Human Factors Engineering Flashcards
7 cards from real CEA practice questions. Tap to flip, then mark Knew It or Still Learning — missed cards come back until you master them.
Read the first 7 Human Factors Engineering flashcards as text
In human factors, 'clutter' on a visual display primarily impairs performance by:
Answer: Increasing perceptual search time and the probability of missing critical signals
Display clutter increases visual search time and raises the probability of missing critical information by reducing the signal-to-noise ratio of the display.
The 'out-of-the-loop' problem in highly automated systems refers to operators losing the ability to:
Answer: Monitor and intervene effectively because they are not actively engaged in control
When automation handles most tasks, operators become passive monitors and lose manual skill, system awareness, and readiness to intervene — the core 'out-of-the-loop' problem.
According to the HFACS (Human Factors Analysis and Classification System), 'latent conditions' most often originate from:
Answer: Organizational and supervisory decisions made well before the accident
HFACS, based on Reason's Swiss Cheese Model, identifies latent conditions as failures embedded in organizational culture, management decisions, and system design long before an accident occurs.
Which display format best supports the rapid detection of abnormal plant states by exploiting pre-attentive visual processing?
Answer: Configural (integrated) displays such as polygon or radar plots
Configural displays encode multiple parameters as a single integrated shape, allowing operators to detect deviations from normal by perceiving shape distortion pre-attentively.
The concept of 'cognitive tunneling' in human factors describes a situation where an operator:
Answer: Focuses narrowly on one aspect of a task while neglecting other important information
Cognitive tunneling occurs when an operator becomes fixated on a single task or problem, narrowing attention so that other critical signals go unnoticed.
In prospective memory research, a 'time-based' prospective memory task requires an individual to remember to perform an action:
Answer: At a particular clock time or after a time interval has elapsed
Time-based prospective memory tasks depend on self-initiated monitoring of elapsed time rather than relying on an external environmental cue to trigger recall.
The CREAM (Cognitive Reliability and Error Analysis Method) approach to human reliability analysis differs from THERP primarily because CREAM:
Answer: Emphasizes context and performance conditions rather than task decomposition alone
CREAM centers on the cognitive context — factors like crew collaboration, interface quality, and time pressure — that shape reliability, whereas THERP decomposes tasks into behavioral steps with HEP tables.