Introduction to Human Factors

Introduction to Human Factors

Acknowledgement of Country

  • Acknowledges the Wallamattagal people of the Dharug nation as the traditional custodians of the land.
  • Pays respect to Dharug elders, past, present, and future.
  • Honors the ancestors and spirits of the land.
  • Asks that Macquarie University community members are granted the capacity to think, learn, and walk safely on this land.
  • The University continues to develop relationships with all Indigenous people in Australia and throughout the world

Goal and Learning Objectives

  • The Goal for Human Factors.
  • Human Factors Explained.
  • Principles.
  • Assumptions.
  • Levels of Analysis.
  • Techniques and Tools.
  • Situational Awareness.
    • Levels.
    • Measurement.
    • Training Outline.
  • Learning Objectives.
    • Outline the goal of human factors.
    • Describe the options available to improve human performance.
    • List the advantages and disadvantages of human factors.
    • Explain what human factors attempts to avoid.
    • Describe the targets of human factors.
    • Outline the three primary types of errors and their causes.
    • Describe the precursors (and the solutions) to human errors.
    • Distinguish the two outcomes of error.
    • Differentiate (and provide examples of) levels of analysis in human factors.
    • Provide examples of the application of levels of analysis in human factors.
    • Explain the proactive approach to the management of human factors in systems.
    • Distinguish proactive from reactive approaches to the management of human factors.
    • List at least three methods or techniques that applied in human factors.
    • Outline the two goals that determine success in the context of human factors.
    • Explain Situational Awareness in the context of human factors.
    • List the three levels of situational awareness.
    • Outline the approaches to the measurement of situational awareness.
    • Explain the problem with situational awareness as a psychological construct.
    • Outline possible approaches to the conceptualisation of situational awareness in the future.
    • Explain the various approaches to training situational awareness.
    • Consider the role of human factors in enabling the development of technological solutions in the future.

Delta Flight 1141 Case Study

  • Delta Flight 1141 crashed shortly after take-off because the flight crew failed to extend the flaps.
  • The checklist used by the crew is shown.
  • Highlights the importance of proper procedures and attention to detail in aviation safety.

Goal of Human Factors

  • Goal is to optimise the relationship between humans and the systems with which they interact.
    • Efficient.
    • Creative.
    • Productive.
    • Fewer Errors.
    • Job Satisfaction.
  • Human Factors is about how to satisfy this goal.
  • Example of a system failure: Chernobyl.

Definition of Human Factors and Ergonomics

  • Human Factors and Ergonomics considers environmental and organisational constraints.
  • Uses knowledge of human abilities and limitations.
  • Aims to design systems, organisations, jobs, machines, tools, or consumer products that are safe, efficient, and comfortable to use.
  • Develops training systems for users to ensure safe, efficient, and comfortable use of machines, tools, and products.

Practitioners

  • Psychologists.
  • Educationalists.
  • Engineers.
  • Multi-disciplinary approach, involving different theoretical perspectives.
  • Communication, Language, Trust.

Human Information Processing

  • Advantages
    • Can recognise situations
    • Can respond rapidly
    • Capacity to adapt to new information
    • Draw on long-term memory
  • Disadvantages
    • Process limited amounts of information
    • Working memory is capacity limited
    • Working memory is transient
    • Memory of past events can be flawed
  • Model of Human Information Processing
    • Stimuli are processed through short-term sensory store.
    • Pattern recognition.
    • Working memory.
    • Long term memory.
    • Attention resources affect decision and response selection.
    • Response execution.
    • Response.

What Human Factors Attempts to Avoid

  • Assumptions
    1. That all operators are the same (skills, motives, experience).
    2. That the outcome of errors is intentional.
    3. That errors are necessarily the product of ‘poor’ operators.
    4. That there are always simple solutions that will prevent error.
    5. That errors are isolated from the system in which they occur.

Human Factors Targets

  • Limitations (Constraints).
    • Users.
      • Adaptability.
    • System.
      • Adaptability.
    • Interface.

Human Limitations (Flight 1141)

  • Factors.
    • Inattentional Blindness.
    • Distraction.
    • Cognitive Load.

Why Errors Occur

  • Lapse (Perception)
    • Information is not acquired.
  • Mistake (Processing)
    • Information is acquired but is not processed accurately and/or efficiently.
  • Slip (Response)
    • Information is acquired and processed but the response is imprecise.

Applying Human Factors in Practice

  • Case.
  • General Principles.
  • Empirical (Lab) Research.
  • Interventions.
    • Design
    • Training
    • Psychometrics

Precursors of Lapses

  • Insufficient Warning.
  • Inexperience.
  • Poor Training.
  • Distraction.
  • Fatigue.
  • Anxiety/Stress.
  • Noise.
  • Timeliness of Warnings.
  • Boredom.
  • Preoccupation.
  • Operator Organisation.

Precursors of Mistakes

  • Information Complexity.
  • Type of Information.
  • Poor Procedures.
  • Inability to Filter Information.
  • Communication.
  • Anxiety/Stress.
  • Workload Management.
  • Availability of Additional information.
  • Inability to Integrate Information.
  • Inexperience.
  • Operator Organisation.

Precursors of Slips

  • Time Constraints.
  • Poor Procedures.
  • Inexperience.
  • Anxiety/Stress.
  • Operator Organisation.

Outcomes of Error

  • Error of Omission
    • The task is not performed when it should have been.
  • Error of Commission
    • The task was performed on the wrong object.

Improving Human Performance

  • Ensure that systems are designed to facilitate the acquisition, processing and response to information for a range of operators.
  • Ensure that operators have the skills and knowledge to acquire, process, and respond to the information afforded by systems.

Levels of Analysis in Human Factors

  • Technology.
  • Operators.
  • System.
  • Culture.
  • Climate.
  • Resources.
  • Teams.
  • Proficiency.
  • Procedures.
  • Training.
  • Design.
  • Usually the most successful interventions

Technology

  • Build technology around the capabilities and limitations of users.
  • User-Centred Design
  • Use-Centred Design

Operators: Training

  • Levels of Analysis in Human Factors
    • Usually the most frequent interventions
    • Changes to the system over a short period of time
  • Training Principles:
    • Situated Cognition: Training in the environment in which the skills are to be applied.
    • Active Participation: Learners need to be actively involved in tasks.
    • Integration: Human factors is not perceived as a distinct topic, but another component of operational skills.

Operators: Teams

  • Successful Teams
    • Leadership
    • Communication
    • Personality
    • Common Goals
    • Trust
    • Norms
    • Assertiveness
Teams (Communication)
  • Good communicators – Consistently confirm the receipt of messages – Avoid interruptions and seek to ‘close the loop’
  • Good-performance teams:
    • Employ a greater frequency of statements
    • Tend to use ‘we’
    • Exhibit standard patterns of communication
    • Are appropriately assertive
  • Good-performance leaders:
    • Encourage but do not dominate conversations
    • Engage in team-building conversation
    • Show genuine interest in subordinates
Teams (Leadership)
  • Leadership
    • Task Oriented
    • Relationship Oriented
    • Participative Leadership
      • Engages a range of management strategies, depending upon the nature of the task and the nature of the individuals concerned (Gradients of authority)
    • Safety Leadership
Teams (Norms)
  • Norms and Trust
    • ‘expected behaviours or responses’
    • Reduces overt communication without the loss of performance
    • Norms can be associated with inappropriate (unsafe) behaviour

Systems

  • Levels of Analysis in Human Factors
    • Usually the most difficult interventions
    • Changes to the system over a long period of time
  • Threat and Error Management
  • Safety Audits
  • Safety Management Systems
  • Error capturing
  • Organisational Culture/ Climate
    • Identify the precursors to error
    • Remedial Action

Reactive Approaches to Human Factors in Systems

  • Reactive
    • System Failure (Poor Performance)
    • Human Factors Assessment (Investigation)
    • System Redesign
      • Interventions
        • Training
        • Changes in Procedures

Proactive Approaches to Human Factors in Systems

  • Proactive Approach (Systems Engineering)
    • Concept
    • Specifications
    • Mockup
    • System Design
    • Construction
    • Human factors involvement at all stages
    • Review

Reactive versus Proactive Approaches

ReactiveProactive
AdvantagesLower initial Costs, Targeted responseLower long-term Costs, Prevents occurrences
DisadvantagesGreater long-term costs, Occurrences, May overlook informationGreater initial costs, May overlook information

Methods and Techniques in Human Factors

  • Critical Decision Method
  • Cognitive Interview
  • Reliability Analysis
  • Task Analysis
  • Cognitive Work Analysis
  • Functional Resonance Modelling
  • Conceptual Mapping
  • Usability Analysis
  • Anthropometry
  • Conversation Analysis
  • Verbal Protocol Analysis
  • Process Tracing
  • Methods of representing/ predicting human behaviour and cognition

Cautionary Tales for Human Factors

  • Human Factors is not a panacea
  • We have a limited understanding of human information processing
  • We don’t have complete human engineering standards
  • We don’t have a refined capability to model human behaviour (especially in teams and complex systems)
  • We need to test the utility of strategies/ designs prior to implementation
  • We need to use evidence-based science to drive solutions

Human Factors Successes (Error Prevention)

  • (Aurelio & Newman, 1997)

Human Factors Successes (Productivity)

  • Reduction in work-related injuries and a 6% increase in productivity

CDTI - Three Dimensional Display

  • UA127
  • UA159

CDTI - Plan View Display

  • UA270 225 252
  • UA220 290 096
  • CD234 250 115
  • 265 090

Empirical Comparison

  • Experimental Design
    • Display Type (Two Levels)
    • Dependent Variables
      • Mean Decision Time
      • Heading Difference
  • Experimental Task
    • Monitor the situation and recommend an avoidance manoeuvre if the aircraft came within three nautical miles horizontally and 1000 feet vertically.

Implications

  • Avoidance Manoeuvres
    • When time is limited, vertical manoeuvres are preferred
    • There is a tendency towards horizontal manoeuvres with plan displays
  • Implications for Displays
    • Detection
      • Three dimensional displays tend to relax the time restrictions on the detection of conflicting traffic
    • Pictorial Representation
      • Pilots are more likely to perform horizontal, rather than vertical, evasive manoeuvres when presented with a planar-view of conflicting traffic.
      • Pilots demonstrate a strong tendency to turn towards, rather than away from the conflicting traffic during situations of low or moderate danger.

Probability estimation

  • The Final Product

Situational Awareness

  • “the importance of gaining an awareness of the enemy before the enemy gained a similar awareness, and devised methods of accomplishing this”
  • Accurate critiques of the performance of other pilots, despite the fact that he was, himself, engaged with the enemy
  • ‘Individual Difference’ versus ‘Learned Technique’

Situational Awareness - Defined

  • The timely and accurate perception of elements pertaining to the situation
  • The integration of this information into an existing mental model.
  • The projection of this information to determine the future status of the system

Levels of Situational Awareness

  • SA Levels (Endsley, 1995)
    • Level 1: Perception of Critical Elements in the Environment
    • Level 2: Comprehension of the Current Situation
    • Level 3: Projection of Future Status
  • Perceive
  • Comprehend
  • Anticipation
  • Memory, Attention, Short-term Memory Store, Mental Model

Measurement of Situational Awareness

  • Situational Awareness Global Assessment Technique (Accuracy)
    • On-Line
    • Freeze Technique
    • Post-Test
  • Questionnaires
  • Situational Awareness Global Assessment Test (SAGAT)
    • Ask scenario-related questions pertaining to perception, comprehension, and anticipation.
    • What is the callsign of the next aircraft to land?

The Problem with Situational Awareness

  • It constitutes an outcome of interaction (performance) with the environment (“you can’t predict if you haven’t engaged”). Therefore, the quality of SA may simply be the product of the interaction or some other explanatory variable.
  • Psychometric Assessment
    • Situational Awareness
    • Performance

The Future of Situational Awareness

  • Prototyping
    • The notion that an operator develops a ‘prototype’ or exemplar of the situation against which all incoming information is compared. Therefore, the development of an accurate prototype is presumed to result in improvements in performance
  • Mental Model
    • The extent to which effective anticipation dependent upon an accurate mental model
    • An accurate mental is dependent upon ‘experience’ . Therefore, there is an implication for training and development

Training Approaches to Situational Awareness

  • Early construction of a structured, information dense mental representation of the task
  • Continuous interrogation of the environmental data stream to detect missing, conflicting, updated and novel information
  • Generation of an executive script by modifying the initial representation to accommodate the impact of detected information and;
  • Self-direction of the control of the scenario to achieve the best possible outcome using the resultant executive script.

Contemporary and Future Issues

  • Driverless vehicles
  • Remote piloted vehicles
  • Robotics (surgery)
  • ‘Free’ Flight
  • Future (Fast) Transportation
  • Cybersecurity
  • Massive Engineering
  • User Experience (UX)
  • Teams

Key Points

  • Human Factors provides an approach and methodologies that are targeted towards optimising human performance in their interaction with systems
  • Human Factors methodologies are designed to improve productivity and minimise the likelihood of errors
  • Human Factors interventions target performance at the system, operational, and technological level
  • Human Factors methodologies can be applied reactively and proactively