bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Perceptual Learning Modules in Flight Training
Authors: Kellman Philip J. , Kaiser Mary K. 
Published: January 2012

Differences between novices and experts in many piloting skills may be due to perceptual learning. Sufficient exposure to relevant stimulus variation produces more efficient information extraction, processing of higher-order patterns, and automaticity. Isolating and condensing relevant perceptual experience in part-task environments might accelerate training. Here we report initial studies of two prototype perceptual learning modules (PLMs) for flight training. Subjects were either experienced (500-2500 hour) civil aviators or non-pilots. In the Visual Navigation PLM, subjects received brief instruction on aeronautical chart symbology and then viewed 20-second segments of terrain (videotaped from aircraft). Each trial required a speeded, forced choice of the aircraft's location from three possible grid locations on the aeronautical chart. A separate control group received only 20 pre- and 20 post-test trials. In the Instrument Relationships PLM, subjects viewed displays of primary flight instruments and performed a speeded response classifying the flight attitude depicted. In both PLMs, subjects' speed and accuracy were measured over 9 blocks of trials. PLMs produced dramatic improvements in speed and accuracy for both non-pilots and pilots. Pilots initially outperformed non-pilots. Non-pilots after 1-2 hours of PLM training were as accurate and faster than pilots before training in both PLMs. The results suggest that PLMs have value for primary and recurrent training, both in aviation and other domains. Appropriately structured PLMs could condense perceptual learning processes that normally occur with extended experience. By fostering greater automaticity of pattern processing, PLMs might allow component skills to be more easily integrated in flight or other complex tasks.
Tools for Human Performance Enhancement in Aviation Maintenance
Authors: Johnson William B. 
Published: January 2012

Human Factors and ergonomics professionals are often asked to “show” how their research has affected on-the-job human performance. They are asked to show measurable changes in human effectiveness and efficiency at work. There is always the demand for HF&E researchers to create procedures and tools that can guide non-human factors personnel to make the “right” human-centered decisions. This symposium will show and distribute such tools that have been designed and tested in an aviation maintenance environment. For over six years now, the Federal Aviation Administration Office of Aviation Medicine has conducted an extensive research program centered on human factors in aviation maintenance and inspection. The research program has earned a reputation of demonstrating a “hands-on” understanding of aviation maintenance and maintaining a close working relationship with all segments of the industry. The symposium will begin with an overview of FAA-sponsored research results applied to aviation maintenance and safety over the past six years. In the second paper the Human Factors Guide for Aviation Maintenance, completed in 1995, will be described. The third presentation will demonstrate a CD-ROM version of the Guide. The presentation shall also discuss human-computer interface issues pertinent to developing interactive multi-media information systems. The final presentation will show a multi-media software package to conduct ergonomics audits in a variety of industrial environments. The system has evolved from three years of ergonomics audit research in aviation maintenance workplaces. Each of the session presentations will demonstrate and distribute HF&E tools to session attendees.
The Human Factors Involved in Designing an On-Line Reference System
Authors: Schumacher Robert M. , Schumacher Robert M. , Root Robert W. , Wieringa Douglas R. , Lew Gavin S. 
Published: January 2012

Throughout the last two years, we have been involved in an ambitious plan to move support documentation to an electronic document delivery system at Ameritech The purpose of this panel is to provide a discussion of the human factors issues involved and the effort required to move from a paper-based environment to an electronic document management and delivery system. The starting state of Ameritech's documentation was similar to that of many large companies that have complex processes. The documents were written by dozens of authors over several years and varied widely in quality. Standards were loosely followed, if at all, and users were continually frustrated by their inability to find information. This unwieldy environment had countless direct and indirect impacts on customers, as well as on the bottom line. As we scoped the project we discovered that our challenges were legion: • Design a new document specification that fit the needs of the users, worked well on-line, exploited the capabilities of electronic information (e.g., hypertext), and could be put together by our current author population; • Develop and implement a collaborative authoring and work flow process to support document creation; • Establish standards for writing and document rendering; • Design an efficient, usable user interface to the electronic document; • Move tens of thousands of pages of hard copy to an online system; and • Get the system introduced and accepted by users - not to mention wean them away from paper. In this panel, we hope to stimulate discussion around a variety of these topics. We will discuss four key areas: task analysis, process changes, authoring requirements, and user interface design.
An Evaluation of the Fun Factor for the Microsoft Easyball Mouse
Authors: Adams Edie , Des M.E. , Sanders Elizabeth B-N 
Published: January 2012

Microsoft was interested in measuring the “fun” value of a new input device, the Microsoft® EasyBall™ mouse (designed specifically for two to six year olds), relative to three other input devices available in the marketplace. An evaluation was conducted as a means of ensuring that the ergonomic considerations incorporated into the design of a new child's pointing device addressed the emotional needs, as well as the physical and cognitive needs, of the intended users. A research and test methodology was established to look at this issue from multiple simultaneous perspectives, using both behavioral and verbal measures. Forty four children (half boys and half girls, mixed across the age levels) and their parents were included in the study. The children varied in their level of expertise with computer and/or video games. The same basic procedure was used for all the children, with adaptations made to accommodate the attention spans and skill levels of the youngest. The children indicated through a variety of converging measures that the Microsoft EasyBall mouse was their input device of choice. The patterns of behavior varied across the age groups, but the choices of the children were clearly in favor of the Microsoft EasyBall mouse. The parents were quite accurate at predicting which input device their child would pick. A detailed examination of the videotaped sessions provided cues that caused a rethinking of the initial question “How fun is the Microsoft EasyBall mouse relative to the other input devices?”. The fun factor may have been more accurately described as a “feel good” factor. Results are discussed in terms of implications for expanding the typical physical and cognitive-based ergonomics analyses for consumer products to include emotional considerations as well.
Perceived Differences in Running and Walking Shoes
Authors: Goonetilleke Ravindra S. , Cann Michael T. 
Published: January 2012

Designers rely heavily on the past sales history of a particular shoe when attempting to make decisions regarding shoe characteristics of future shoes. Cushioning devices made of air, “super” gases, energy return rubber, and gel's have become popular. However, the question that needs to be asked is whether these devices are truly functional or whether they are primarily of aesthetic value. Shoe qualities such as cushioning, comfort, stability, shock absorption, and energy return play an important role during athletic activity. It is also known that the above mentioned characteristics have significant interactions with each other. Hence it is important to know the relevance of these interactions when designing shoes for a particular activity. The primary goal of this study was to investigate the interaction and relevance of shoe properties during running and walking. Four specially fabricated shoes were used in the study. The results indicate the following: • Heel cushioning and shock absorption play an important role in the overall cushioning of a midsole. • Runners perceive shoe-heel cushioning somewhat differently from those who use shoes for walking. • Heel cushioning during running seems to be influenced by shock absorption, stability and possibly rebound. • Heel cushioning during walking seems to be influenced by shock absorption and possibly rebound. Hence a good running shoe can in most cases satisfy the biomechanical needs during walking.
Quantitative Biomechanical Analysis of Wrist Motion in Bone-Trimming Jobs in the Red-Meat Packing Industry
Authors: Monroe John F. , Marklin Richard W. 
Published: January 2012

This study was motivated by the serious impact that cumulative trauma disorders (CTDs) of the upper extremities have on industrial workers and on industry itself. To date, no quantitative data has been gathered on the kinematics of hand and wrist motion required in bone-trimming jobs in the red-meat packing industry. No information is known about what type and how much wrist motion is currently being used in bone-trimming jobs in the red-meat packing industry, or how much these motions increase the risk of occupational CTDs. The research conducted addressed this current research void and established a preliminary database of wrist and hand kinematics for a bone-trimming job in the red-meat packing industry. This kinematic database could augment the red-meat industry's efforts to reduce the severity and cost of CTDs. Ergonomics practitioners in the red-meat industry could use the kinematic methods employed in this research to assess the CTD risk of current and redesigned jobs that require repetitious, hand-intensive work. The study examined the wrist motions used by nine red-meat packing workers who performed bone-trimming jobs. These jobs are highly repetitive and hand-intensive. Quantitative measures of the kinematic parameters of wrist motions performed on the bone-trimming line were measured using goniometry. The wrist motion measures consisted of the following statistics in the radial/ulnar, flexion/extension, and pronation/supination planes: 1). mean, minimum, and maximum of wrist angle position, 2). mean, minimum, and maximum of angular velocity, and 3). mean, minimum, and maximum of angular acceleration. The kinematic data were compared to manufacturing industry's preliminary wrist motion benchmarks. These benchmarks were the means and variances of nine dependent variables of position, velocity, and acceleration from industrial workers who performed hand-intensive, repetitive work in jobs that were of low and high risk of hand/wrist CTDS (Marras and Schoenmarklin, 1993). Results of this comparison show that numerous wrist motion variables in both the left and right hands of bone-trimming workers are in the high-risk category. This quantitative analysis provides biomechanical support for the high incidence of CTDs in the bone-trimming line of the plant that was investigated.
A Meta-Analysis of Driver Eye-Scanning Behavior While Navigating
Authors: Dingus Thomas A. 
Published: January 2012

A meta-comparison of link analyses was performed using two eye scanning studies. One study was an analysis of the Etak navigator performed by Antin, Dingus, Hulse and Wierwille, (1990). Antin and his associates compared the Etak system to a paper map control condition and a memorized route baseline condition. The second study was an evaluation of the TravTek system performed by Dingus, McGehee, Hulse, Jahns, Natarajan, Mollenhauer and Fleischman (1995). The TravTek Camera Car Evaluation tested six different navigation conditions (a TravTek visual display of a full, heading-up route map with voice guidance, the same TravTek route map without voice guidance, a TravTek visual display showing a graphic representation of static turn-by-turn information, the same turn-by-turn screens without voice guidance, a textual paper direction list with large legible font, and a conventional paper map). The eye glance data shown in the comparison of these two studies revealed several interesting findings. In all conditions, scanning of instruments, mirrors and signs/ landmarks was a low frequency occurrence and largely constant. Increases in visual attention by a navigation condition draws attention from forward, left and right roadway scanning resources. Thus, navigating draws upon potentially valuable accident avoidance resources in some circumstances. The eye scanning results also shared the relative benefits of the addition of a highlighted route to a moving map display, the simplification of a visual display from a full map to a turn-by-turn graphic, and the addition of a voice supplement to a navigation aid.
Decision-Centered Training
Authors: Klein Gary , Wolf Steve 
Published: January 2012

What can the Naturalistic Decision Making (NDM) perspective tell us about training people to make better decisions? The NDM framework offers four guidelines for training. (i) Build expertise, rather than teaching generic analytical strategies; (ii) Support, rather than replace, the strategies people use; (iii) Make the decision requirements specific to the task context; (iv) Model the cognitive processes of subject-matter experts. Training can be implemented using better scenarios and through cognitive modeling. A recent project is described, in which decision-centered training was used at the National Emergency Training Center to revise a set of course materials. The revisions emphasized opportunities to improve situation awareness skills through better specification of critical cues and patterns, and recommendations about using the debriefs following exercises to probe for cognitive processes underlying judgments and decisions.
Effects of Demand Transitions on Vigilance Performance and Perceived Workload
Authors: Moroney Brian W. , Warm Joel S. , Dember William N. 
Published: January 2012

This study examined the effects of transitions in task demand on vigilance performance and perceived mental workload. Task demand was manipulated through variations in background event rate–the rate of cascade of neutral events which must be monitored in order to detect critical signals. As is typical in vigilance research, overall performance varied inversely with event rate in all phases of the study. The post-transition performance of observers shifted from a fast-to-slow event rate (high-to-low task demand) remained below that of their continuous slow event rate controls, and was thus unaffected by the shift. In contrast, the post-transition performance of monitors shifted in the opposite direction, slow-to-fast event rate, was affected by the shift. In this case, the performance of the shifted observers fell below that of their continuous fast event rate controls. These results challenge prior findings indicating that psychophysical contrast is the representative outcome of shifts in information-processing demand in vigilance tasks (Krulewitz, Warm, & Wohl, 1975). Consistent with previous findings, workload scores, as indexed by the NASA-TLX, fell at the mid-to-upper level of the scale. Shifted observers who experienced both high and low levels of task demand during the vigil showed differences in composite ratings on the Mental Demand subscale. These results serve to caution that workload measurements obtained through the NASA-TLX at the end of an experimental session containing variations in task demand do not simply reflect an averaging of the observer's demand experiences.
Automation Bias, Accountability, and Verification Behaviors
Authors: Mosier Kathleen L. , Skitka Linda J. , Burdick Mark D. , Heers Susan T. 
Published: January 2012

Automated procedural and decision aids may in some cases have the paradoxical effect of increasing errors rather than eliminating them. Results of recent research investigating the use of automated systems have indicated the presence automation bias, a term describing errors made when decision makers rely on automated cues as a heuristic replacement for vigilant information seeking and processing (Mosier & Skitka, in press). Automation commission errors, i.e., errors made when decision makers take inappropriate action because they over-attend to automated information or directives, and automation omission errors, i.e., errors made when decision makers do not take appropriate action because they are not informed of an imminent problem or situation by automated aids, can result from this tendency. A wide body of social psychological research has found that many cognitive biases and resultant errors can be ameliorated by imposing pre-decisional accountability, which sensitizes decision makers to the need to construct compelling justifications for their choices and how they make them. To what extent these effects generalize to performance situations has yet to be empirically established. The two studies presented represent concurrent efforts, with student and “glass cockpit” pilot samples, to determine the effects of accountability pressures on automation bias and on verification of the accurate functioning of automated aids. Students (Experiment 1) and commercial pilots (Experiment 2) performed simulated flight tasks using automated aids. In both studies, participants who perceived themselves “accountable” for their strategies of interaction with the automation were significantly more likely to verify its correct functioning, and committed significantly fewer automation-related errors than those who did not report this perception.
Autonomous Route Guidance System Field Test
Authors: Foley James P. , Hudak Michael J. 
Published: January 2012

Eight vehicles equipped with an autonomous Route Guidance System (RGS) were deployed in two geographical areas for a field test. The RGS provided the driver with turn-by-turn instructions to a selected destination using graphics presented on a monochromatic screen and verbal instructions through a dedicated speaker. Each of 45 participants drove a vehicle for approximately one month and reported their experiences in a post-drive debriefing. The debriefing consisted of both a questionnaire and a structured interview. The emphasis of the field test was to evaluate the driver interface. The results indicated that the participants were generally satisfied with the performance and usefulness of this implementation of a route guidance system. They liked the accuracy of the system and the ease of guidance to destinations. Implications for future system design improvements are discussed.
Subjective Image Quality Evaluation of Image Compression Techniques
Authors: Wen Cathlyn Y. , Beaton Robert J. 
Published: January 2012

Image compression reduces the amount of data in digital images and, therefore, allows efficient storage, processing, and transmission of pictorial information. However, compression algorithms can degrade image quality by introducing artifacts, which may be unacceptable for users' tasks. This work examined the subjective effects of JPEG and wavelet compression algorithms on a series of medical images. Six digitized chest images were processed by each algorithm at various compression levels. Twelve radiologists rated the perceived image quality of the compressed images relative to the corresponding uncompressed images, as well as rated the acceptability of the compressed images for diagnostic purposes. The results indicate that subjective image quality and acceptability decreased with increasing compression levels; however, all images remained acceptable for diagnostic purposes. At high compression ratios, JPEG compressed images were judged less acceptable for diagnostic purposes than the wavelet compressed images. These results contribute to emerging system design guidelines for digital imaging workstations.
User Interface Design with OVID
Authors: Isensee Scott , Roberts Dave , Berry Dick , Mullaly John 
Published: January 2012

Object-oriented (OO) code design methodologies such as Booch, Schlaer-Mellor, Rumbaugh, and OMT have become very popular and have proven effective tools for software development. User interface design, on the other hand, is often done without a formal methodology. Ad hoc approaches typically produce designs which are incomplete, do not fully meet user requirements, and are not in a form which is easy for the programming team to translate into code. Object, View, and Interaction Design (OVID) addresses the needs to improve the quality and efficiency of user interface design. We apply many of the tools and techniques used in OO code design to the domain of user interface design. OVID brings rigor to the interface design process and produces output which feeds directly into code design. In this paper, we describe the OVID methodology and show examples of how it could be applied to designing an IT system to provide desktop and network support services to small businesses. The other methodologies discussed in the panel session will use the same design exercise for comparative purposes.
Enhancing Training Systems Design: Implementing an Event-Based Approach
Authors: Oser Randall L. , Gualtieri James W. , Cannon-Bowers Janis A. 
Published: January 2012

While human factors has become increasingly involved in many aspects of training systems design (e.g., displays, functional allocation), other aspects such as software architectures and databases, have not received the same level of involvement. These aspects are important because they provide the infrastructure by which the training environment is generated. Unfortunately, few frameworks exist to support the design of training infrastructures from a human factors perspective. One framework with potential application is the Event-Based Approach to Training (EBAT). EBAT has been empirically tested, and operationally demonstrated in numerous training environments. EBAT can guide the design of system infrastructures by highlighting linkages between all phases of training (e.g., exercise design, measurement, feedback). The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of: (a) learning premises important for training system design, (b) the EBAT framework, (c) EBAT-derived design guidelines and engineering payoffs, and (d) future challenges for training systems design.
Human Factors Challenges Identified by US Participation in the MIR Missions
Authors: Whitmore Mihriban , Booher Cletis R. 
Published: January 2012

Seven NASA astronauts have visited the Mir Russian Space Station for extended periods of time. This goal of this Panel Session, featuring three of these crew-members, is to examine the challenges experienced during these long duration missions, and how these experiences can help prepare for missions to the International Space Station. The goals of this session are: 1) To acquaint attendees at the '99 AM with some of the challenges which arose during the Mir missions on the part of the US crew-members, 2) To identify differences between the short duration Shuttle and extended duration Mir missions, 3) To challenge attendees of this session to think in terms of Human Factors (HF) oriented solutions to these identified challenges and differences, 4) To solicit inputs from the session attendees relative to potential HFE solutions to the identified issues. These Mir missions provided the first long-duration on-orbit experience for US crew members since Skylab.