Human Factors: Origins and Methodologies Flashcards
What is Human Factors (and Ergonomics)?
- The study of how humans accomplish work-related tasks in the context of human-machine system operation, and how behavioral and nonbehavioral variables affect that accomplishment (Meister, 1989).
What types of human performance measures are used by human factors practitioners/researchers?
- Measures of speed or time
- Measures of accuracy or error
- Measures of workload or capacity demands
- Measures of preference
These can be subjective, objective, or physiological
What were/are the four key developmental stages of human factors engineering?
- Pre-World War II (pre-technology era)
- World War II/Aerospace Era
- Era of Sociotechnical Systems
- Cosmopolitan Era
Describe the Pre-World War II (or pre-technology era) of human factors engineering.
- Before human factors was formalized as a separate discipline from other forms of engineering.
- This era was focused on human use of tools for work (e.g., sickles, axes).
- F.W. Taylor was one of the founding fathers of human factors engineering.
- He demonstrated that appropriate selection, training, and work-reset schedules improved the average daily load moved per worker from 12.5 tons to 47.5 tons.
- Taylor also performed time and motion studies which provided the foundation for task analysis.
- In the early 1900’s, Taylor’s student (Frank Gilbreth) studied skilled performance, workstation design, and design of the handicapped.
Describe the World War II/Aerospace era of human factors engineering.
- New technologies (machines) were being developed at a rapid pace
- There was little understanding of how we would work with/interact with these new technologies
- The introduction of these machines placed new demands on humans, which was especially important for humans working in safety-critical domains
- It was now necessary to consider how to best integrate humans into machine systems, and machines into human systems
- Psychologists, biological scientists, physiologists, anthropometrists, and physicians came together to begin to address these emerging issues
- This led to the emergence of human factors engineering.
- At this point in time, most research focused on machines of war to the exclusion of typical consumer machinery
Describe the human factors engineering era of sociotechnical systems.
- This is when HFE began to address issues outside of war machines (e.g., public transportation, consumer goods, health facilities)
- In 1965, there was still a focus on more restrictive areas such as military systems, aircrafts, and space vehicles
- In 1969, we started to see the aforementioned shift occur
- This shift was characterized by a major shift in…
- The nature of the field
- The kind of papers presented at technical meetings/conferences
- The papers published in scientific journals
- Because of this shift towards considering anyone, and not just people within highly specific work domains, more populations were considered in the research (e.g., elderly, special needs individuals)
- This shift helped us become more widely recognized by other disciplines
- Finally, HFE began to move away from an exclusive focus on pure performance to a more all encompassing focus that also considered affordability, comfort, reliability, and safety.
Describe the cosmopolitan era (modern era) of human factors engineering.
- This is where we are now
- Also can be considered as the Cultural Ergonomics era
- We now consider an even larger number of factors, people, and things within our discipline (e.g., international standards)
What is human factors engineering?
Field of study that seeks to reduce error, increase productivity, and enhance safety and comfort when the human interacts with a system (Wickens & Hollands, 2000).
What is engineering psychology?
- A part of the broader field of human factors
- The focus of Engineering Psychology is on the role of the information processing capacities of the human brain (Wickens & Kramer, 1985; Howell, 1993).
- Is tied to Experimental Psychology because it collects experimental data based on theoretical models.
What is human performance?
A field of study that focuses on how the brain perceives and decides what to do with sensory messages (perception), how the operator decides what to do with this information (decision), and how the actions that are decided on are carried out (action).
What are the seven research methodologies utilized by human factors researchers and practitioners?
- Field studies
- Accident & Incident Reports
- Surveys
- Task Simulations
- Laboratory Experiments
- Literature (research and handbooks)
- Models (human simulation)
What were three major nuclear power plant accidents that were partially the result of human factors issues?
- Three Mile Island
- Chernobyl
- Fukushima
Where is Human Factors preferred when describing our work and what human limitations/capacities does it focus on?
- United States
- Cognitive limitations/capacities
Where is Ergonomics preferred when describing our work and what human limitations/capacities does it focus on??
- Europe
- Physical limitations/capacities
What latin words does Ergonomics derive from?
- Ergo = work
- Nomos = laws
