Ergonomics/Human Integrated Systems (Project 02)

Objectives: To fit the job to the human need to understand the human. Psychology students should understand human behaviour. Important to understand social behaviour as this can impact on performance and health – e.g. motivation, attitudes etc... Important to understand cognition, perception, information processing and memory. Underlies ability to do task – affected by social issues.

Human Cognition Cognition is a term for the mechanisms we use to perceive, think and remember. We perceive, process and respond. Theory Lab based, not in applied context. Tasks that are incompatible with our cognitive functions can lead to: Poor performance Stress Errors – medical errors. Disasters – 3 mile island.

Cognitive Factors Psychomotor Skills Sensory and perceptual skills Attention Learning and memory Language and communication Problem solving and decision making All relevant to task performance Examples?

Cognitive Characteristics Each factor has characteristics A person must be able to physically reach the controls of a machine Technology should not exceed our cognitive limits. Understanding human cognition can inform task design or ability to do task.

Exercise - Limits Think of physical limits that affect task design? Think of psychological limits – how do they affect tasks? Are they as clear?

Understanding Cognition Not enough to consider cognitive characteristics of user Interaction between humans and devices requires two-way exchange of information. Need model of task or device, ie outputs and inputs - Context Need model of the user’s cognitive processes and behaviour - Competence Can then understand what can and cannot be expected of users - Performance

Considering Human Performance Competence (Users Cognitive Characteristics): What the person can do What the mind can compute Performance: What the person actually does What mind computes in a given context Context (The workplace, environment etc.): How contextual factors affect information processing, response selection etc.

Example User may have mental capacity or competence to use a mobile phone and drive a car. Performance of phone use and driving (the output of cognition) can be measured. Performance of either task affected by contextual factors. Context includes weather, time, mood? Or phone conversation may be more complicated. Or the task more complicated. In these situations the task may exceed the mental capacities.