Human Factors Minute

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...

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 Pr...

...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...

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 pr...

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,...

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 m...

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 perso...

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 gov...

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, pers...

...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...

...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...

...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. "...

...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. Th...

...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 . Neuroergo...

...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....

...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...

...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 o...

...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...

...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 h...

...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 hazar...

...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...

...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 t...

...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 servic...

...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 th...

...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...