Human Factors

A verywarm thank you goes to Ken Laughery of Rice University. Not only did he contribute several chapters and the Foreword, but he was also my final graduate advisor. He has been a mentor, collaborator, and friend. He has been a great model to follow. I can't thank him enough.

Law enforcement officers across the country are trained in various tactics
and techniques intended to increase the overall safety within a police citizen-contact. One common, albeit controversial tactic, is referred to as
“curb sitting”. The curb-sitting tactic is generally associated with officers
requiring criminal suspects to sit on a curb with their legs outstretched in
front of them. The tactic is believed to provide officers additional reaction
time to defend themselves from an attack but is also considered unnecessarily demeaning. The efficacy of the curb-sitting tactic has not previously been determined. The current study is the first to evaluate three
common variations of the curb-sitting tactic to determine which if any
seated position allowed officers more time to respond to an attack when
compared to a subject standing five feet away. Our results show that
a seated subject with their legs extended is associated with a significant
increase in time to cross five feet when compared to a standing subject.
Based on these results, the curb-sitting tactic appears to be an evidence-based method of increasing an officer’s time to respond to an attack.
Implications for law enforcement training and tactics, as well as recommendations for future research, are discussed.

The objective of this paper is to report back on an organizational framework, which consisted of human, organization and technology (HOT) dimensions in holistically addressing aspects associated with phishing. Most anti-phishing literature studied either focused on technical controls or education in isolation however; education is core to all aspects in the above-mentioned framework. It is evident, from literature, that little work has been conducted on anti-phishing preventative measures in the context of organizations but rather from a personal user-level. In the framework, the emphasis is placed on the human factors in addressing phishing attacks.

Stereotype threat is being at risk of confirming, as self-characteristic, a negative stereotype about one's group. Studies 1 and 2 varied the stereotype vulnerability of Black participants taking a difficult verbal test by varying whether or not their performance was ostensibly diagnostic of ability, and thus, whether or not they were at risk of fulfilling the racial stereotype about their intellectual ability. Reflecting the pressure of this vulnerability, Blacks underperformed in relation to Whites in the ability-diagnostic condition but not in the nondiagnostic condition (with Scholastic Aptitude Tests controlled). Study 3 validated that ability-diagnosticity cognitively activated the racial stereotype in these participants and motivated them not to conform to it, or to be judged by it. Study 4 showed that mere salience of the stereotype could impair Blacks' performance even when the test was not ability diagnostic. The role of stereotype vulnerability in the standardized test performance of ability-stigmatized groups is discussed.

This study examined the co-occurrence of childhood sexual abuse, adult sexual assault, intimate partner violence, and sexual harassment in a predominantly African American sample of 268 female veterans, randomly sampled from an urban Veterans Affairs hospital women's clinic. A combination of hierarchical and iterative cluster analysis was used to identify 4 patterns of women's lifetime experiences of violence co-occurrence. The 1st cluster experienced relatively low levels of all 4 forms of violence; the 2nd group, high levels of all 4 forms; the 3rd, sexual revictimization across the lifespan with adult sexual harassment; and the 4th, high intimate partner violence with sexual harassment. This cluster solution was validated in a theoretically driven model that examined the role of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) as a mediator of physical health symptomatology. Structural equation modeling analyses revealed that PTSD fully mediated the relationship between violence and physical health symptomatology. Consistent with a bio-psycho-immunologic theoretical model, PTSD levels more strongly predicted pain-related physical health symptoms compared to nonpain health problems. Implications for clinical interventions to prevent PTSD and to screen women for histories of violence in health care settings are discussed.

Man is one of the best general-purpose computers available and if one designs for man as a moron, one ends up with a system that requires a genius to maintain it. Thus we are not suggesting that we take man out of the sys tem, but we are suggesting that he be properly employed in terms of both his abilities and limitations .

Man is one of the best general-purpose computers available and if one designs for man as a moron, one ends up with a system that requires a genius to maintain it. Thus we are not suggesting that we take man out of the sys tem, but we are suggesting that he be properly employed in terms of both his abilities and limitations .

Over the past two decades, the 'new view' has become a popular term in safety theory and practice. It has however also been criticised, provoking division and controversy. The aim of this article is to clarify the current situation. It describes the origins, ambiguities and successes of the 'new view' as well as the critiques formulated. The article begins by outlining the origins of this concept, in the 1980s and 1990s, from the cognitive (system) engineering (CSE) school initiated by Rasmussen, Hollnagel and Woods. This differed from Reason's approach to human error in this period. The article explains how Dekker, in the early 2000s, translates ideas from the CSE school to coin the term 'new view', while also developing, shortly after, an argument against Reason's legacy that was more radical and critical than his predecessors'. Secondly, the article describes the ambiguities associated with the term 'new view' because of the different programs that have derived from CSE (Resilience Engineering-RE then Safety II, Safety Differently, Theory of Graceful Extensibility). The text then identifies three programs by different thinkers (methodological, formal and critical) and Dekker's three eclectic versions of the 'new view'. Thirdly, the article discusses the success of the CSE and RE school, showing how it has strongly resonated with many practitioners outside the academic world. Fourthly, the objections raised within the field of human factors and system safety but also from different traditions (e.g., system safety engineering with Leveson, sociology of safety with Hopkins) are introduced, and discussed.

Abstract: As the world enters a new millennium, the U.S. military simultaneously enters a new era in warfare -- an era in which warfare is affected by a changing strategic environment and rapid technological change. The United States and its multinational partners are experiencing a transition from the Industrial Age to the Information Age. Simultaneously, it is fully engaged in a global war on terrorism set in a new period of globalization. These changes, as well as the experiences gained during recent and ongoing military operations, have resulted in the current drive to transform the force with network-centric warfare (NCW) as the centerpiece of this effort. This document describes how the tenets and principles of NCW are providing the foundation for developing new warfighting concepts, organizations, and processes that will allow U.S. forces to maintain a competitive advantage over potential adversaries, now and in the future. In sum, the report provides an overview of the ongoing implementation of NCW in the Department of Defense (DoD). A brief description of NCW, including its origins, its central role in force transformation, its tenets and principles, and an implementation strategy, are provided in Chapter 1. An examination of NCW as an emerging theory of war, its relationship to the four domains of Information Age warfare, the growing evidence of its benefits, and the warfighting advantages it can provide are examined in Chapter 2. Chapter 3 focuses on network-centric operations (NCO), including the relationship of NCO to the overarching Joint Operations Concepts (JOpsC), the NCO experience in Afghanistan and Iraq, the development of the NCO Conceptual Framework, and the conduct of NCO case studies. An overview of Joint and Service plans and initiatives to develop and implement network-centric capabilities and the growing investment in these capabilities by our allies and multinational partners are provided in Chapter 4

There are very few connections between physics and cognitive psychology. But in this paper, we assume that recent models inspired by concepts issued from physics and problemsolving cognitive processes like the Model Human Processor with Real Time Constraints (MHP/RT) model (Kitajima and Toyota, 2012) [1] allow to better describe and predict human behaviors especially in complex and dynamical environments where interactions between several bands and space-time constraints exist. After presenting the importance of the concept of resonance in physics and in cognitive psychology, the deterministic chaos in human action and behavior will be described, by focusing on an innovative model directly inspired by models issued from physics and problem-solving cognitive processes, Model Human Processor With Real Time Constraints (MHP/RT). If nowadays, the distance between physics and psychology is very prominent, the main goal of this paper is to defend the necessity to (re)create strong relatio...

Immersive virtual environments (VEs) offer interactive, real-time visualization capabilities for engineers, architects, and scientists. This paper presents Virtual-SAP, an immersive VE application allowing users to assess building structures and their response to various environmental conditions through an interactive designbuild-test-redesign cycle. Virtual-SAP has three distinct user interfaces that support its use with a high-end, multitracker VE system, with a low-cost portable VE system, or on the desktop. Two of these interfaces have been proven highly usable in user testing, and the third will be tested soon. Virtual-SAP is being used for both research and education.

Ontologies can represent large, multidimensional spaces: classi- cal music, research in computer science in the UK, health care for breast cancer are examples of rich domains. There have been no easy ways to represent meaningful slices through these multi- dimensional spaces to privilege the parts of the domain that are of interest to a given user. mSpace, an interaction model

Much of the research in the domain of indoor positioning aspires to provide the user with a positioning technology which would enable ubiquitous guidance -the 'indoor sat nav', without considering user needs or preferences for such a system. In this study we examine the navigation effectiveness and user satisfaction with a prototype indoor positioning system. We find a perference for the presence of a single dot location indicator, despite no evidence for improved navigation effectiveness when compared to simple map.

ABSTRACT Human factors and ergonomics applies scientific information about human cognition and behavior to support the design of products and systems that enhance human well-being and performance. Human factors and ergonomics professionals investigate human–system interaction at the individual, group, and organizational levels. The aim is to design products that augment human physical, cognitive, and motivational capabilities and improve the social, technical, and organizational aspects of a system. Human factors and ergonomics has been used to improve safety and productivity particularly in complex sociotechnical systems.

The aim of the research was to monitor and assess landslide hazards by remote sensing data processing and GIS spatial analysis. The automatic classification of remote sensing images provides many useful land use information to combine in a GIS environment with other spatial factors influencing the occurrence of landslide. The upper part of Susa Valley, in the Italian Western Alps, was chosen as test area because of a large variety of remote sensing data available by ISPRS WG VIII/2 with the aim to exchange information and experience in the field of geomatic techniques. It is well known that the occurrence of landslides is controlled by a lot of morphological, geological, and human factors. We have chosen, regarding the available data, the following factors: acclivity, aspect, lithology, land use and precipitations. We have built up a mathematical predictive model enabling actual/potential unstable slopes. It is a linear model where the hazard score depends on instability factors and...

The use of simulation and team training has become an excellent tool to reduce errors in high-risk industry such as the commercial airlines and in the nuclear energy field. The health care industry has begun to use similar tools to improve the outcome of high-risk areas where events are relatively rare but where practice with a tactical team can significantly reduce the chance of bad outcome. There are two parts to this review: first, we review the rationale of why simulation is a key element in improving our error rate, and second, we describe specific tools that have great use at the clinical bedside for improving the care of patients. These cross different (i.e. medical and surgical) specialties and practices within specialties in the health care setting. Tools described will include the pinch, brief/debriefing, read-backs, call-outs, dynamic skepticism, assertive statements, two-challenge rules, checklists and step back (hold points). Examples will assist the clinician in practical daily use to improve their bedside care of children.

Driver assistance systems that supply force feedback (FF) on the accelerator commonly use relative distance and velocity with respect to the closest lead vehicle in front of the own vehicle. This 1-D feedback might not accurately represent the situation and can cause unwanted step-shaped changes in the FFs during lateral maneuvers. To address these shortcomings, a 2-D system is proposed that calculates FF using a weighted average of the influences of lead vehicles. Offline simulations and an experiment in a driving simulator were performed to compare no feedback, 1-D systems, and the novel 2-D system during a car-following task with cut-in maneuvers. Results show that the 2-D feedback resulted in lower mean forces, lower response times to cut-in vehicles, and favorable subjective experiences as compared to the 1-D systems.

Overhead cranes are critical equipment in heavy industries, ports and construction. In many cases, they may become bottlenecks for the whole production process. At the phase of plant design, or when evaluating modifications to the processes, it is critical to analyze their behavior, specially the interferences that occur among each other. Considering factors like breakdowns, process time variability, buffer capacities and interferences with other vehicles; linear calculation is not applicable and simulation is required. This paper explains the development of a reusable template for simulating a group of overhead cranes integrating it in a major ARENA model.

The detrimental influence of distraction on memory and attention is well established, yet it is not as clear whether irrelevant information impacts categorization abilities and whether this impact changes in aging. We examined categorization with morphed prototype stimuli in both younger and older adults, using an adaptive staircase approach to assess participants' performance in conditions with and without visual distractors. Results showed that distraction did not affect younger adults, but produced a negative impact on older adults' categorization such that there was an interaction of age and distraction. These results suggest a relationship between the increased susceptibility to visual distraction in normal aging and impairment in categorization.

This paper was finished and distributed May 7, 1991 to several people in the Eugene, Oregon area, including John Moseley, the vice president of research for the University of Oregon.  He once greeted me enthusiastically on the street after my Peace Economics book had come out.  This is the 54 year cycle documented to come from the temperature records of key sections of the earth.

This paper describes the use of adaptation patterns in the task of formulating standards for adaptive educational hypermedia (AEH) systems that is currently under investigation by the EU ADAPT project. Within this project, design dimensions for high granularity patterns have been established. In this paper we focus on detailing lower granularity adaptive patterns based upon learning styles. Several patterns from existing AEH system case studies are identified and classified according to an extended learning style "onion" model. This model forms the basis of a learning style taxonomy, introduced here, whose components determine adaptation patterns for AEH. These patterns are of importance both for authoring, as well as for interfacing between adaptive hypermedia systems. From an authoring point of view, these patterns may be used to establish a fine-grain approach to instructional strategies that can be implemented in AEH systems, as a response to a particular learning style. The implementation of this adaptation pattern taxonomy is discussed, both generally and in detail.

Bespace is a synchronous web3D lecture hall and performance system that seeks to tap the educational and entertainment potential of virtual space. Its underlying interactive methodology is focused on the efficient delivery of information within the space. The entire virtual environment is treated as a one interface. Principles of human computer interaction are applied to the activities, avatars, and architecture. The outcome is an environment that utilizes the power of a digitally created reality and does not sacrifice usability in pursuit of realistic appearances. Bespace’s interactive methodology seeks to implement the promises made by the early pioneers of virtual space. ACM Classification: H5.2 [Information interfaces and

This paper presents the research conducted as part of the work requirements for the Human Integration into the Lifecycle of Aviation Systems (HILAS) project, sponsored by the European Commission. Specifically, it describes the proposed concept for a Unique Report form, which will constitute the basis for all operational and safety related reports completed by Flight Crew. This includes all mandatory and optional reports. Critically, this form is central to the advancement of improved processes and technology tools, supporting airline performance management, safety management, organisational learning and knowledge integration activities. To this end, this paper also exemplifies how reporting data will be used by airline personnel in relation to the processes listed above. The new reporting form has been developed in collaboration with a major Spanish Airline through extensive field research and collaborative prototyping of new concepts.

The heats of combustion for forty-nine commercial and developmental polymers of known chemical structure were determined using an oxygen bomb calorimeter according to standard methods. The experimental results were compared to thermochemical calculations of the net heat of combustion from oxygen consumption and the gross heat of combustion from group additivity of the heats of formation of products and reactants. The polymers examined were thermally stable, char forming thermoplastics and thermoset resins containing a significant degree of aromaticity and heteroatoms including-nitrogen, sulfur, phosphorus, silicon, and oxygen in linear and heterocyclic structures. The gross and net heats of combustion calculated from polymer enthalpies of formation and oxygen consumption thermochemistry were within 5 percent of the experimental values from oxygen bomb calorimetry. The heat released by combustion per gram of diatomic oxygen consumed in the present study was E = 13.10 ± 0.78 kJ/g-O 2 for polymers tested (n = 48). This value is indistinguishable from the universal value E = 13.1 kJ/g-O 2 used in oxygen consumption combustion calorimetry.

The objective of the present research was to advance understanding of factors that can protect against range anxiety, specifically range stress in everyday usage of battery electric vehicles (BEVs). Range anxiety is a major barrier to the broad adoption of sustainable electric mobility systems. To develop strategies aimed at overcoming range anxiety, a clear understanding of this phenomenon and influencing factors is needed. We examined range anxiety in the form of everyday range stress (ERS) in a field study setting. Seventy-two customers leased a BEV for 3 months. The field study was specifically designed to enable examination of factors that can contribute to lower ERS. In particular, study design and sample recruitment were targeted at generating vehicle usage profiles that would lead to relatively frequent experience of situations requiring active management of range resources and thereby potentially leading to experienced range stress. Less frequent encounter with critical ran...

Human factors studies the intersection between people, technology and work, with the major aim to find areas where design and working conditions produce human error. It relies on the knowledge base and research results of multiple fields of inquiry (ranging from computer science to anthropology) to do so. Technological change at this intersection (1) redefines the relationship between various players (both humans and machines), (2) transforms practice and shifts sources of error and excellence, and (3) often drives up operational requirements and pressures on operators. Human factors needs to predict these reverberations of technological change before a mature system has been built in order to steer design into the direction of cooperative human-machine architectures. The quickening tempo of technology change and the expansion of technological possibilities has largely converted the traditional shortcuts for access to a design process (task analysis, guidelines, verification and validation studies, etc.) into oversimplification fallacies that retard understanding, innovation, and, ultimately, human factors' credibility. There is an enormous need for the development of techniques that gain empirical access to the future-that generate human performance data about systems which have yet to be built.

The forces to the cranium and facial skeleton can be applied from an anteroposterior, superior, inferior and lateral directions. These forces with level and location of point of impact will determine the pattern of injury. Fractures of the cranium rarely extend into the region of facial skeleton. On the other hand, fractures originating in the facial skeleton can extend into the cranium. This has got implications as facial fractures are associated with head injury. Understanding the biomechanics of craniomaxillofacial trauma gives an insight in understanding the pattern of injury. We have briefly reviewed the literature and discussed biomechanics of craniofacial trauma, and how it influences head injury.

Objective: This article advocates multidimensional assessment of task stress in human factors and reviews the use of the Dundee Stress State Questionnaire (DSSQ) for evaluation of systems and operators. Background: Contemporary stress research has progressed from an exclusive focus on environmental stressors to transactional perspectives on the stress process. Performance impacts of stress reflect the opera-tor's dynamic attempts to understand and cope with task demands. Multidimensional stress assessments are necessary to gauge the different forms of system-operator interaction. Method: This review discusses the theoretical and practical use of the DSSQ in evaluating multidimensional patterns of stress response. It presents psychometric evidence for the multidimensional perspective and illustrative profiles of subjective state response to task stressors and environments. Evidence is also presented on stress state correlations with related variables, including personality, stress process measures , psychophysiological response, and objective task performance. Results: Evidence supports the validity of the DSSQ as a task stress measure. Studies of various simulated environments show that different tasks elicit different profiles of stress state response. Operator characteristics such as resilience predict individual differences in state response to stressors. Structural equation modeling may be used to understand performance impacts of stress states. Conclusion: Multidimensional assessment affords insight into the stress process in a variety of human factors contexts. Integrating subjective and psychophysiologi-cal assessment is a priority for future research. Application: Stress state measurement contributes to evaluating system design, countermeasures to stress and fatigue, and performance vulnerabilities. It may also support personnel selection and diagnostic monitoring of operators.

Telecare can help health and social care agencies address the challenges they face from an ageing society and deliver services improving the clients' quality of life. The end users of telecare systems are unlikely to have a deep understanding of technology, therefore good human factors and ergonomics are important for the system's acceptance, usability and safety. This paper reports preliminary results from a project initiated by the European Telecommunications Standardization Institute (ETSI) to develop a set of guidelines for human factors in telecare systems, thereby maximizing user experience and promoting the usage of telecare, and directed towards all stakeholders in the telecare delivery chain. The guidelines are first structured along the dimension of human factors, consisting of: confidentiality and privacy; ethics; legal aspects; availability and reliability; integrity; safety; installation, setup and configuration; user interaction; localization and customization; service and system aspects; organizational aspects; user education; interoperability; development process and testing. For each of these, guidelines are enumerated and grouped as being either generic or pertaining to one of the different product lifecycles: research and development; design and manufacture; equipment delivery; and final service deployment. In all, a considerable number of generic and specific guidelines will be provided. The work is in progress (Sep. 2006), and the authors encourage input and comments. For more information, see

Scientific literature may be biased because of the internal validity of studies being compromised by different forms of measurement error, and/or because of the selective reporting of positive and 'statistically significant' results. While the first source of bias might be prevented, and in some cases corrected to a degree, the second represents a pervasive problem afflicting the medical literature; a situation that can only be 'corrected' by a change in the mindset of authors, reviewers, and editors. This review focuses on the concepts of confounding, selection bias and information bias, utilising explanatory examples and simple rules to recognise and, when possible, to correct for them. Confounding is a mixing of effects resulting from an imbalance of some of the causes of disease across the compared groups. It can be prevented by randomization and restriction, and controlled by stratification, standardization or by using multivariable techniques. Selection bias stems from an absence of comparability among the groups being studied, while information bias arises from distorted information collection techniques. Publication bias of medical research results can invalidate evidence-based medicine, when a researcher attempting to collect all the published studies on a specific topic actually gathers only a proportion of them, usually the ones reporting 'positive' results. The selective publication of 'statistically significant' results represents a problem that researchers and readers have to be aware of in order to face the entire body of published medical evidence with a degree of scepticism.

Abstract As university-level distance learning programs become more and more popular, and software engineering courses incorporate eXtreme Programming (XP) into their curricula, certain challenges arise when teaching XP to students who are not physically co ...

This study seeks to understand the relationship between human factors, technology and so-ciety, and presents an evaluation of knowledge management in the offshore working envi-ronment. It is focused on Petrobras, a brazilian offshore oil industry, and discusses the ways that company develops stress management program, from a qualitative methodology. Based on the thought of Habermas, the results suggest the need to present critical per-spectives on working conditions and their relationships with mental health of offshore workers in Brazil.

While industry has typically benefitted from considering human system integration (HSI) throughout the product development cycle, a unique set of challenges exist in the context of military acquisition that has prevented its early and late consideration in the cycle. Early input is critical for identifying capability gaps and potential error-or problem-prone feature implementations. This panel, comprised of multidisciplinary practitioners and researchers from the Army Research Laboratory, discusses methods they have trialed to integrate HSI processes into early-stage system design decisions, and the challenges and lessons that they have learned along the way. These panelists draw from their varied areas of expertise ranging from the design of aviation and ground vehicles to Soldier-worn protective gear and from small weapons to command and control systems to reveal critical factors and insights that are generalizable across a wide range of products and industry sectors, as well as those that warrant further investigation.

Objective: This research aims to identify the impact of text messaging on simulated driving performance. Background: In the past decade, a number of on-road, epidemiological, and simulator-based studies reported the negative impact of talking on a cell phone on driving behavior. However, the impact of text messaging on simulated driving performance is still not fully understood. Method: Forty participants engaged in both a single task (driving) and a dual task (driving and text messaging) in a high-fidelity driving simulator. Results: Analysis of driving performance revealed that participants in the dual-task condition responded more slowly to the onset of braking lights and showed impairments in forward and lateral control compared with a driving-only condition. Moreover, text-messaging drivers were involved in more crashes than drivers not engaged in text messaging. Conclusion: Text messaging while driving has a negative impact on simulated driving performance. This negative impac...

This paper present the result of a safety culture questionnaire within aircraft maintenance engineering, initially produced by Diaz-Cabrera et al. (2007) was developed and validated leading to a better result of seven factors. This safety culture questionnaire (SCQ) is further used as a tool to do a pilot assessment on the factors retrieved. The report ends with the implementation of literature distilled concepts about safety culture including the validated practical safety assessment tool leading to a complete SMS (Safety Management System) which is both reactive as proactive. To increase aviation safety it is compulsory, since the beginning of 2007, to report occurrences to the quality control. This directive is legislation on occurrence reporting in civil aviation from the European Union. The Occurrence reporting process was also regulated before by EASA Part 145.A.60 although their specific purposes seem to differ. The purpose of the EASA set of regulation and the purpose of the EC regulation are different. The purpose of the EC regulation is to require Member States to put a system in place and to exchange data using the ECC-AIRS tool. The purpose of the EASA regulations on reporting is to ensure continuing airworthiness. It should be noted that the list of reportable occurrences are consistent between the EASA texts and the EC regulation. Therefore there are no plans to harmonize these requirements in a single one (EASA, 2006) Part A.60: "the organization shall report to the competent authority, the state of registry and the organization responsible for the design of the aircraft or the component. There is therefore no direct reporting to the Agency". Although the purposes seem to differ because the EC-directive is primarily for benchmarking with other EU member states and the EASA regulation is to ensure