Human Factors Engineering Flashcards

Which vigilance decrement factor is most strongly linked to the length of time an operator must sustain attention on a low-event-rate task?

Answer: Time-on-task duration

Vigilance performance degrades most predictably with time-on-task duration, with the steepest decline typically occurring within the first 30 minutes.

The term 'affordance' in human factors design refers to:

Answer: A property of an object that suggests how it should be used

An affordance is a design property that communicates the appropriate action to the user, such as a button that looks pressable or a handle that suggests pulling.

In human factors, 'response compatibility' is highest when:

Answer: The spatial relationship between controls and displays matches user expectations

Response compatibility is maximized when the physical arrangement of controls corresponds naturally to the arrangement of their associated displays, reducing reaction time and errors.

Which stage of Rasmussen's skill-rule-knowledge (SRK) framework operates on stored rules of the form 'IF situation, THEN action'?

Answer: Rule-based behavior

Rule-based behavior applies pre-learned IF-THEN rules to recognized situations, requiring less cognitive effort than knowledge-based reasoning but more than automatic skill execution.

Multiple Resource Theory (MRT), proposed by Wickens, predicts that dual-task interference will be greatest when two tasks share the same:

Answer: Processing stage, modality, and response code

MRT predicts maximum interference when tasks compete for identical resources across processing stages (perception/cognition/response), input modalities (visual/auditory), and response codes (manual/vocal).

The 'graceful degradation' design principle in human factors engineering means a system should:

Answer: Maintain partial functionality and provide clear feedback as components fail

Graceful degradation ensures that system failures result in reduced — but not lost — capability while keeping the operator informed of the system's changing state.

When designing for error recovery, which strategy provides the most effective defense against irreversible catastrophic errors?

Answer: Adding confirmation dialogs and forcing functions before critical actions

Forcing functions require confirmation or deliberate action before irreversible steps, creating a mandatory pause that prevents accidental execution of catastrophic commands.