Ergonomics human factors Flashcards
What are the 4 additional studies of ergonomics
Brown and Poulton
Miller
The hawthorne studies
Higuera-Trujillo
Outline the additional study by Brown and poulton (secondary task performance)
-Participants drove in either a residential area (lower cognitive demand) or in a crowded shopping car park(higher cognitive demand)
While they were doing this they were played a tape containnig lists of number.
Paricipants made more errors in the shopping centre car park than the residential area car park
More focus needed for primary task of driving
less capacity for the secondary task
What were the results of the study by Brown and Poulton
Participants would make more errors in the crowded car park sue to it taking more cognitive demand and therefore there is less capacity for the secondary task
Outline the additional study by Miller
Miller proposed that most people can hold 7 pieces of information (+-2) in their short term memory (STM)
Miller further suggested that if we chunk information toogether into units that mean something to us into a chunk. We can remeber more
Outline the additional study by The Hawthorne Studies
Six woman studied intensly- They were assembling electrical relay switching
-Mayo investigated the impact of light levels systematically varying light levels
They found that any change led to an increase in productivity.
This suggested that if workers know they are being observed then thier performance may increase
What is the conclusion of The Hawthorne studies
If employees think that they are being observed the their productivuty will increase
What is the key research of ergonomics
Drews and doig
-evaluation of configural vital signs displays for intensive care unit nurses
What was the procedure of Drews and Doig
The nurses were randomly assigned to the cvs or control group (normal display units)so an independent measures design. Four “fake” but realistic patient scenarios were used to help measure the effectiveness of the new system
-all given 20 minutes training
-Asked verbally to evaluate the patients physiological status, interpret data and give recomendations
-given one of the patients scenarios
-given 5 minutes to complete each of the four scenriaos
response time and accuracy was assessed
-After the trials the nurses were given self reports to complete on workload and the desireability of that display
What were the results of drews and doig
-faster response time in the CVS group- around 30% improvement
In 2 of 4 patient scenarios e.g septic shock the CVS group were significantly better at recognise the patients condition (accuracy)
-The nurses rated the scenarios as being realistic and the use of CVS being desireable
In the control condirion only one nurse accesses the trend information by clicking a button
what was the conclusion of Drews and Doig
The new display system can help improve nurses assessments of patents in terms of accuracy and speed of response/ interpretation of data
The use of the CVS may help nurses to detect earlier more subtle changes so potentially avoid patient harm
what was the sample of Drews and Doig
42 experienced nurses from a hospital in Utah
The new configural vital sign display system was compared with the standard display unit
what did the CVS displays include
more graphical representations
geometric shapes
trends and the use of colour
e.g blue for low blood oxygen levels
outline one application of ergonomics in the workplace
-paint the room purple
-limit the number of screens that any single member of security staff has to monitor.
-make them feel like they are being observed
what is the structure of an evaluate question
Point
Example
Explain
Counter argument
outline the additional research by Higuera and trujillo Whilst wearing VR headsets that simulated their classroom they undertook two different asks the cognitive tasks
The memory task
The attention task
peoploe scored most highly in purple
VR headsets that simulated their classroom they undertook two different asks the cognitive tasks
The memory task
The attention task
peoploe scored most highly in purple
