Human Performance Factors Research Articles

A LOW-COST SIMULATOR SYSTEM FOR VIGILANCE RESEARCH

Human detection efficiency performance deteriorates rapidly in a wide variety of monotonous monitoring tasks (Stroh, 1971). The upsurge of interest in research on human performance vigilance began during World War I1 (Baker, 1962). Investigations of human performance decrements were centered about ships' lookouts and radar operators. The interest in vigilance research continues because many of today's military, industrial and transportation systems still embody these features (Adams, 1965; Mackie, 1977). Rapidly developing electronics capability over the past several years has resulted in a dramatic increase in the fidelity of simulated vigilance task apparams with an exponential rise in costs. Beatty, Greenburg, Deibler, and O'HanIon (1974) employed a radar simulator comparable to actual equipment in their study of theta brain wave rhythms and radar monitoring efficiency. While such high fidelity and high'cost apparatus might be justified for large-scale grant-supported projects, there is virtually no research evidence that such fidelity contributes to the validity of experimental outcomes. Finnegan, Kelly, and Trollip ( 1977) noted that the great strides in simulation have often been guided more by what is technologically feasible than by what is economically and practically desirable. Making a system more realistic in appearance does not necessarily make it any better for assessment of human performance factors. The cost of high fidelity equipment has, however, meant that few university psychology departments have been able to support smaller scale vigilance experiments in teaching or research. The system described in this paper was designed to minimize costs and maximize simplicity by employing apparatus commonly available in most psychology or human performance laboratories. It was decided that a minimum system should be capable of providing (1) vigilance task stirn,uli, ( 2 ) variable background clutter, ( 3 ) monotonous conditions, and (4) a permanent recording of stimuli as well as subjects' detection responses.

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Previous articleNext article No AccessCommentary and DebatesReplyLouis KriesbergLouis Kriesberg Search for more articles by this author PDFPDF PLUS Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail SectionsMoreDetailsFiguresReferencesCited by American Journal of Sociology Volume 70, Number 2Sep., 1964 Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1086/223797 Views: 1Total views on this site Citations: 2Citations are reported from Crossref PDF download Crossref reports the following articles citing this article:David C. Dwyer Contextual antecedents of instructional leadership, The Urban Review 17, no.33 (Sep 1985): 166–188.https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01142464Gil E. Gordon, Ned Rosen Critical factors in leadership succession, Organizational Behavior and Human Performance 27, no.22 (Apr 1981): 227–254.https://doi.org/10.1016/0030-5073(81)90048-9

CRITERIA FOR HUMAN PERFORMANCE RESEARCH.

The heart of human factors performance research is the development of an appropriate criterion or effectiveness measure. Typical criteria employed in research from 1941 to 1963 by the U.S. Army Personnel Research Office have included grades, ratings, and situational performance measures, each selected for use according to critical methodological, operational, and administrative considerations. Emphasis is placed upon predicting individual effectiveness. Today's military manager desires an evaluation of a system or subsystem as a totality and is likely to give more wholehearted acceptance to that research product expressed in quantitative units reflecting his goals and mission. Examples are given of the roles human factors scientists play today in helping develop the systems output criterion, similar to human factors performance criteria in some respects but which requires more attention to the need for simulation and to decisions with respect to laboratory vs. field experimentation. A framework of human factors oriented systems research is presented.