Human Factors Minute

...and now for another Human Factors Minute! A/B testing is a randomized experimentation process in which two or more versions of a single variable, be that a web page or page feature, are shown to users to figure out which performs better. The “A” refers to the “control”—the original format and the “B” is a variation of that. It is also known as split testing because you split the sample of users where one half uses one version A, and the other half uses the “B” version. Say for example, you wanted to test out the effect of the location of a...

…and now for another Human Factors Minute! The American Society of Industrial Engineers, ASME, is a not-for-profit organization that promotes art, science, multidisciplinary engineering, and allied sciences with members in over 135 countries. This professional organization creates space for collaboration and skill development while promoting the essential role of engineers in society. Their goal is to be a premier resource for the global engineering community while pursuing sustainable solutions such as clean energy and water, efficient housing and transportation, public safety, and public healthcare. Additionally, ASME develops codes and standards to improve the safety, reliability, and efficiency of engineering processes. The or...

Did you know the The Department of Defense Human Factors Engineering Technical Advisory Group is composed of 19 sub Technical Advisory Groups?

One of those is the HFE/HSI SubTAG.

This SubTAG's area of interest includes DoD and service HSI policy, HSI initiatives (Army MANPRINT, Air Force IMPACTS, Navy HSI), interservice inconsistencies in the acquisition process, feedback of lessons learned from test results and field operations to human factors engineers, and the identification of problems during application of HSI tools, technologies, standards, or guidance. Industry/government, higher/lower staff echelon, and support relations are of prime...

Affordances, coined by psychologist James Gibson in 1966, are detailed as what an environment offers to an individual. Further detailed later by computer interaction researcher Don Norman as, “A relationship between the properties of an object and the capabilities of the agent that determine just how the object could possibly be used” or, “action possibilities.”

Affordances imply what interactions for users are possible in our everyday life, physically and digitally. Affordances generally exist within the following categories:

False – Where the environment/object characteristics suggests and action may be taken where one does not exist, such as a button o...

...And now for another Human Factors Minute. Galvanic skin response, or GSR, is the measurement of change in the skin's electrical conductivity. This change comes as a result of increased sweat gland activity. When someone experiences emotional arousal, such as sadness, joy, or fear, there is also a change in sweat gland activity. The GSR measurement can be reflectivity of the intensity of an emotional state. To measure this, GSR electrodes are usually attached to the hand, which has the highest density of sweat glands in the body. A device is then used to record this data. GSR data is...

The Multiple Oscillator Model is a connectionist model that describes how we perceive time.

An oscillator can be described as a pacemaker with a repetitive rhythm - like a swinging pendulum. The perception of an oscillator can provide the linear metric of time without one having to read a clock.

This particular model describes time as being perceived through the feedback of multiple oscillators, each with a different frequency once they are triggered. It is believed that intervals in seconds can accurately be perceived when a set of oscillators coincide with one another.

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Did you know the The Department of Defense Human Factors Engineering Technical Advisory Group is composed of 19 sub Technical Advisory Groups?

One of those is the Controls and Displays SubTAG.

This SubTAG aims to ensure that the development of advanced display and control systems for use by human operators is done consistent with the principles of human factors, with the intent of providing a means by which all DOD, NASA, and FAA personnel who are working in the area of displays and controls can maintain a high level of awareness of developments being made in...

The Environmental Design Research Association was formed in 1968 by designers who believed they had the social responsibility to use their expertise as a tool to alleviate environmental problems.

The EDRA is the product of the Design Methods Group joining forces with the myriad of independent efforts of like minded organizations with the understanding that their work would be stronger together. As one, EDRA advocates on behalf of healthier, more democratic human environments.

The mission of the EDRA is to build a collaborative community between disciplines that creates and advocates for environments that are responsive to...

The Behavioral Theory of Timing comes to us from Peter Killeen and Gregor Fetterman in 1988. The general idea is that the reinforcement of behaviors generates knowledge of the average amount of time between reinforcement. This knowledge is what sets our internal clock, which then tells us when to perform the behavior. The transitions between behaviors are considered a Poisson Process.

A Poisson Process is a probability concept that can be applied to many real-world situations. For something to qualify as a Poisson Process, events must be independent of each other, the average rate of events is constant...

...and now for another Human Factors Minute!

The Virtual Fit Multivariate Anthropometric Tool was developed by HFES in collaboration with Penn State University to make multivariate accommodation estimates for North American users.

The tool works by calculating the percent of the population that would be able to be accommodated by a specific design, and it also allows specification based on gender proportion. It uses a multivariate analysis approach, which is based on the idea that designs can fail to fit users in multiple ways. A product may be designed too short for one person, or...

Did you know the The Department of Defense Human Factors Engineering Technical Advisory Group is composed of 19 sub Technical Advisory Groups?

 One of those is the Personnel SubTAG.

 The Personnel SubTAG addresses methods and technologies for selecting personnel for military occupations requiring complex human machine interactions as well as the screening of military personnel and the prediction of performance of personnel in military occupations. With an increasingly complex nature and high value of land , sea , air , and spaceborne military systems, there is a demand that highly capable soldiers, sailors, and airmen be tasked with their op...

Founded in 1964, the International System Safety Society is a non-profit organization that promotes, supports, and informs the legion of professionals who address safety and risk concerns throughout various industries. The organization connects system safety professionals from around the world, through local chapters.

In a world in which acquiring new and innovative products is just a click away, it is easy to forget that there is an entire sector of our workforce dedicated to ensuring every consumer-facing product is rendered safe for use. The System Safety Society serves as guardians to the safety of these products and services.<...

Heart rate monitoring is often used to gather real-time data from a user’s physiological response while they are performing tasks on a product or system. This is an important biometric & neuro-measurement tool because it senses unconscious changes in a user’s stress, workload, and drowsiness. Since mental processing like emotional reactions and decision-making happen unconsciously, it offers more insight to how a user’s body is responding to a given situation.

 In user studies, if a participant is having trouble completing a task, they might become more emotionally aroused and stressed. Even if they verbally express that th...

The diffusion model is a psychological model of how we process a single-stage decision when there is a simple choice between two options. This is beneficial both in human decision making as it allows for a conclusion to potentially be reached earlier than in complex decision making.

One of the key distinctions of diffusion models is that they are dynamic - able to describe the evolution of a person’s preferences over time. When discussed in terms of cognition, diffusion modeling is the mathematical representation of decision field theory, an approach to human decision making, which aims to...

Did you know the The Department of Defense Human Factors Engineering Technical Advisory Group is composed of 19 sub Technical Advisory Groups?

One of those is the Human Factors Standardization (HFS) SubTAG.

This SubTAG aims to identify programs and initiatives that are needed within the Department of Defense, specifically within Human Factors Standardization Area of Consideration (HFAC), other government lead standardization activities, and offices of primary record.

The group's goal is also to provide advisory support to ensure successful coordinated efforts in implementing planned Human Factors Standardization. Avoiding duplication among DoD standardization is a...

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration protects millions of workers through a labor code of federal regulations. OSHA 1910 ensures the adoption and extension of legal standards, creating general workplace safety requirements that apply to all industries.

OSHA 1910 establishes compliance duties, air contaminant provisions, rules for walking and working surfaces, hazardous materials, personal protective equipment, first aid, emergency planning, and fire protection. Combined, these measures can increase workplace safety with dramatic effect.

Since its implementation, OSHA has reduced workplace injuries and deaths by 50%. Human factors and ergonomics are at the heart of these life saving safety...

...and now for another Human Factors Minute! Scalar Expectancy Theory, or SET, is an important model of animal timing behavior credited to John Gibbon in the late 1900s. The idea of SET is that animals have an internal clock and particular memory and decision-making processes, which explains why their behavior can be temporally controlled using fixed-interval reinforcement. The scalar part of SET comes from how animals compare the current time (held in their working memory) to the expected time (held in their reference memory). When the ratio is small enough, the animal performs the behavior. When the ratio is big...

...and now for another Human Factors Minute!

The Industrial Environmental Association-or the IEA. is a non-profit that serves manufacturing companies in Southern California. The Association advocates on behalf of industry to promote responsible environmental legislation and to facilitate environmental compliance for companies through training and educational opportunities. As a result, Its members are recognized as experts in environmental health and safety.

The IEA holds a conference of the same name annually, that brings together industry professionals and legislative leaders to provide environmental compliance guidance as well as regulatory and legislative updates. The conference includes nearly...

...and now for another Human Factors Minute! Did you know the The Department of Defense Human Factors Engineering Technical Advisory Group is composed of 19 sub Technical Advisory Groups? One of those is the Modeling and Simulation SubTAG The Modeling and Simulation SubTAG's mission’s is to provide a method for improving awareness of human factors modeling and simulation in government personnel. "Modeling and Simulation" topics include validated information on individual, small and large group human performance and behavior. Mthods for the verification, validation, and accreditation of human models and simulations. And endeavors in the development of human modeling and simulation in...

...and now for another Human Factors Minute! The Acoustical Society of America (ASA) is an international scientific society founded in 1929 dedicated to generating, disseminating and promoting the knowledge of acoustics and its practical applications. The Society is primarily a voluntary organization of about 7500 members and attracts the interest, commitment, and service of many professionals. The ASA may inform Human Factors Principles, studies, and application for specific subject areas that include topics like how humans perceive various sounds, how humans perceieve auditory signals, as well as understanding how humans produce speech and communicate with each other. The ASA publishes a number...

...and now for another Human Factors Minute! Neuroergonomics is the study of effectively apply state-of-the-art methods and theories from neuroscience to understand how the brain works in everyday life. Traditional ergonomic studies rely predominantly on psychological explanations to address human factors issues such as: work performance, operational safety, and workplace-related risks . Neuroergonomics, in contrast, addresses the biological substrates of ergonomic concerns, with an emphasis on the role of the human nervous system. The goal of combining neuroscience with Human Factors (and Ergonomics) is to use the discoveries of the human brain and physiological functioning both to inform the design of...

...and now for another Human Factors Minute! An electroencephlogram, or EEG, is a test that detects abnormalities in your brain waves, or in the electrical activity of your brain. The device works by placing electrodes consisting of small metal discs with thin wires are pasted onto the participant's scalp. The electrodes detect tiny electrical charges that result from the activity in brain cells. The charges are amplified and appear as a graph on a computer screen, or as a recording that may be printed out on paper. In Human Factors, EEGs are used typically to measure performance with respect to...

...and now for another Human Factors Minute! Did you know the The Department of Defense Human Factors Engineering Technical Advisory Group is composed of 19 sub Technical Advisory Groups? One of those is the Human Performance Measurement SubTAG The Workload, Stress and Human Performance SubTAG serves as an ad hoc committee in assessing, guiding, and improving the technical investigation among all government agencies to understand the unique impact on human performance of operator and crew workload, stress, fatigue, and cognitive/collaboration demands in an increasingly networked environment. This subTAG focuses on the body of knowledge, concepts, principles, data, methodology, and criteria...

...and now for another Human Factors Minute! The Spectral Model is a model of one type of circuit within an animal or robot’s larger temporal organization. It describes a mechanism for inhibiting the urge to move on too soon from an expected outcome by learning to wait for something that is expected by discounting expected nonoccurrences until the expected arrival of the goal object. If the goal object does not appear after a certain amount of time, then the unexpected nonoccurrence of the goal can be processed and responded to appropriately. This timing mechanism is important for the survival of...

...and now for another Human Factors Minute! AES, the Applied Ergonomics Society, is a worldwide resource for the ergonomics profession dedicated solely to the support of the profession and individuals involved with improving workplace performance, quality, sustainability and employee availability. AES supports the Annual Applied Ergonomics Conference and Expo, a conference where attendees gather from around the world to share best practices with other professionals in ergonomics, healthcare, safety, human resources and risk management. The conference allows attendees to learn from those who in the field and provides an opportunity to Attend multidisciplinary educational sessions for all experience levels, Expand...

...and now for another Human Factors Minute! Vigilance is the action or state of keeping careful watch for possible danger or difficulties. The issue with this is that as automation is becoming increasingly more prevalent within our society humans are having to switch from the active role of operator to the passive role of monitor. Human Factors research has identified many issues with requiring humans to do vigilance tasks as they are highly stressful on individuals because of their substantial demand on information processing resources. One reason for this is individuals need to constantly use working memory to distinguish what...

...and now for another Human Factors Minute! Did you know the The Department of Defense Human Factors Engineering Technical Advisory Group is composed of 19 sub Technical Advisory Groups? One of those is the System Safety, Health Hazards, Survivability SubTAG The primary objective of this group to promote detailed interchange and coordination of technical information on system safety, health hazards, and survivability considerations in the development and application of human factors engineering to the Department of Defense lifecycle materiel system acquisition management process. The goal of the information interchange is to enhance total system performance, protect personnel from injuries and illnesses...

...and now for another Human Factors Minute! With so many theoretical models for how we perceive time, researchers have started comparing the different models. This emphasizes that we still have much to learn about how we perceive time in the real world and use that perception to interact with our environment. Recent research tells us that time perception involves a large neural network throughout the brain; there is no specific structure that controls it. In general, our understanding is that our perception of time is a combination of a variety of factors such as attention, arousal, emotions, and environmental cues. ...

...and now for another Human Factors Minute! The International Organization for Standardization is an international standard-setting body composed of representatives from various national standards organizations.The organization develops and publishes worldwide technical, industrial and commercial standards. ISO Standards are internationally agreed upon by experts, often thought of as a formula that describes the optimal way of doing something. These standards vary in type and cover a wide range of actrivities such as making a product, managing a process, delivering a service or supplying materials. Standards are the distilled wisdom of people with expertise in their subject matter and who know...

...and now for another Human Factors Minute! Association for Computing Machinery's Special Interest Group on Computer Human Interaction (or ACM SIGCHI) is an international society for professionals, academics and students who are interested in human-technology and human-computer interaction. Through over 20 sponsored and over 40 in-cooperation conferences, publications, web sites, and other services they provide several forums for discussion. SIGCHI also offers workshops and outreach, and promotes informal access to a wide range of individuals and organizations involved in HCI. ACM SIGCHI facilitates an environment where its members can invent and develop novel technologies and tools, explore how technology impacts people’s li...

...and now for another Human Factors Minute! Did you know the The Department of Defense Human Factors Engineering Technical Advisory Group is composed of 19 sub Technical Advisory Groups? One of those is the Extreme Environments SubTAG The Extreme Environments (EE) SubTAG is concerned with all facets of Human Factors and Ergonomics which deal with any type of extreme environments. This includes the design, development, fabrication, and implementation of any related hardware or software systems, and the interfacing of these systems with humans. Extreme Environments include space flight, high-altitude flight, extraterrestrial, underground, underwater, arctic and antarctic conditions, desert, tropical, fire fighting...

...and now for another Human Factors Minute! The probability of developing products and environments that are accessible for everyone lies within the concept of universal design. There are seven principles of universal design that serve as a foundation for designers and Human Factors practitioners that help make usable interfaces for all people no matter what age, technical expertise, or physical ability. Equitable use, states that usable and accessible design is provided for people with a wide range of abilities. Flexibility in use, aims to accommodate to user’s preferences and abilities. Simple and intuitive use, seeks to create easy-to-understand design so...

...and now for another Human Factors Minute! The International Council on Systems Engineering (INCOSE) is designed to connect systems engineering professionals with professional development opportunities in the interest of developing the global community of systems engineers and systems approaches to problems. They offer three types of certification for systems engineers: Associate, Certified, and Expert Systems Engineering Professional certification. The associate (or ASEP) certification is meant for systems engineers just beginning to practice, such as junior systems engineers. Applicants will have “book knowledge” but no significant field experience yet. For practicing systems engineers with more than 5 years of professional systems engineering expe...

...and now for another Human Factors Minute! Forensic Human factors expertise provides the scientific basis for how and why personal injuries occur. Their motto is "There's a Human Factor in every case." Their mission is to provide exceptional human factors expertise toward resolving personal injury litigation through superior analysis and testimony. Many forensic experts serve unwittingly (or intentionally) as advocates for their clients. The best experts, however, provide attorneys with comprehensive and objective feedback on their case, so that the attorney can produce a winning strategy. The legal system is intended to provide both parties with the opportunity to state...

...and now for another Human Factors Minute! Did you know the The Department of Defense Human Factors Engineering Technical Advisory Group is composed of 19 sub Technical Advisory Groups? One of those is the Cognitive Readiness SubTAG. The purpose of the Cognitive Readiness SubTAG is to address the latest advances in cognitive readiness research in terms of both theory development and practical applications across domains. Members of this group aim to provide a mechanism for the exchange of technical information concerning methods and technologies for screening personnel and predicting their on-the-job performance. The scope of this SubTAG includes topics that seek...

...and now for another Human Factors Minute! According to the granddaughter of the second officer aboard the Titanic, Charles Lightoller, The Titanic sank from human error. A new steering system led to a mistake by the steersman, into going "hard a port" instead of "hard a starboard" and straight into the iceberg instead of away from it. According to the second officer's ancestor, a Charles Lightoller was the most senior officer to survive. He kept the secret from two separate inquiries because, according to his granddaughter, he saw it as his duty to protect the White Star Line from bankruptcy...

...and now for another Human Factors Minute! The military standard 1472 H is the official DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE DESIGN CRITERIA STANDARD for HUMAN ENGINEERING, This standard is approved for use by all Departments and Agencies of the Department of Defense and establishes general human engineering criteria for design and development of military systems, equipment, and facilities. Human engineering is one of seven domains of human-systems integration and is synonymous with human factors engineering. The purpose of this standard is to present human engineering design criteria, principles, and practices to be applied in the design of systems, equipment, and facilities so as...

...and now for another Human Factors Minute! This has been another Human Factors Minute! Be sure to check out our main show at our official website: https://www.humanfactorscast.media Support us on these platforms to get access to the entire Human Factors Minute library: Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/humanfactorscast Buy us a coffee: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/hfactorspodcast Join us on Discord:https://go.humanfactorscast.media/Discord Follow us: Human Factors Cast Merchandise Store: https://www.humanfactorscast.media/p/Store/ Follow us on Twitch: https://twitch.tv/HumanFactorsCast Follow us on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/HumanFactorsCast Follow us...

...and now for another Human Factors Minute! Did you know that the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society has 24 technical groups that are concerned with the human factors aspects of specific application areas? One of those is the Training Technical Group The Training Technical Group consists of people interested in all aspects of human factors as applied to training systems. This includes training system design and evaluation, innovative technologies for training, and instructional design and implementation applied to training systems. Human factors practitioners working in the field of training are involved in development and research. Human factors practitioners in this technical...

...and now for another Human Factors Minute! In order for people to recognize and avoid dangerous conditions, they must be see the hazard. Adequate illumination is critical for people to detect and identify hazards in time to avoid them. We measure the illumination and reflectivity of objects to determine their relative contrast, and the resulting visibility. Our eyes handle a huge range of light visibility, in part by using two types of receptors: rods, which work well under low light conditions, and cones that work best under bright conditions. In low light conditions, such as the outer edges of a...