HUMAN FACTORS Flashcards
What are the 10 Human factors disciplines
clinical psychology experimental psychology anthropometrics computer science cognitive science safety engineering medical science organisational psychology educational psychology industrial engineering
Purpose of clinical psychology
Aims to promote well being, to provide coping mechanisms for stress and other adverse situations
Purpose of experimental psychology
The study of basic behavioural processes, such as learning, sensation and communication
Purpose of anthropometrics
Study of dimensions and the ability of the human body
Purpose of computer science
study of theoretical ideas, AMTs need reliable and easy to use computers with easy to use software
Purpose of cognitive science
The study of minds, including information processing, perception and language
Purpose of safety engineering
The safety system assures a life critical system behaves as required if it is needed, as well as being designed to a robust and reliable level
Purpose of medical science
The art of healing
Purpose of organizational psychology
Concerned with relations between people and work. Includes training, productivity satisfaction
Purpose of educational psychology
The study of how people learn and aims to design methods and materials to educate all
Purpose of industrial engineering
Is the organized approach to work with regards to facility layout, working environment, statistical analysis of work performance
What is the cornea
The clear window at the font of the eye, allows light to enter, the shape allows bending of incoming and is a fixed focusing device, providing between 70 and 80% of focusing ability
What is the iris and pupil
Iris is the coloured part, controls the amount of light that enters the eye, it does this with the pupil, the light levels can be adjusted by a factor of 5:1
What is the lens
The lens adjusts its shape with the ciliary muscles and achieves final focusing and provides sharp images.
What is accommodation
The changing shape of the lens
Factors that affect acommodation
Fatigue, age, results in less sharp viewing
The lens at short and long distances in order to focus does what?
Short distance thickens and long distance flattens
What is visual acuity
Sharpness of vision
With fatigue what happens to visual acuity?
With fatigue, accommodation reduces reducing acuity
Where is the retina?
The rear wall of the eyeball, connected to the optic nerve
What is the retina made up of?
Light sensitive cells, rods and cones
Cones function in?
Light conditions, detect fine detail and 1000 shades of colour
Rods function in?
The dark, poor at detail but good at peripheral vision
When are rods most sensitive?
Dark conditions
What is in the centre of the retina
The fovea
What is the fovea made up of?
Entirely of cones
What does the fovea do?
Typically focuses the visual image,
What is the spread of rods and cones?
Dense cones in the fovea, moving outwards density of cones drop and rod density increases until the periphery of the retina where only rods reside
How does the image get to the optical nerve?
The light stimulates the rods and cones and pass small electrical impulses to the optic nerve to the visual cortex
What does the visual cortex do?
Interprets the image
factors affecting clarity of sight?
light levels, air quality, drugs, medication, alcohol
How many cells in the eye?
1.2 million
How many cells in the ear?
50000
By how much resolving power is lost in the fovea with 5 degree angular drop?
50%
what is hypermetropia?
long sightedness, caused by a shorter than normal eyeball, image forms behind the retina
What is myopia?
Short sightedness, longer than normal eye ball, image formed in front of retina
What is astigmatism?
Misshapen cornea, causing irregular shaped images
What is glaucoma?
Pressure build up in the eye ball
What is presbyopia?
Age causing the lens to become less flexible, reducing accommodation, causes long sightedness
Effect of smoking
Carbon monoxide build up reduce oxygen to the blood in the eyes, this is called hypoxia reducing sensitivity, same effect with alcohol
colour blindness in men %
8%
Colour blindness in women%
0.5%
Parts of the ear
Outer, middle, inner
Purpose of the outer ear?
Directs sounds down the auditory canal onto the ear drum causing it to vibrate
Purpose of the middle ear?
Contains the ossicles, (hammer anvil and stirrup) transmits vibrations to the fluid of the inner ear
What else is in the middle ear?
Two muscles to protect the ear when sound is above 80dB by up to 20 dB for 15 mins
Purpose of the cochlea?
Connected to the ossicles and uses the fluids movement against its hairs to transmit neural impulses to the brain via the auditory nerve
What replaced the 1989 noise at work regulation?
The control of noise at work regulations 2005
By how much do ear plugs reduce sound?
20 dB
By how much do ear defenders reduce sound?
40dB
What is sensory memory?
The storage of physical stimuli via sensory receptors (eyes or ears) for a short time
Types of attention
Divided
Selective
Focused
Sustained
What is selective attention?
Occurs when a person monitors several sources of input
What is divided attention?
Multi tasking
What is focused attention?
Purely focusing on one thing
What is sustained attention?
Ability to remain attentive and alert for long periods of time
What is perception?
Seeing the world and being able to create an understanding of the surroundings adapting to any changes
What are the three processes of memory?
Registration - the input
Storage - the retention
Retrieval - the recovery
What are the three forms of memory?
Ultra short term/sensory
Short term/working memory
Long term
What are the two types of short term memory?
Iconic memory
Echoic memory
How long does short term memory last?
10 TO 20 seconds
What is semantic Memory?
Facts, general info, rules
What episodic memory?
Events, experiences
What is Motor program?
Muscle memory, complex skills,
What is Neuro plasticity?
Refers to the continual changes to the brains neural networks through growth and reorganisation
What is Social loafing?
Social loafing is when some people work less hard as they believe others will work harder to make up the difference
What is Group polarization?
When groups make more risky decisions
Types of fatigue?
Physiological and subjective
What is Physiological fatigue?
Reflects the bodies need for rest,
What is Subjective fatigue?
How sleepy they feel
Five elements of communication are?
Transmit Encode Decode Receive Feedback
What are the modes of communication?
Verbal/spoken Written/textual Graphic Symbolic Body language
Types of errors
Design vs operator induced Variable vs constant error's Reversible versus irreversible errors Slips, lapses, mistakes Skill, rule and knowledge based behaviors and associated errors
The shell model is made up of?
S-software
H-hardware
E-environment
L-live-ware
Which human factors discipline is this?
Aims to promote well being, to provide coping mechanisms for stress and other adverse situations
Clinical psychology
Which human factors discipline is this?
The study of basic behavioural processes, such as learning, sensation and communication
Experimental psychology
Which human factors discipline is this?
The study of dimensions and the ability of the human body
Anthropometrics
Which human factors discipline is this?
The study of theoretical ideas, AMTs need reliable and easy to use computers with easy to use software
Computer science
Which human factors discipline is this?
The study of minds, including information processing, perception and language
Cognitive science
Which human factors discipline is this?
The safety system assures a life critical system behaves as required if it is needed, as well as being designed to a robust and reliable level
Safety engineering
Which human factors discipline is this?
The art of healing
Medical science
Which human factors discipline is this?
Concerned with relations between people and work. Includes training, productivity satisfaction
Organizational psychology
Which human factors discipline is this?
The study of how people learn and aims to design methods and materials to educate all
Educational psychology
Which human factors discipline is this?
Is the organized approach to work with regards to facility layout, working environment, statistical analysis of work performance
Industrial engineering
What is the audio exposure limit?
87 decibels
What is the range of frequencies a young person can hear?
20 to 20 thousand hertz
What is presbycusis?
Naturally occurring hearing loss caused by age
What is the most common type of colour deficiency ?
Red and green
What is the rarer type of colour deficiency?
Blue and yellow, more common with age
Which frequency do humans have the greatest sensitivity?
3000 Hertz
Noise can have the following effects …
Be annoying (e.g. sudden sounds, constant loud sound)
Interfere with verbal communication between individuals in the workplace
Cause accidents by masking warning signals or messages
Be fatiguing and affect concentration, decision making
Damage workers’ hearing (either temporarily or permanently)
At what noise level do employers provide hearing protection?
85 decibels
At what noise level do employers provide hearing training?
80 decibels
What are the four types of violation?
Routine
Optimising
Situational
Exceptional
What is a routine violation?
A violation caused by a method or practice becoming the normal way, this can include cutting corners or not carrying an element of a task out because it is deemed not required
What is a optimising violation?
A violation caused by doing something for fun, when it is not required by the task at hand
What is a situational violation?
One which is caused by workload, pressure, lack of tooling and poor working conditions
What is an exceptional violation?
The violation is caused by tasks or operating systems that make violations inevitable, no matter how well intention the engineer is
What is a motor programme?
A series of sub routines then when used in order create a routine
What gets stored in long term memory?
knowledge
Personal experiences
belief’s, social norms, values etc
What is diffusion of responsibility?
When an individual in a team believes he is no longer responsible for safety and does nothing
As theorised by Maslow what are the the major motivational forces?
Basic needs-physiological and safety factors
Self actualisation - includes love, esteem, and self actualisation factors
what are the elements of team working?
Communication
cooperation
coordination
Mutual support
What is reactive stress?
Stress occurring from everyday life
What are defence stratagies?
Defence strategies alleviate the stress my using medication or alcohol, etc. denying there is an issue
What are coping strategies?
Actually solving the root causes
What frequency is most troublesome for the human body?
0.5 Hz to 150Hz
What frequency is most troublesome for the Human hand?
50Hz to 150Hz
