsch Stephen , Pew Richard
Published: January 2012

Aircraft flight deck synthetic vision systems (SVS) always provide a “clear day” view and hence have the potential to improve safety in commercial aviation. Approach, landing, and taxi operations will most readily profit from the SVS capabilities. A part-task simulation study provided data on pilot performance using a baseline and an SVS-equipped flight deck. One effect of adding the separate SVS to the flight deck was that pilot scan patterns changed significantly—more time was devoted to the attitude displays and less to the navigation display. Concern over the change in well-established scan patterns lead to the suggestion that the SVS, an attitude display, be combined with the primary flight display as a single Enhanced-SVS attitude display rather than augment it as a separate display. A human performance model study was used to reproduce the results of the part-task study and then establish that the Enhanced-SVS attitude instrument would restore the original pilot scan pattern.
Applying the Case/Control Methodology to the Study of Weather-Related General Aviation Accidents
Authors: Groff Loren S. , Price Jana M.
Published: January 2012

The case-control methodology is presented as an underused, yet versatile technique for studying risk factors in aviation accidents. By comparing information from accident flights and control flights conducted under similar circumstances, multiple hypotheses may be tested as they pertain to the accident outcome. This paper outlines practical methods for identifying and collecting aviation accident case-control data and presents examples in the context of an ongoing National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) study of weather-related general aviation accidents. The paper includes a summary of study data collection from the point of initial accident notification, to identifying and gathering data from matching control pilots. Discussion of the specific difficulties and potential problems associated with the method is also included.
Identifying the Factors that Contributed to the Ueberlingen Midair Collision
Authors: Nunes Ashley , Laursen Tom
Published: January 2012

On the night of July 1, 2002, a Boeing 757 collided with a Tupolev-154 at 35,000 feet, resulting in 71 fatalities. Initially, this accident was immediately blamed on two individuals. First, the pilot of the Tupolev aircraft whose command of the English language was questioned when repeated descent instructions from ATC were not immediately responded to. The second individual was the controller on duty, who was accused of not exercising the abilities needed in order to detect the presence of a conflict between aircraft and resolve them. In this paper, we provide an analysis of the event, highlighting fundamental human and system errors that occurred that night: errors that contributed to the worst midair collision in recent history.
A Strategy for the Development of a Web-Based Tool to Reduce Aviation Maintenance Errors
Authors: Kapoor Kunal , Dharwada Pallavi , Iyengar Nikhil , Greenstein Joel S. , Gramopadhye Anand K.
Published: January 2012

The safety and reliability of air transportation depends on minimizing inspection and maintenance errors that occur in the aircraft maintenance system. Efforts have been invested to track maintenance errors. These efforts are reactive in nature: they analyze maintenance errors after their occurrence. There is a lack of standardization in the assessment of maintenance errors across the maintenance industry. Surveillance and auditing of maintenance activities are two important functions which help ensure airworthiness of an aircraft. A system that will document the processes and outcomes of these maintenance activities and will make this documentation more accessible will accomplish the goal of this research to reduce maintenance error. Such a system would then support robust and safer aircraft maintenance operations. Our research is developing a web-based surveillance and auditing tool (WebSAT) that promotes a standardized format for maintenance data collection, reduction and analysis to proactively identify the factors contributing to improper maintenance.
Factors Affecting Task Management in Aviation
Authors: Iani Cristina , Wickens Christopher D.
Published: January 2012

The present paper summarizes the results of a study investigating task management and task prioritization processes in aviation. Forty instrument rated pilots flew three curved approaches in a high fidelity simulation using a Synthetic Vision System (SVS) display. In addition to the primary task of flying, during the last approach they were required to select the approach path on the basis of environmental information concerning weather. The level of immersion in the task, the nature and saliency of the cues signaling the need to divert attention to the path selection task and the cost of not performing the secondary task were manipulated to investigate their influence on task prioritization. Our results indicate that cue saliency affected the frequency of the switch to the secondary task, while task compellingness did not show any reliable effect on task prioritization.
Human in the Loop Evaluation of a Mixed-Initiative System for Planning and Control of Multiple UAV Teams
Authors: Roth Emilie M. , Hanson Mark L. , Hopkins Chris , Mancuso Vince , Zacharias Greg L.
Published: January 2012

This paper describes a ‘Human in the Loop' evaluation of an early prototype mixed-initiative control system that generated plans for single operator supervision of multiple unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) missions. The objectives of the evaluation were to assess to what extent human operators were able to understand the plans generated by the automated controllers as well as to point to additional support requirements to drive further development of mixed-initiative planning systems. Six former fighter pilots served as test participants. Multiple convergent measures were utilized to evaluate the ability of users to understand and evaluate the plans generated by the automated controller. While test participants were able to understand the plans, the results provided compelling evidence for the need to communicate more effectively the rationale behind plan elements proposed by the automated controller and to provide ‘levers' to enable the user to modify the plan. These results point to important challenges for design of ‘mixed-initiative’ controllers to enable the human and automated controller to function as effective ‘partners’.
Surprise and Unexpectedness in Flying: Database Reviews and Analyses
Authors: Kochan Janeen A. , Breiter Eyal G. , Jentsch Florian
Published: January 2012

This database search and evaluation was performed to ascertain what types of situations pilots consider surprising or unexpected. The purpose of the investigation was to determine if natural categories of events emerge from the existing accident, incident, and event reporting data commensurate with the current operational and research focus concerned with unexpected events and aviation safety. The underlying question was whether the involvement of surprise or unexpectedness in events may be a precursor to a loss of attention, increased workload, or other interruptions of ongoing processes, which may then contribute to an unwanted outcome of a maneuver, or an entire flight as revealed in these database reports. The study was also conducted to facilitate the development of a conceptual framework for the study of unexpected events in aviation.
Simborgs and Simulated Task Environments for Engineering Next Generation Workstations for Intelligence Analysts
Authors: Gray Wayne D. , Schoelles Michael J. , Veksler V. Daniel
Published: January 2012

Intelligence analysts require innovative software environments for searching massive databases, hypothesis generation and test, record keeping, crosschecking and so on. Yet, as important as such tools are, their development cannot be allowed to ignore the hard won lessons from cognitive science and human-computer interaction – that human cognition is embodied cognition and that interface design has a large role to play in increasing productivity and reducing human error. We propose an approach to the cognitive engineering of integrated task environments by the use of simulated cyborgs (simBorgs) that combine computational embodied-cognitive models of interactive behavior with artificial intelligence based reasoning components in a simulated task environment. Our goal is the creation of intelligent agents, simBorgs, that will work tirelessly to perform usability testing on various combinations of tasks and interfaces.
Capturing User Intent for Information Retrieval
Authors: Nguyen Hien , Santos Eugene , Zhao Qunhua , Wang Hua
Published: January 2012

Gathering information and making decisions based on retrieved information are the important tasks that every intelligence analyst is doing. User modeling techniques have been exploited to help analysts to search for information effectively. To justify the effects of any user modeling technique on helping analysts retrieve quality documents relevant to their tasks, we need to have a comprehensive evaluation method, which assesses the improvement of retrieval performance and user performance. In this paper, we describe our evaluation of a cognitive user model for information retrieval with regards to retrieval performance. Our user model captures user intent dynamically by analyzing behavioral information from retrieved relevant documents for improving the retrieval performance and user's performance. In this evaluation, we assess the user model's short-term effects on a single query, and the user model's long-term effects on the whole search session. We compare our approach with the best traditional approach for relevance feedback in information retrieval, the Ide dec-hi, which is the approach of modifying queries using term frequency from relevant/non-relevant documents. We use the oldest collection of information retrieval on aerodynamics called CRANFIELD. The results of this evaluation show that by exploring user intent, we achieve competitive performance in the feedback run compared to Ide dec-hi. At the same time, our user model approach offers the advantages of retrieving more quality documents at the initial run compared to the term frequency inverted document frequency (TFIDF) approach. Our results have shown that our user modeling approach can be used to improve efficiency, learnability and interactivity of an information retrieval system.
Designing Support for Intelligence Analysts
Authors: Elm William C. , Cook Malcolm J. , Greitzer Frank L. , Hoffman Robert R. , Moon Brian , Hutchins Susan G.
Published: January 2012

Intelligence analysis is a prototypical example of a situation that can be described by the phrase “coping with complexity,” given a variety of complicating factors including (but certainly not limited to) massive amounts of data, inherent uncertainty in the data, dynamism in the underlying world, and the risks associated with the conclusions drawn from the data. Given this complex nature of intelligence analysis, a wide variety of advanced visualization tools are continually being developed in hopes of designing support for the analysis process. In addition, a number of different cognitive analysis activities are ongoing in hopes of deriving requirements for future support tools. The goal of this panel is to present a sample from both areas in hopes of providing an integration of efforts and thus more effective support tools for intelligence analysts. We have four speakers presenting an analytic perspective, one from a tool development perspective, and one from a support function (the medium between analysis and design) perspective. This should provide an interesting set of complementary discussions into this topic area.