bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Evaluation of the FSA Hand Force Measurement System
Authors: Jung Kihyo , You Heecheon , Kwon Ochae
Published: January 2012

The FSA (Force Sensitive Application) system measures hand force by using force resistance sensors. Compared to conventional hand force measurement systems such as Lafayette hand dynamometer and Jamar hydraulic hand dynamometer, the FSA system can be applied to analyze use of hand forces while the hand is manipulating objects for a task, However, the measurement performance of the FSA system has not been objectively evaluated. The present study tested the FSA system in terms of stability, repeatability, accuracy, and linearity at sensor (one sensor) and system (hand motions; power grip, pulp pinch, pulp press) level. In sensor level, the FSR sensor has good stability (CV ≤ 2%) and linearity ( R2=0.82), but has low repeatability (CV=11%~19%) and accuracy (22% of under evaluation on average). In system level, accuracy is dramatically worsened by increasing the number of sensors involved. For example, mean differences (MD) between the FSA and NK dynamometer are −0.09kgf, −1.15kgf, and −1.49kgf for pulp press (1 sensor), pulp pinch (2 sensors), and power grip (18 sensors). However, there is strong linear relationship between values from the FSA and NK dynamometer ( R2=0.82, 0.94, and 0.99 for pulp press, pulp pinch, and power grip). This performance result indicates that measurements from the FSA system should be used for relative comparison rather than for absolute comparison.
Dynamic Measures for Performance Assessment in Complex Environments
Authors: Svensson Erland , Rencrantz Carin , Lindoff Jenny , Berggren Peter , Norlander Arne
Published: January 2012

The command and control environment is a dynamic and complex setting with complicated technical systems where teams of operators interact to reach shared goals. This paper presents a study where a quasi-dynamic evaluation technique was used to assess performance. Nine operators from the Swedish Air Force participated in a peace support operation scenario in an operational setting. Data was collected by a repeated measurement technique to measure performance, workload, situation awareness, complexity, team coordination and sharing of information. A causal model was derived from the data which shows the relations between mental workload, individual performance and team performance. An efficiency index was calculated showing that the operators performed better over time, even though complexity increased. The use of the repeated measurement technique proved to be successful for measuring complex and dynamic events.
Understanding Performance and Cognitive Efficiency when Training for X-Ray Security Screening
Authors: Fiore Stephen M. , Scielzo Sandro , Jentsch Florian , Howard Megan L.
Published: January 2012

We describe an experiment designed to understand the X-ray security screener task via investigation of how training environment and content influence perceptual learning. We examined both perceptual discrimination and the presence/absence of clutter during training and how this impacted performance. Overall, the data show that performance was generally better when there were clutter items in the training images. We also examined the diagnosticity of a measure of cognitive efficiency, a combinatory metric that simultaneously considers test performance and workload. In terms of cognitive efficiency, participants who trained in the difficult discrimination with clutter present experienced lower workload during the test relative to their actual performance. The discussion centers on how improved analytical techniques are better able to diagnose the relative effectiveness of training interventions.
How Effective Feedback for Training Depends on Learner Resources and Task Demands
Authors: McLaughlin Anne Collins , Rogers Wendy A. , Fisk Arthur D.
Published: January 2012

Systems now may collect almost unlimited amounts of data on performance during learning. However, it is critical to ensure appropriate data are presented properly to the human to aid learning of a system. At the present time, extensive literature exists on training, but there is no agreed upon method of choosing exactly the data to present as feedback during training. This uncertainty is due to the lack of underlying principles for making feedback effective. This paper presents a formulation of feedback principles based on an understanding of the processing demands on the human operator. We explain how variables such as amount of structure and support in feedback interact with the human operator and the task to be learned. With this knowledge, designers may choose suitable feedback for training.
Enhancing Warrior Ethos in Initial Entry Training
Authors: Brunyé T. , Riccio G. , Sidman J. , Darowski A. , Diedrich F. J.
Published: January 2012

The U.S. Army Infantry School Task Force Soldier, in 2003, adopted four Tenets of Warrior Ethos: Mission First, Never Quit, Never Accept Defeat, Never Leave a Fallen Comrade. The research described in this report was conducted for the U.S. Army Research Institute's Infantry Forces Research Unit at Fort Benning. The purpose of the research was to refine and operationalize the 2003 definition of Warrior Ethos and to examine means for its inculcation into the Army. Warrior Ethos was translated into seven values-based attributes exemplified by behavior which could be identified in combat and non-combat situations. The attributes thus make it easier to examine and develop the underpinnings of Warrior Ethos early in a Soldier's training. Hence, trainers can be provided with ways of looking at Soldier behavior within a framework for Warrior Ethos that can be applied consistently throughout training.
Perceptions and Use of Product-Related Age Recommendations: A Case Study Involving ATVs
Authors: Young Stephen L. , Frantz J. Paul , Shah Raina J. , Rhoades Timothy P. , Diebol Julia K.
Published: January 2012

Forty-four adults and nineteen youth participated in a study that examined responses to age recommendations related to the purchase of all-terrain vehicles (atvs) intended for operators under age 16. Structured interviews were used to evaluate preferences under different purchase scenarios. Focus groups were also conducted to assess the factors influencing purchase decisions. Results from the interviews and focus groups showed that situational, person, and product factors influenced people's perceptions of various age recommendations and purchase preferences for atvs. Implications regarding the design and use of age recommendations are discussed.
Manual versus speech input for entering a taxiroute into an Electronic Flight Bag
Authors: Roefs Fenne , Theunissen Erik , Koeners Joris
Published: January 2012

An application for entering a taxiroute into an Electronic Flight Bag, using either speech input or manual input, has been investigated. The input concepts are designed such that the number of actions to be performed when using speech input is the same as when using manual input. A previous evaluation of the speech input concept in an undisturbed, single-task environment showed that high route recognition performance is feasible. To compare the concepts in an operationally realistic environment, two experiments were conducted in a fixed-base research simulator. Typical disturbances that are present in the cockpit environment were modeled and used in this simulation-based evaluation/comparison. Time, efficiency, workload, and pilot preference were used as criteria. Eight professional pilots, with flight experience varying from 9 to 27 years, participated. The results indicate a clear performance benefit in terms of speed and efficiency for the manual input, which also yielded a lower workload and was the preferred option of the pilots.
Performance Differences on Rejected Takeoffs as a Function of Expectancy
Authors: Stevens Susan M. , Goldsmith Timothy E. , Johnson Peder J. , Moulton John B.
Published: January 2012

Unexpected emergency situations in the aviation realm (e.g., rejected takeoffs) demand an immediate response from the pilot in order to avoid severe consequences. Commercial pilots receive extensive training on emergency maneuvers in simulators; however, on rare occasions pilots experience an unexpected event and perform poorly. We completed a series of studies aimed at investigating the effects of expectancy on performance for rejected takeoffs. We found that undergraduate students had a significant degradation in performance for unexpected rejected takeoffs. These results have implications for pilots who experience unexpected events on the line.
A Functional Collaborative Work Unit for Analysing Hazardous Flight Approaches
Authors: Joyekurun Ronish , Amaldi Paola , Wong William
Published: January 2012

We report in this ongoing study on the resilience of Air Traffic Management approach operations by considering a collaborative work unit consisting of the Executive Controller, the Pilot Flying and the Pilot Non-Flying — the behaviour of the team is hypothetically structured by, a) the divided labour strategies of approach control and, b) an adaptiveness to organisational objectives of efficiency. Normal Accident Theory is used as a framework for analysing 348 verbal exchanges from five aviation occurrences. We make use of navigation in hazardous atmospheric situations, as a safety-boundary condition to inform on the behaviour of operator teams. Five broad activity-related themes leading to four detailed collaborative themes were obtained: 1) Monitoring of activities, 2) Redirecting attention to perceived priorities, 3) Implicit redistribution of responsibilities, and 4) Explicit assignation of decisional activities. We conclude that the dynamic interactions within the team during hazardous approaches indicate a functional unit of collaborative work.
Spatial Disorientation in Remote Ground Vehicle Operations: Target Localization Errors
Authors: Chadwick Roger A. , Pazuchanics Skye
Published: January 2012

Operating remote unmanned ground vehicles (UGVs) poses the risk of operator spatial disorientation. While the position of the vehicle can be tracked and displayed on a global map, operators face the difficult task of integrating object (target) information from context limited ground views with a global map view. Studies indicate this can be a challenging task. An analysis of specific object location errors is presented.
A Dynamic Model Balancing User Control and Workload in Automatic and Adaptive Systems
Authors: Roberts Shelley , Parush Avi
Published: January 2012

Current interactive systems are criticized for having complex interfaces that overload users with information. Two possible solutions to manage overload are automatic interfaces that augment user capabilities, and user-controlled systems that provide support. These two types of interfaces introduce a trade-off: On the one hand, automatic interfaces alleviate workload but create performance problems associated with the absence of control. On the other hand, user-controlled interfaces afford users more control, which may come with additional workload. Based on the analysis of adaptive user interfaces and automation, a model is proposed where automatic and user interface adaptation are in a multidimensional and continuum-based space, allowing for modelling dynamic changes to the roles the human and machine play at various stages of interaction.
Hierarchical Task Prioritization Behavior in Two- and Four-Task Scenarios
Authors: Zhang Guoxi , Feyen Robert
Published: January 2012

This paper describes an empirical study conducted to validate a computational model of dynamic task prioritization based on a framework proposed by Zhang and Feyen (2005). Three key factors in task prioritization were manipulated: processing time, available time, and task valence. Because earlier studies did not investigate how people prioritize tasks when valence and temporal characteristics conflict, this study examined how these conflicts are resolved. 20 subjects completed 54 time-limited task scenarios. Each scenario consisted of two or four concurrent tasks, each assigned a point value for completion. Subjects were instructed to maximize points scored. Results indicated that, although valence was predominant in determining task selection, it failed to explain all instances. Instead, a hierarchy of task prioritization was revealed in which subjects first checked what tasks were doable (e.g., self-efficacy), then applied rules first regarding valence, then temporal characteristics, and then others (e.g., task location).
Supporting Situation Awareness Through Ecological Interface Design
Authors: Burns Catherine , Jamieson Greg , Skraaning Gyrd , Lau Nathan , Kwok Jordanna
Published: January 2012

A full-scope simulation study with licensed nuclear power plant operators was conducted to evaluate whether displays designed using Ecological Interface Design (EID) could support improved Situation Awareness over traditional displays. EID demonstrated performance advantages over traditional displays in beyond-design basis scenarios where operators were unable to rely on procedures. The same effects were not seen in within-design basis scenarios where procedures were available. This suggests that EID has the potential to improve SA in unanticipated situations, but that ecological interfaces should be supported with task-based displays in procedure-driven situations.
Meta-Information Representation and Communication
Authors: Pfautz Jonathan , Roth Emilie , Bisantz Ann , Jackson Cullen , Thomas Gina , Trafton Greg , Whitaker Randy
Published: January 2012

Increasingly, the study of cognition and action in complex sociotechnical systems has revealed that humans reason about both information and the qualifications of that information. These qualifications, or meta-information (e.g., pedigree, recency, uncertainty), play a role in human performance across work domains (Pfautz et al., 2006). Meta-information contextualizes information, and therefore can critically influence how a human will process, understand, and act on that information. This panel will discuss the role of meta-information in the design and evaluation of visualization and decision-support systems.
Using Peripheral Processing and Spatial Memory to Facilitate Task Resumption
Authors: Ratwani Raj M. , Andrews Alyssa E. , McCurry Malcolm , Trafton J. Gregory , Peterson Matthew S.
Published: January 2012

Theories accounting for the process of primary task resumption following an interruption have focused on the suspension and retrieval of a specific goal (Altmann & Trafton, 2002). The ability to recall the spatial location of where in the task one was prior to being interrupted may also be important. We show that being able to maintain a spatial representation of the primary task facilitates task resumption. Participants were interrupted by an instant message window that either partially or fully occluded the primary task interface. Reaction time measures show that participants were faster at resuming in the partial occlusion condition. In addition, eye track data suggest that participants were more accurate at returning to where they left off, suggesting that they were able to maintain a spatial representation of the task and use this information to resume more quickly.
Risk, Ambiguity, and Information Use in an Ethical Decision Dilemma
Authors: Mosier Kathleen L. , Bartholomew Michael , Meng Eva , Xavier Luiz
Published: January 2012

We used the situational context of purported unethical organizational behavior to examine the impact of risk to self, risk to society, and cue ambiguity on information search strategies and ultimate decision. Participants completed eight experimental scenarios using a web-based interface. They read each scenario stem and accessed information until they could make a decision about whether or not to ‘blow the whistle’ on the organization. Significant effects on number of same-type cue boxes accessed were found for ambiguity and risk to society levels. Risk to self and risk to society impacted participants' likelihood of reporting the scenario incident. A significant risk to self by risk to society interaction suggested that low risk to self enhanced willingness to report incidents especially when risk to society was high. Results suggest that individuals will respond to this type of risky situation by a) trying to be more sure of the situation, and b) focusing more on risks to others than to themselves. Implications are discussed.
Visual Evidence Landscapes: Reducing Bias in Collaborative Intelligence Analysis
Authors: Cook Maia B. , Smallman Harvey S.
Published: January 2012

Two new approaches for mitigating the confirmation bias are proposed and evaluated in the domain of collaborative intelligence analysis. Trainee Naval intelligence analysts and reservists (N=27) role-played analysts working 10 problems, taking one of two different collaborative roles across problems. Each problem's hypothesis had an equal proportion of supporting and refuting evidence. Participants chose and prioritized a subset of available evidence that would be most important in evaluating a particular hypothesis. Bias manifested itself as selecting or prioritizing a skewed subset of supporting evidence to focus on or share. Two new low-workload debiasing methods were evaluated. First, supporting or refuting evidence was laid out graphically, instead of in text. Second, other analysts shared their interpretations of evidence, instead of analysts having to interpret the evidence on their own. Results showed a significant bias to focus on and share confirming evidence across all conditions. The highest ranked evidence was also the most supportive evidence. However, bias was reduced for problems worked with the graphical evaluation format for one collaborative role. Also, participants were less biased to accept hypotheses for problems worked in a graphical format when they had interpreted the evidence-hypothesis relationship themselves. These results have implications for the basic study of decision bias (conflating support and importance) and applied design of systems that help to reduce bias.
Team Cognition in Intelligence Analysis
Authors: Trent Stoney , Voshell Martin , Patterson Emily
Published: January 2012

While intelligence analysis has become the focus of much recent research, there has been a shortage of research in team cognition for analytical tasks and effective training strategies for analysis. This study investigates the effectiveness of teams of analysts in a training exercise. In order to capture the dynamics and nuances of multiple large teams of practitioners concurrently struggling with a realistic scenario, we used a unique adaptation of established ethnographic methods. The goal of this qualitative research was to determine persistent analytical strategies and study the interplay between the critical support functions of macrocognition for teams of novice analysts. Findings from this study suggest strategies for improving performance and training for intelligence analysts.
Exploring Challenges of Information Dynamics Using an Animock
Authors: Anders Shilo , Zelik Dan , Jacoby Timothy , Patterson Emily S. , Woods David D.
Published: January 2012

In this paper, we describe the use of an animated prototyping technique to elicit feedback on the usefulness of a set of modular design concepts for dealing with information dynamics in inferential analysis under data overload conditions. The design concepts were comprised of innovative solutions that utilized technology to assist in inferential analysis. The findings generally support the “promisingness” of the design directions for addressing information dynamics challenges in inferential analysis under data overload. Elicited feedback provides insight on how the concepts might prove useful to intelligence analysts in the field. Analysts recommended significant modifications that would be difficult to change post-implementation of software, suggesting that the animock technique was useful for exploring how design concepts could address challenging issues where no current software support exists.
Modeling Work for Cognitive Work Support System Design in Operational Control Centers
Authors: Feigh Karen , Pritchett Amy
Published: January 2012

The design of cognitive work support systems for operational control centers is an emerging challenge for human factors practitioners. Ecological, task and cognitivist approaches individually do not provide the full insight required for CWSS design. Instead, work is presented as a ‘mid-level abstraction’ that captures many of the inherent structures and constraints of the ecology and context which can be captured by a set of complementary work models, and extended through the use of contextual control modes. This paper presents representative work models and insights from ethnographic observations of airline OCCs.
Artifacts Use in Safety Critical Information Transfer: A Preliminary Study of the Information Arena
Authors: Ho Danny , Xiao Yan , Gurses Ayse P. , Vaidya Vinay , Cardarelli Marcelo G. , Tumulty Jamie , Simone Shari , Burns-Conway Dyana , Hu Peter F. , Cervenka Jason
Published: January 2012

Highly skilled professionals in mission critical work domains communicate complicated, critical information, frequently under time pressure. For example, sustained operations require shift work, which results in hand-offs of responsibilities and need of information transfers. There is a growing interest to support their communications through advanced information technology. We observed usage of information artifacts in a pediatric intensive care unit to study information transfers to guide the design of support technology. In contrast to published studies, we examined the context of supporting environment that contains rich information sources gathered or tailored for verbal discourses. We called the supporting environment “information arena.” Clinicians prepare for their personal information arena as well as the shared information arena (e.g., paper notes, charts, mobile computers). Patterns of artifact uses during discourses revealed several distinct roles of artifacts, as well as constraints on design of such artifacts. For example, artifacts in shared information arena should be easily manageable to support fluid and dynamic conversation flow. We also uncover several potential future roles for information artifacts to support information transfer.
Comparing Two Methods for Predicting Navigation Problems in Information Hierarchies
Authors: Miller Craig S. , Fuchs Sven , Niranchana S. , Kulkarni Priti
Published: January 2012

When locating target items in information hierarchies, performance depends much on selecting the right nodes along the path. Two methods for evaluating category membership, card sorting and a simple statistical approach, are compared with regard to their predictive capacity of navigation difficulties. We developed a category structure for a web site and obtained metrics from both card sorting and a statistical approach based on the word frequencies of category content items. We then conducted a user study to compare actual user performance with predictions from the two approaches. Despite the simplicity of the statistical approach, it produced marginally better predictions. In particular, it predicted problematic target items that took nearly twice as much time on average to find than the remaining targets in the web navigation study. We review these results and discuss usefulness and implications of predicting navigation problems in information hierarchies for the information architect.
Automatic Assessment of Situation Awareness from Electronic Mail Communication: Analysis of the Enron Dataset
Authors: Gorman Jamie , Weil Shawn A. , Cooke Nancy , Duran Jasmine
Published: January 2012

Over the past two decades, “situation awareness” (SA) has graduated from a Human Factors construct to a mainstream term in domains as diverse as aviation, medicine, and defense. Individuals involved in design, training, and policy consider SA a critical aspect of the success of their organizations. Given this prominence, accurate measures of SA should be primary indications of organizational performance. However, many traditional measures of SA disrupt the flow of work; they are poorly suited for operational organizations. Alternative methods of SA measurement are needed if accurate feedback is to be given to team members in working conditions. In this effort, we explore the potential of unobtrusive process measures of SA. These measures are based on analyses of the electronic communications media prevalent in modern networked organizations.
Tagging Macrocognitive Processes Using Communication Flow Patterns
Authors: Gorman Jamie C. , Cooke Nancy J. , Warner Norman W. , Wroblewski Elizabeth M.
Published: January 2012

Team communications provide a rich source of data on team or macro- cognition. Efforts to automate team communication analysis are easing the burden of manual analysis and are facilitating the investigation of a variety of dimensions of these data. Communications flow is one dimension that has been tapped and shown to be relevant to team performance. In this study macrocognitive processes are manually coded in the context of a Noncombatant Evacuation Exercise. In addition, communication flow patterns are extracted for a portion of the communication data and mapped onto the manually coded processes. The human tags of the remaining data are then predicted based solely on communication flow patterns with flow data predicting 73% of the variance in human-coded macrocognitive stages and 42% of the variance in the macrocognitive processes. These results can help inform macrocognitive theory and present promise for automatic tagging.
Executive Dashboard Widgets: A Performance-Based Comparative Analysis
Authors: Chipley M. Ryan , Barlow Todd
Published: January 2012

Executive dashboards have become popular in enterprise software applications. Consequently, much advice has been offered by private consulting firms on how best to design dashboards. This paper details a couple of studies testing the advice given by the dashboard experts. The results suggest that some of the notions about how dashboard widgets should be designed might be incorrect. The results indicate that colored widgets are not necessarily inferior to simpler, colorless widgets. Similarly, fancy widgets (i.e., those with three dimensional characteristics) were not demonstrated to be inferior to plainer widgets. While some methodological challenges must be overcome in similar future studies, the results of the described studies do not support some popular ideas about executive dashboards (and data visualization in general), and suggest that the area of interest is ripe for further investigation.
The Effect of Typeface on the Perception of Onscreen Documents
Authors: Fox Doug , Shaikh A. Dawn , Chaparro Barbara S.
Published: January 2012

This study investigated the effect that typeface has on a reader's perception of three different types of onscreen documents (business, email, and youth narrative stories). Participants read documents displayed in either a congruent, neutral, or incongruent typeface. Results suggest that the less congruent the typeface, the more the document was perceived in a negative fashion. That is, the typeface itself affected the perceived personality of the document and the perception of the author; thus, typeface appropriateness should be considered when writing an onscreen document.
Comparing Usability Problem Identification and Description by Practitioners and Students
Authors: Capra Miranda G.
Published: January 2012

Many studies of usability studies count the number of usability problems identified to measure the effectiveness of an evaluation. However, communicating problems is also important to evaluation effectiveness, because a problem found but poorly explained may not be fixed. This study compared lists of usability problems from 21 practitioners and 23 students watching a pre-recorded usability session. Lists were evaluated for the number of problems reported, and for following six guidelines for describing usability problems: be clear and avoid jargon, describe problem severity, provide backing data, describe problem causes, describe user actions, and provide a solution. There was no difference in the number of problems reported by students and practitioners, but there was a difference in their ratings for following several of the guidelines. Using both measures provides a more complete assessment of usability reports.
The Effects of Study Time and Presentation Modality on Learning
Authors: Zolna Jesse S.
Published: January 2012

The modality principle suggests that presenting words via audio-narration rather than visual-text can improve learning (Mayer, 2001). However, the use of narrations when verbal materials are lengthy can have cognitive costs, and learning from text can be improved when materials are self-paced or provide ample study time. Therefore, there might be circumstances under which using text would actually be better than using narration. In this experiment we compare learning from diagrams that accompany text or narration; we manipulated available study time while also providing learners control over the pace of presentation. The results show that under these conditions, using narration instead of text does not improve learning. Some additional study time improves learning from both narration and text. However, even greater amounts of study time improve learning from narrations but not text. Implications about when to apply the modality principle to multimedia instructional design are discussed.
Placement Opportunities for Human Factors Engineering and Ergonomics Professionals
Authors: Moroney William F.
Published: January 2012

During the period from January 2006 through December 2006, the Placement Service of Human Factors and Ergonomics Society distributed announcements describing 140 new positions available for human factors and ergonomics professionals. This paper focuses on the 124 placement opportunities for those in Industry and the government/military, and briefly addresses positions in Education. The attributes of the position descriptions examined include: employment sector, degree requirements, work experience, expertise, salary, and geographic location.

The employment sector type seeking the most employees was Consulting Firms that specialize in Human Factors with 29 positions (23%). The degree required was usually a Masters (48%) and the geographic area with the most jobs was the MidWest (N=16). The areas of expertise most frequently requested by employers were Engineering and Psychology.
Verbal Ability and Structured Navigation on Learning with Hypertext
Authors: Martinez-Papponi Brenda , Goldsmith Timothy E.
Published: January 2012

Learners bring their unique individual perceptions, preferences, and abilities to a learning situation. The effect of individual differences on learning depends in part on how the instructional system accommodates individual differences. The current study examined the role of individual differences in verbal ability and structured navigation in hypertext learning. It was predicted that learning would vary with how well the hypertext environment supported a learner's individual attributes. Ninety-seven participants participated in one of four groups of a 2 × 2 between-subjects factorial design, which focused on the interaction between levels of navigational structure (unconstrained or expert constrained) and levels of participants' verbal ability (high or low). Overall, learners with high-verbal ability performed better on an unconstrained navigation structure than those with low-verbal ability; whereas in an expert-constrained navigation this difference between verbal ability levels was smaller. The results have implications for the design of hypertext-based learning systems.
Case Study: The Wrong Mental Model can Kill You
Authors: Nemire Kenneth
Published: January 2012

Mental models are internal representations of the external world that are thought to influence perception and decision-making. An inappropriate mental model of a “roller coaster” was hypothesized to have caused the injury of one person and the death of another in a roller coaster incident. A study was conducted to learn about existing internal representations of roller coasters. Participants were asked to draw a roller coaster. Despite the existence of several types of roller coasters, 98% of the study participants drew a roller coaster representing the oldest and most prevalent type of coaster. The results of the study are discussed with respect to this injury incident and the importance of educating product users about more appropriate mental models that may help prevent injury or death.
Enhancing an Application for Dynamic Management of System Capacity Using Cognitive Assessment Indicators
Authors: Brown Jeffrey , Kosnik Linda , Cox Donald
Published: January 2012

Over the past two decades there has been an escalation in the number of patient admissions to U.S. hospitals while the number of available hospital beds has declined. Concurrently, decreasing reimbursements for patient care services have compelled cost cutting and efficiency measures. Coupled with other factors such as personnel shortages, this has eroded the capacity of hospitals to absorb situational increases in demand. Innovative approaches to monitoring and enhancing capacity management are integral to improving resilience and reliability. This paper describes the Acute Care Operations Management Solution (ACOMS), an application designed to enable dynamic management of demand versus capacity across system scales, and Cognitive Assessment Indicators, a method for evaluating the impact of system design on the cognitive functioning of operators.
Dynamic Changes in Reliability and Resilience in the Emergency Department
Authors: Wears Robert L , Perry Shawna J , McFauls Allyson
Published: January 2012

Emergency Departments (EDs) are open systems that routinely cope with highly variable and uncertain inputs. This paper will use two critical incidents to explore system adaptations to demand, complexity, unpredictability, and other threats to performance. We then relate the observations to three recently proposed graphical representations of organizational resilience: the resilience state space model; the stress-strain model of adaptation; and a dynamic model of resilience. We use these graphics to analyze the ED's response to chronic constraints and unexpected shocks. The models are found to be mutually reinforcing - each highlights some important aspects of resilience, while none capture all of the salient features.
Shifts in Force Perception Threshold in Laparoscopic Surgery with Experience
Authors: Zhou M. , Perreault J. , Schwaitzberg S.D. , Cao C.G.L.
Published: January 2012

In laparoscopic surgery, the surgeon receives limited haptic feedback and relies on visual feedback to judge the amount of force applied to tissues. It has been shown that friction forces inherent in the instrumentation increased the haptic perception threshold of naive subjects. A controlled experiment was conducted to examine the effects of experience on force perception threshold in a simulated tissue-probing task. Fourteen subjects participated in a mixed design experiment, with friction, vision, and tissue softness as independent within-subjects factors, experience as an independent between-subjects factor, and applied force and detection time as dependent measures. Higher thresholds and longer detection times were observed when friction was present. Experienced surgeons applied a greater force than novices, but were quicker to detect contact with tissue, suggesting that experience allowed surgeons to perform more efficiently while keeping within the limits of safety.
How Does Artificial Force Feedback Affect Laparoscopic Surgery Performance?
Authors: Bell Audrey K. , Cao Caroline G.L.
Published: January 2012

The use of haptic devices to provide force feedback in teleoperation has been shown to enhance performance. An experiment was conducted to examine whether artificial force feedback is utilized in the same manner as real force feedback in a simulated laparoscopic tissue-probing task. Forces in probing a double-layer silicon gel mass were replicated and exaggerated in a virtual environment using a haptic device. Ten subjects performed the probing task in four different conditions: 1) realistic force feedback, 2) exaggerated feedback, 3) disproportionately exaggerated forces, and 4) reversed and disproportionately exaggerated forces. Results showed a significantly higher maximum force, detection time and error rate in virtual probing than in real probing. Time to task completion was significantly different between the virtually realistic and exaggerated force feedback conditions. These results suggest that artificial force information may be processed differently than real haptic information, leading to higher force application, inefficiency, and reduced accuracy in tissue probing tasks.
Debriefing Surgeons on Non-Technical Skills in the Operating Room - Results from a Pilot Study
Authors: Yule S. , Flin R. , Maran N. , Rowley D. , Youngson G. , Paterson-Brown S.
Published: January 2012

Briefing and debriefing are common practices for safety in high risk industries but are not systematically done in surgery. Regular debriefing of performance after operative surgery can greatly assist surgical trainees' development and help optimize learning from the limited time they spend in the Operating Room (OR). We developed and tested the NOTSS (Non-Technical Skills for Surgeons) behaviour rating system with subject matter experts. It allows surgeons to observe trainees' behaviour in the OR and provide them with structured feedback for improvement. This paper describes process of debriefing and the results of a pilot usability trial. The majority of participants reported that the NOTSS system was useful for debriefing trainees, provided a common language to discuss non-technical skills, and was a valuable adjunct to current assessment tools. Some surgeons found interpersonal skills more difficult to rate than cognitive skills. 73% felt that routine use of the system would enhance patient safety.
Simulation Training for Rapid Assessment and Improved Teamwork-Lessons Learned from a Project Evaluating Clinical Handoffs
Authors: Slagle Jason M. , Kuntz Audrey , France Dan , Speroff Theodore , Madbouly Abeer , Weinger Matthew B.
Published: January 2012

Effective communication between clinicians is a crucial component of safe care. High-quality communication may be especially critical during care transitions between clinicians (handoffs). In a two-year quasi-experimental Quality Improvement project, we are using simulation learning to evaluate and improve communication between anesthesia providers and nurses as care is transitioned from the operating room to the post-anesthesia care unit (PACU). Using a multiple baseline, staggered entry, prospective cohort design with repeated measures, we are introducing a training intervention and evaluating its effects on dyadic communication. The primary hypothesis is that simulation-based communication skills training of PACU personnel will significantly improve the quality of handoffs. Clinicians' performance is being compared before and after their training on four dimensions of handoff effectiveness: information transfer; use of best evidence handoff strategies; interpersonal skills; and team behaviors. Clinicians also rate their own handoffs. Lessons learned and results to date will be presented.
The frequency and impact of task interruptions in the ICU
Authors: Drews Frank A.
Published: January 2012

Up to 98,000 patients die annually in U.S. hospitals due to human error. Despite epidemiological studies demonstrating the severity of this problem it is still unclear what the contributing factors to human error are. However, in aviation one contributor to accidents is task interruptions. The present study examined the frequency and impact of task interruptions in the Intensive Care Unit.

Observational data were collected in the ICU by shadowing nurses. During the 34 hours of observation, 1138 nurse activities were observed, of which 29.4% were interrupted. Consequences of an interruption for the primary task can be abandoning its completion or omissions of some of the tasks steps. The conditional probability that an interrupted task was abandoned was p(abandoned | interrupted) = .12, where the omission of steps of the primary task had a conditional probability of p(omission | interrupted) = .015. A total of six cases that created patient hazards were observed where in five of these cases an interruption preceded directly.

The results of the present study indicate that interruptions in the ICU are frequent and are likely to have a negative impact on patient safety.
Assessing Medication Safety Technology in the Intensive Care Unit
Authors: Rayo Michael , Smith Phil , Weinger Matthew B. , Slagle Jason
Published: January 2012

Understanding the strengths and weaknesses of a technology in the context of the distributed system in which it is working is critical to assessing and improving the performance of that system. Taking a systems approach requires knowledge about how all agents in a system work together to achieve the goals of that system. With these aims, the alerting mechanism of infusion pumps containing Dose-Error Reduction Software (DERS) was studied to determine its effectiveness in the Intensive Care Units (ICU's) of three hospitals. In 1,146 of the 9,557 pump alerts (12.0%), the alert caused the clinician to change the input. Of these, 1,030 were changed to within the hospital's recommended dosing limits. The alert was overridden for 8,400 (88.0%) of the alerts. The data show that this technology successfully informed clinicians over 1000 times that unintended doses had been inputted and stopped those doses from reaching the patient, thereby averting potential Medication Events. The data also suggest that, because nearly 90% of the alerts were overridden, a well-intended and valuable alert may be perceived by the clinicians as a false alarm and may be overlooked. Another key finding from this analysis was that clinicians may have used potentially unsafe workarounds to administer intravenous drug boluses (i.e., more rapid infusion of a defined dose or volume) and to keep the patient's line active between infusions. In a separate parallel study, clinician self-report of potentially harmful medication events was studied. During 559 hours of direct observation, clinicians detected 27 (IV and non-IV) medication events. All of the reported events were outside of the scope of what DERS technology was designed to detect. In addition, during the same time period the technology detected five potentially harmful IV medication events that the clinicians did not report. The results of these two studies indicate two possible classes of solutions that could reduce the impact and likelihood of medication administration errors. One class of solutions involves the procedures and policies of the hospital, ensuring that process and technology implementations are optimally tuned, taking human performance and the current practice of the clinicians into account. The other class of solutions involves using new strategies and technologies to ensure that each system agent has access to other agents' perspectives, and the broader system's perspective. Studies such as these can provide insight into the use of safety technology during critical care processes and provide direction for future research, including more effective design of alerting mechanisms of ICU devices.
Tachistoscopic Study on the Impact of Net Quantity and Dosage Strength Proximity on Dosage Strength Recognition in Prescription Drug Labels
Authors: Buffardi Kevin , Bojko Agnieszka , Israelski Edmond
Published: January 2012

A study was conducted to assess the impact of two different drug label layouts on pharmacy practitioners' ability to correctly extract critical information. Labels were shown to 43 participants under time-pressure conditions, using tachistoscopic presentation. The two layouts did not differ in terms of recognition accuracy, and the anticipated interference between two label elements, dosage strength and net quantity (number of tablets/capsules), when located in close proximity to each other, was not observed. Successive reduction in exposure time (200, 100 and 50 ms) resulted in an increased dosage strength recognition error rate, but the effect was independent of the distance between the dosage strength and net quantity. Possible explanations, as well as the benefit of using tachistoscopic presentation to assess the impact of design changes on user performance are discussed.
Challenges with applying FMEA to the process for reading labels on injectable drug containers
Authors: Jeon Jennifer , Hyland Sylvia , Burns Catherine M. , Momtahan Kathryn
Published: January 2012

As a part of a study that aims to evaluate and improve the labelling of containers for injectable drugs, Failure Mode and Effects Analysis (FMEA) was applied to the label reading process. Implementing a FMEA on a small-scale cognitive process involved various challenges including difficulties in representing the process, defining the failure modes, causes and effects, developing the rating scales for criticality, and rating the criticality of the failure modes. The failure modes were rated via two focus groups of healthcare professionals. The results highlight complexities and potential pitfalls with applying FMEA to the label reading process.
Modeling the Effects of Behavior Moderators for Simulation-Based Human Factors Design
Authors: Reilly W. Scott Neal , Bachman John , Harper Karen A. , Marotta Stephen , Pfautz Jonathan
Published: January 2012

Designing systems, interfaces, procedures and artifacts in simulated environments before they are developed and deployed has the potential to greatly decrease the costs of design and development and, in some cases, can provide significant safety advantages. Creating realistic models of humans is an important aspect of the modeling problem, but existing models tend to model typical humans and fail to account for the significant differences seen from person to person or even by the same person in different circumstances. In the modeling literature, models of the factors that lead to such differences (including personality, affect, training, etc.) are typically called behavior moderators or performance moderators. This paper describes the MINDS (Modeling INdividual Differences and Stressors) project, which builds on previous work in behavior moderator modeling by supporting richer representations of moderators, moderator dynamics, and moderator interactions and by providing moderator-integration approaches for common behavior-modeling technologies, including production rules, fuzzy logic, and Bayesian networks. We provide a demonstration scenario from a military-operation domain.
Strategy, Spatial Visualization Ability, and Performance on Website Navigation
Authors: Campbell Susan G. , Norman Kent L.
Published: January 2012

Spatial Visualization Ability is a determinant of performance efficiency on website navigation tasks. It is unclear, however, why this is the case; though the spatial metaphor for web “navigation” is popular, it is not accurate. We put forth a hypothesis that strategy use is another important component of web navigation efficiency that relates to Spatial Visualization Ability. To investigate this hypothesis, we designed a series of experiments using numeric indicators instead of verbal labels in model websites. We then characterized the strategies that participants used on each website into categories based on their resemblance to prototype strategies. We found that, though strategy choice does not seem to depend on Spatial Visualization Ability, precise implementation does seem to depend to some degree on Spatial Visualization Ability.