Job Performance Aids Research Articles

Veilig Werken Volgens Geschreven Procedures

Research in the field of written procedures (in an industrial context) has moved along two lines: regulating the performance of operators, especially in nuclear power plants, and creating effective technical manuals. The quality of such texts has remained a problem, perhaps because research has generally concentrated on superficial text features and task analysis, thereby neglecting the actual use (or non-use) of documents in working situations and the wider interests the organisation has in writing down procedures. A more promising strategy, along the lines of a distinction made by Rasmussen, is to concentrate on the relation between written procedures and the appropriate levels of human performance: skill based, rule based or knowledge based. In a case study (procedures for railway-track maintenance with uninterrupted train service), users described their problems with the written procedures as "lack of clarity", alluding to deficiencies in content and presentation. Further analysis revealed the following more specific problems: - unclear presentation: not designed as a job performance aid, awkward phraseology, unfit for easy reference; - too many detailed procedures; - unclear working situation: users often felt compelled to choose between following the procedures to the letter and accomplishing the jobs on schedule; - resistance to the predominating "control directing" function of the procedures, to the detriment of their "action directing" function; - lack of motivation, as a result of not having been involved in the drawing up of the procedures. The procedures had been conceived by the organisation on a rule based level. Due to the modus operandi of the human cognitive system, however, actual application of the procedures often takes place on a skill based level. Accordingly, it was decided to rewrite the procedures to a skill based level, i.e. to write very explicit instructions, specifying the actions to be taken by workers at every level in the organisation. From the present study it can be concluded that the usability of safety-related written instructions is not determined predominantly by their contents and their presentation, but also by at least the following factors: organisational context (working conditions, administrative control, safety policies); task involved; risk perception; feasible level of human functioning; frequency of error types; ergonomic possibilities; motivation of the users; knowledge and experience of the users.

Toward Joint Person-Machine Cognitive Systems: A Prototype Expert System for Electronics Troubleshooting

Expert systems have a number of attractive features that make them good candidates for the development of maintenance diagnostic aids. However the style of user-expert system interaction that is conventionally employed tends to be rigid, making the systems prone to many of the same pitfalls that other forms of job performance aids have been subject to. We review some of the limitations of the conventional style of user-expert system interaction, and describe a prototype expert system for electronics troubleshooting that allows users more control over the interaction.

Job performance aids. Job aids really can work: A study of the military application of job aid technology

Job performance aids. Job aids really can work: A study of the military application of job aid technology

Acceptance and Use of Job Performance Aids within an Integrated Personnel Systems Approach

Job performance aids (JPAs) were developed within an integrated personnel system framework in order to determine if JPAs (1) are accepted by technicians with low and high levels of aptitude and (2) are used as a source for maintenance information during task performance. The Enlisted Personnel Individualized Career System (EPICS) is an integrated personnel systems approach with emphasis on (JPAs) that incorporates advances made in many people related research and development areas. The goals of EPICS are reduced front-end training, increased relevance of formal training through early job assignment and distributed training, individualized career advancement, and improved personnel utilization. Job design, JPAs, and training modules were the major components used to achieve the EPICS goals. Two types of JPAs were developed: (1) a completely integrated pictorial/text format in which frequent use of pictorials allows the user to focus on the pictorial and use the text to supplement the pictorial, and (2) a more conventional format in which text was supported by pictorials when necessary. JPA use and acceptance were measured by two different types of questionnaires. For acceptance, JPAs were preferred over conventional documentation for at least some first time (both scheduled and unscheduled) and infrequent tasks by 77–81% of the respondents. When grouped according to electronics aptitude, however, a greater number of lower electronics aptitude personnel preferred JPAs when compared to the higher electronics aptitude personnel (67% vs. 38%). Data on how JPAs were actually used complement the acceptance data in that lower electronics aptitude personnel used JPAs more than the higher electronics aptitude personnel, 15% more for scheduled maintenance and 10% more for unscheduled maintenance. Similar results were found for a general aptitude measure. Although the JPAs were highly pictorial in format, there were no differences in JPA use according to reading level. Results are discussed in terms of how JPA design appears to be related to differential use by low and high aptitude technicians.

Task Analysis of Nuclear Power Plant Control Room Crews Data Collection Approach and Methodology

This paper describes the data collection approach and methodology used to conduct a task analysis of nuclear power plant control room crews. The objective of the research project, funded by the NRC Office of Nuclear Regulatory Research, is to provide task data for evaluating six areas: (1) Human engineering designs of new control rooms and retrofitting of current control rooms, (2) The numbers and types of control room operators required with requisite skills and knowledges, (3) Operator qualification and training requirements, (4) Normal, off-normal, and emergency operating procedures, (5) Job performance aids, and (6) Communications. The task analysis methodology used in this project is discussed and compared to traditional task analysis and job analysis methods. A data collection approach is described which focusses on a generic structural framework for assembling the multitude of task data that will be observed. Control room crew task data is observed and recorded within the context of an “operating sequence.” The data collection will be conducted at eight power plant sites by teams comprised of human factors and operations personnel. Plants were sampled according to NSSS vendor, vintage, simulator availability, architect-engineer, and control room configuration. The results of the data collection effort will be compiled in a computerized task data base. Preliminary discussion of illustrative examples to demonstrate suitability for data analysis will be presented.

Automated job performance aids—concept and state of the art

Automated job performance aids—concept and state of the art

Survey and Assessment of Nuclear Power Plant Control Room Operability

As part of an effort to develop human engineerging guidelines and a methodology for the evaluation of nuclear power plant control room operability, the Essex Corporation conducted T & E (test and evaluation) reviews of a wide sample of nuclear power plant control rooms. The objectives of these design reviews were: 1) selection, application, and development of human engineering evaluation guidelines applicable to the nuclear power industry; 2) selection and development of data collection and analysis procedures; and 3) identification of recurrent human engineering design problems in the control rooms of currently operating nuclear power plants. The present paper discusses the approach taken and the findings in item three above. Thirteen control rooms were visited, and guidelines and data collection methods under various degrees of development were applied. Following control room visits, data were analyzed according to usability, number of incidences of similar or identical operability design problems, criticality of problems with respect to both public and plant safety, and subjective assessment of operational affects due to human engineering problems in design. Results to date show that the following areas have recurrent operability design problems: layout of controls and displays according to either operational or functional use; coding of information for visual and auditory presentation; job performance aid and procedures design; communications; environmental factors such as ambient noise; violations in control and display conventions employed; use of conventions which violate population stereotypes; and failure to design within anthropometric constraints. Further work is being conducted by Essex Corporation to identify critical human engineering deficiencies in control room design and to select adequate yet cost-effective and corrective backfits.

The Effects of Pictorial and Verbal Instructional Materials On the Operational Performance of Deaf Subjects

The present research compared the effectiveness of pictorial and verbal information in printed instructional materials for deaf subjects. Four types of instructional formats were prepared, varying in proportion of pictorial and verbal information: (a) all pictorial; (b) predominantly pictorial, with some ancillary verbal information; (c) all verbal; and (d) predominantly verbal, with some ancillary pictorial information. Each format was given to a separate group of deaf college students. The instructional materials described sequences of operational procedures to be carried out by subjects on a complex control-display apparatus. Performance was measured by task completion time and error rate. Results showed that when both performance variables were considered, the best instructional format was predominantly pictorial, with some ancillary verbal information. The all-pictorial format produced short task completion times but relatively high error rates. The all-verbal and predominantly verbal formats generally yielded low error rates but longer task completion times. Since these results are consistent with related studies conducted with hearing subjects, the research has general implications for the development of instructional materials and job performance aids in education and rehabilitation.

Job performance aids: Evaluation of design alternatives via network simulation

Network simulation was used as an alternative to laboratory experimentation to assess and evaluate different combinations of job performance aid (J PA) formats and the effect of stress on task performance with a J PA. An operational model was developed for a task series lhat was defined by both speed and accuracy constraints. Themodel was simulated under various levels of speed stress with different combinations of the task's speed and accuracy constraints. The data generated were statistically evaluated and a subset of conditions were compared to the results of a laboratory experiment to assess the validity of the model. Input data were developed from past studies and existing theories of human behaviour by employing: (1) psychological theories and experimental results regarding reading behaviour; and (2) methods-time-mcasurements for determining the physical motions involved. Mean task time was found to be a function of task constraints and the JPA format matched to those constraints. Performance time decreased when a state of organizing stress was induced by reducing the overall available task time to perform the task series. Continued reduction of the overall available time produced a point at which the stress became disorganizing and caused mean task time to increase. The results of the simulation were supported by the laboratory experiment. The laboratory findings were consistent with exisling JPA literature.

Job performance aids as tools for learning

Job performance aids as tools for learning

Innovative JPA Techniques

Job performance aid (JPA) technology has evolved along two lines, JPAs for non-troubleshooting tasks and JPAs for troubleshooting tasks. Although various JPA formats have been developed for each of the two types of tasks, advancing technology and the application of a systems approach to the design of an integrated personnel system required the identification and testing of innovative JPA techniques. These are enrichment, hybridizing, and state tables. An enriched JPA has information in addition to the stated task procedures that supports the task being performed. Results are reported that support the enrichment concept when it is incorporated into fully proceduralized JPAs. Hybrid JPAs present task information in a mixed level format. The premise of the hybrid JPA is that users will transition from reliance on a directive element to reliance on a deductive element and thus permit the user to advance his or her skill and knowledge level. The results of hybrid JPA research, especially when it is enriched, indicate that it is a good candidate for inclusion in an integrated personnel system and permits individuals to develop higher level skills. The state table presents an organized flow of system functions By listing and describing all the significant events that are necessary to complete an operational function. By using state tables, it is expected that learning and the subsequent progression in skill level will take place.

Job Design as Part of the Navy Enlisted Personnel Individualized Career System

The Navy, faced with the prospect of decreasing personnel availability, lower entry-level skills, and increased training costs has decided to develop and evaluate a personnel system concept with innovative technical manuals (Job Performance Aids) as the principal means for obtaining early and productive personnel performance. Significant features of this new concept are: (1) innovative job performance aids (JPA's) to guide minimally trained personnel in productive work, (2) deferred, front-end formal training, and (3) accounting for and individualizing the long-term aspects of the personnel system, such as job structures, career paths, performance appraisal, and advancement. The process of defining JPA-based jobs and integrating them into a total personnel system is referred to as a job design process. Total job design will be accomplished in several phases. First, the tasks necessary to operate and maintain a system will be clustered into work units called positions. A position is comprised of tasks which have some commonality of system factors and are homogenous with respect to personnel skill and knowledge demands. Positions are then arrayed in dependent sequences and ordered according to skill demands. Next, position competency requirements will be determined. A determination will then be made as to how position performance competency can be achieved, particularly through the use of innovative JPA's. The third phase is to combine positions into jobs which meet system performance objectives and result in both productive personnel performance and job satisfaction. The final phase of the job design process is to design career patterns which will provide for increased performance development through utilization of more advanced JPAs, additional job-oriented training, and continual performance assessment and advancement. The eventual product of the EPICS job design process will be a complete personnel system which emphasizes the use of JPA's or technical manuals, includes complementary training, and ensures a complete career potential for individuals who are both motivated and capable of job-oriented performance.

Job Performance Aids Research and Technology Base for Integrated Personnel Systems

Over 20 years of research data on JPAs suggested that job performance aiding technology offered major potential in personnel performance increments and cost avoidance throughout the personnel, training, and maintenance communities. More than 100 JPA candidates were known to exist for selection into an integrated personnel system. This paper describes the results of a comprehensive survey of JPA systems and techniques, the organizational JPA technology for application toward an integrated personnel system, and schema utilized in achieving optimal utilization of the state-of-the art JPA technology.

Holograms as Job Performance Aids

The nature of the new technology of holography will be briefly described and holograms will be demonstrated. The unique characteristics of holograms will be sketched and their particular value as aids to job performance will be discussed. In the last few years, the state-of-the-art in holography has advanced at an accelerating rate. It is a technology which allows objects to be presented in three dimensions as though they really exist in space. In fact, there is no visual test to discriminate between the real object and the holographically re-created object. As visual aids in wire tracing and assembly tasks, they are equal to or better than photographs or line drawings. They have been used on the windshields of moving automobiles to create the perception of on-road objects in driver testing. In the last two years they have been commercially available to colleges for teaching hundreds of difficult concepts, such as the DNA helix.

Job Performance Aiding Systems Technology Selection Algorithm

A nine-step selection algorithm is described which relates personnel aptitude, experience, task and equipment complexity, and degree of proceduralization in a decision chain for choosing optimum combinations of job performance aids (JPAs) and training technologies. The algorithm has been useful in (1) identifying JPA research and technology gaps, (2) identifying candidate JPA systems for Navy personnel, maintenance and training tradeoff analyses, and (3) in selecting specific JPA systems for test and evaluation in the Navy Performance Aids Test and Evaluation project. The algorithm development has also included efforts to identify and evaluate specifications and guidelines available for JPA procurement/implementation and to highlight areas where information should be gathered for an integrated JPA/training/maintenance/personnel user handbook.

Continuing Research in Job Performance Aids: The Interaction of Speed Stress and Media

Twenty-seven male subjects were separated into one of four experimental groups and performed a series of five tasks using either an all-print JPA or an all-pictorial JPA. The task series was performed under both a speed stress condition and a non-stress condition. Subjects who completed the task series while referencing an all-pictorial JPA worked faster under speed stress (70 sec) than without speed stress (98 sec). Performance of the same task series with an all-print JPA was unaffected by stress. Accuracy of response decreased in both the print-stress and pictorial-stress conditions when compared to their respective non-stress conditions. The only differences between performances with print and pictorial JPAs occurred in the stress conditions. Results were compared to past research and related to the impact on JPA designers.

The Assessment and Evaluation of Job Performance Aid Formats Using Saint

An operational model was developed for a series of five tasks and four job performance aids. The tasks were defined by both speed and accuracy constraints. Each aid was described in terms of its efficacy on task performance, i.e., time and errors. The developed model was transcribed into SAINT in order to simulate and to compare different combinations of each task's speed and accuracy constraints under various levels of speed stress. Mean task time was found to be a function of task constraints and the JPAs matched to those constraints. Performance time was found to decrease when JPAs were reassigned if initial JPA assignments failed an evaluation criterion test. Performance time continued to decrease when a state of organizing stress was induced by reducing the overall available task time to perform the task series. The continued reduction of the overall available time reached a point at which the stress became disorganizing and caused mean task time to increase.

A Computerized Approach for the Assessment and Evaluation of Job Performance Aids

An approach which combines the salient features of predetermined time and motion systems and a simulation modeling algorithm is presented for the evaluation and assessment of job performance aids (JPAs). Description of the approach, its assumptions, and the computer algorithm used are discussed and detailed. The validity of the approach was ascertained in a companion experimental study which evaluated four types of JPAs: (1) all print, (2) all pictorial, (3) print and pictorial combined, and (4) a hybrid group which used pictorial on easy tasks and pictorial on the more difficult tasks. Results of the validation study demonstrates the accuracy and adequacy of the approach for dealing with JPA design problems. The approach, as presented, can be used to optimally locate points of need for JPAs within maintenance systems. It can also be used to study the effects of various scheduling and allocation policies on human performance and its reliability, while utilizing various alternatives of JPA design.

Handbook for development of advanced job performance aids (JPA) in accordance with MIL-J-83302 (USAF): Abstr. in US Government Research and Development Reports, (Report No. AD-716 820), Jan 1971

Handbook for development of advanced job performance aids (JPA) in accordance with MIL-J-83302 (USAF): Abstr. in US Government Research and Development Reports, (Report No. AD-716 820), Jan 1971