Human Factors in Practice

Concepts and Applications

Haydee M. Cuevas, Jonathan Velázquez, Andrew R. Dattel, Haydee M. Cuevas, Jonathan Velázquez, Andrew R. Dattel

• Publisher: CRC Press
• Year: 2017
• ISBN:
  9781317120216
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Tecnologia e ingegneria
• Subtopic: Salute e sicurezza sul lavoro

Human Factors in Practice: Concepts and Applications is written for the practitioner who wishes to learn about human factors (HF) but is more interested in application (applied research) than theory (basic research). Each chapter discusses the application of important human factors theories, principles and concepts, presented at a level that can be easily understood by layman readers with no prior knowledge or formal education in human factors. The book illustrates to the non-HF practitioner the many varied domains in which human factors has been applied as well as serving to showcase current research in these areas. All chapters address the common overarching theme of applying human factors theories, principles and concepts to address real-world problems, and follow a similar structure to ensure consistency across chapters. Standard sections within each chapter include a discussion of the scientific underpinnings, a description of relevant HF methods and guidance on sources of further information, case studies to illustrate application, and a summary of likely future trends. Each chapter concludes with a short list of key terms and definitions to enhance the reader's understanding of the content. Featuring specialist contributors from a variety of disciplines and cultural backgrounds, the book represents a diverse range of perspectives on human factors and will appeal to a broad international audience. It is consciously not a classroom textbook but rather intended to be read at the workplace by non-HF practitioners, and written specifically with their needs in mind. Reading this book will give all practitioners a solid grounding in modern human factors and its application in real-world situations.

Section IOperator-Specific Considerations

2Senses in Action

Lauren Reinerman-Jones, Julian Abich, and Grace Teo

Introduction

Fundamentals

What Are the Senses?

Sight (Vision, Ophthalmoception)

Hearing (Audition, Audioception)

Touch (Somatosensation, Tactition, Mechanoreception, Kinesthesia, Tactioception)

Smell (Olfaction, Olfacoception)

Taste (Gustation, Gustaoception)

Additional Senses

Senses in Human Performance Theory

Theory of Information Processing

Theories of Attention and Mental Resources

Signal Detection Theory

Change Detection

Grouping Principles

Methods

Subjective

Objective

Application

Holographs Displays

Human–Robot Teaming

Future Trends

Conclusion

References

Key Terms

Introduction

In one way or another, human factors specialists and researchers are either directly or indirectly assessing the human senses in order to determine the optimal ways of designing a system or device that will meet the limitations of those senses or help expand them beyond their natural state. For example, mobile devices are one of the most common forms of global technology. Many mobile device companies have leveraged the guidelines and principles from the human factors discipline to determine the physical size and shape of the device, how and where icons should appear on the device, the types of feedback presented to the user, and a multitude of other important questions that helps inform the most efficient, effective, and safe ways of interacting with the device. All of the answers to these questions require an understanding of how the human senses work, what their limitations are, and how to get the most out of them in terms of attention and information processing.

Fundamentals

The traditional approach to understanding the human senses concentrated on five primary senses: sight, hearing, touch, smell, and taste. Extensive research has found that many more senses actually exist, and each has its own mechanisms through which we perceive the world and ourselves. Some senses focus on external stimuli, such as perceiving temperature, while others are geared to internal responses, such as hunger. Some would argue we have more than 20 distinct senses. The first part of this chapter, “What Are the Senses?” will first focus on a brief overview of the five basic senses and touch upon the many others that have been identified. Next, “Senses in Human Performance Theory” describes the theoretical contribution of the senses in regard to human information processing and performance. Following, the Method section takes a human factors approach to describing assessments of the senses in terms of human performance. Finally, the chapter presents a couple of examples illustrating human factors applications geared toward assessing the senses.

What Are the Senses?

Aristotle is credited with traditional classification of the five sense organs. Humans have five main sense organs: eyes, ears, skin, nose, and tongue, which have evolved over time to preserve and protect the species. It is through receptors in these sense organs that stimuli are transformed to signals, either chemical, electrical, neurological, or a combination thereof, and transmitted to the brain for further processing. It is within the brain that meaning is associated with these signals. In other words, the information out in the world is quite meaningless until a human interprets it in a way that can be used in a meaningful way. The stimuli can usually be quantified objectively without human assistance, but it is in the brain that quality is associated with the signal. It is a phenomenon that occurs in most cases to preserve the species and assist with human evolution. For example, the concentration of sugar in a fruit juice can be measured by determining the ratio of sugar to water in a specified amount of juice extracted from a fruit, but determining whether it is sweet requires the ratio to exceed a threshold that a human will register as sweet after the concentration has triggered a response in the brain. The concentration is quantifiable, but the sweetness is assessed qualitatively.

Let us now turn to each of the five main human senses and discuss each individually. We are not going to delve into great detail about the anatomical structures or process through which stimuli are converted into brain signals since there are a plethora of textbooks that explain this more eloquently. Instead, we shall focus more on making sure we have a common understanding of the senses in order to discuss them from a human factors perspective. We will end this section with a quick reference to other body senses that have been identified over the past decades.

Sight (Vision, Ophthalmoception)

Sight is the most dominant sense, with about 80% of cortical neurons responding to stimulation of the eyes. It refers to the ability to capture, perceive, identify, and discriminate images and colors through the eyes. When a stimulus in the environment is attended to, the image is projected through multiple layers and fluid in the eye onto the retina (the back lining of the eye that contains light-sensitive receptors and other neurons). The dominant neurons that line the retina consist of two photoreceptors: rods and cones. Rods are sensitive to light, do not distinguish colors, and are in higher abundance than cones (approximately 120 million). Cones are sensitive to color, are much more concentrated in an area called the macula (the center of which is called the fovea centralis and does not contain rods), and are more scarce than rods (ap...