Applied Cognitive Psychology Human Factors –how people interact with machines or equipment (e.g., using software)

Example Human Factors study mental workload = how much mental energy is required by a task measure mental workload  goal dual-task or divided attention experiment

how we would do the study primary task: task that we’re interested in (main task) have people perform the primary task by itself (measure RT and accuracy) adding a second task to the primary task the purpose of second task is to measure the mental workload of the primary task (called secondary task)

(cont.) have people perform the secondary task by itself (RT, accuracy) e.g., secondary task might be press a key or make verbal response whenever you hear a beep (measure RT, accuracy) do both tasks at once (simultaneously), but give priority to primary task

(cont.) compare RT in the secondary task when done alone to when done simultaneously with the primary task if no difference, primary task did not use all of your mental workload; spare workload available for secondary task if there is difference, then primary task used all of your mental workload; none leftover for the secondary task

Second example of human factors research traffic sign research main goal is to design signs whose meanings are immediately obvious how well do people understanding the meanings of existing signs? see p. 464