Previous research efforts aimed at understanding the relationship between automation reliability and reliance on the automation have mainly focused on a single dimension of reliability, the automations error rate. Efforts to understand the effects of additional dimensions, such as types of errors, have merely provided suggestions about the effects that automation false alarms and misses can have on human behavior). Furthermore, other dimensions of reliability, such as the distribution of errors in time, have been almost completely ignored. A multi-task simulation of an agricultural vehicle was used in this investigation. The simulator was composed of two main tasks, a collision avoidance task and a tracking task. The collision avoidance task was supported by an imperfect automated collision avoidance system and the tracking task was performed manually. The results of this investigation indicated that there are distinct patterns of reliance that develop as a function of error type, which are dependent on the state of the automation (alarms or non-alarms). The different distributions of errors across time had an effect on the estimates of reliability and subjective trust ratings. The recency of errors was negatively related to perceived reliability and trust. The results of the current investigation also suggest that older adults are able to adjust their behavior according to the characteristics of the automation, although it takes them longer to do so. Furthermore, it appears that older adults are willing to use automated systems, as long as they are reliable enough to reduce workload.

When people do an easy task, and another person is nearby, they tend to do that task better than when they are alone. Conversely, when people do a hard task, and another person is nearby, they tend to do that task less well than when they are alone. This phenomenon is referred to in the social psychology literature as "social facilitation" (the name derives from the "good" side of the effect). Different theories have been proposed to explain this effect. The present study investigated whether people respond to a virtual human the same way they do to a real human. Participants were given different tasks to do that varied in difficulty. The tasks involved anagrams, mazes, modular arithmetic, and the Tower of Hanoi. They did the tasks either alone, in the company of another person, or in the company of a virtual human on a computer screen. As with a human, virtual humans produced the social facilitation effect: for easy tasks, performance in the virtual human condition was better than in the alone condition, and for difficult tasks, performance in the virtual human condition was worse than in the alone condition. Implications for the design of instructional systems as well as other systems involving human-computer interactions are discussed.

It is a testament to the complexity of learning that one hundred years of research on feedback has not produced universal prescriptions for training. Results are split in two directions; those recommending more feedback during training and those recommending less. Numerous theories that explain and predict certain feedback effects, but none explain the mixed findings in the literature. This has resulted in: a) no singular theory and b) little understanding of other factors that might affect the mechanism of feedback. The following series of studies systematically manipulated the cognitive load of the experimental task and measured learner working memory capacity. The overall question was whether forcing the learner to self-evaluate would result in more or less learning of a rule-based cognitive task and how this effect might be moderated by the working memory capacity of the learner and the load of the task to be learned. It was expected that high working memory capacity learners might learn more when difficulties were introduced for a simple task (via less supportive feedback). Instead, all groups not only learned more when receiving more support, the high working memory capacity learners appeared more able to utilize the additional feedback. Instead of providing their own support when feedback was minimal or lacking, high working memory capacity participants seemed best able to make use of the information provided in supportive feedback. Low working memory capacity participants seemed unable to either provide their own support when feedback was minimal or lacking, but also were not as able to make use of the information provided in more supportive feedback. The contribution of the current series of studies is an explanation of why and how appropriate level of feedback support can change based on the working memory capacity of the learner and demands of the task. Feedback can either impose a load upon the learner to self-evaluate or provide support for acquisition performance. Though learners may benefit from feedback neither too high nor too low, the current results indicate that additional feedback is most useful to those with the attentional resources available to utilize it.

In the event of an onboard emergency, air transport pilots are remarkably adept at safely landing their aircraft. However, the tasks of selecting an alternate landing site and developing a safe path to land are very difficult in the high workload, high stress environment of a cockpit during an emergency. The purpose of this research was to develop an automated path planning aid which would assist the pilot in the completion of these tasks. A prototype was developed to test this concept experimentally. The experiment was also intended to gather further information about how pilots think about and accomplish this task as well as the best ways to assist them. In order to better understand the priorities and processes pilots use when dealing with emergency planning, a survey of airline pilots was conducted. The results of this survey highlighted the fact that each emergency is unique and has its own set of factors which are critically important. One factor which is important in many emergencies is the need to land quickly. The survey responses indicated that one of the most important characteristics of a useful tool is that it should provide pertinent information in an easy to use manner, and should not divert too much attention from their other tasks. A number of design goals drove the development of the prototype aid. First, the aid was to work within current aircraft, without requiring substantial redesign on the cockpit. Second, the aid was to help improve pilots' performance without increasing their workload. Finally, the aid was designed to assist pilots in obtaining and processing critical information which influences the site selection and path development tasks. One variation of the aid included a filter dial which allowed pilots to quickly reduce the number of options considered, another variation of the aid did not include such a dial. These two variations of the aid were tested in order to assess the impact of the addition of the filter dial to the system. Though many of the results did not prove to be statistically significant, they suggest that the addition of a filter dial improved the quality of the selected landing site; however, it also increased the time required for the selection. The results were obtained in both familiar and unfamiliar emergencies. The dial was shown to improve the time to complete the task in the case of unfamiliar emergencies. The experiment also compared an optimal ranking system to a non-optimal system, for which results showed no significant difference between the two. This may imply that while pilots did not tend to over rely on the ranking system, under-reliance may need to be addressed by training and a better understanding of the factors which impact the rankings. The participants found that the aid facilitates quick and easy access to critical information. The aid was also useful for processing this information by filtering out options which were inappropriate for a given scenario through the use of the filter dial. The participants also made recommendations about possible improvements which could be made to the system such as better filter settings which are more similar to the way that pilots think about their options.

The presence of a device meant to enhance the medical encounter may alter the nature of the doctor-patient interaction in a way that affects patient satisfaction. The focus of this study was to examine the social impact of introducing advanced exam-room technologies to the doctor-patient interaction. By comparing cohorts (young: 18-39 and older: 62-89) we examined a possible age-related interaction. Participants viewed one of several video conditions portraying a physician conducting a medical interview in which he uses one of various documenting technologies (Nothing, Pen and Paper, PDA, Desktop Computer, Wearable Computer). After viewing the interaction, participants completed a series of questionnaires evaluating their general satisfaction with the quality of care (QoC) given during the medical interview. Patient satisfaction levels did significantly vary depending on the technology condition, participant cohort, and participant gender. Overall, young adults and females rated the doctor more favorably. The favorability of ratings for each technology condition depended on the aspect of QoC examined.

In this thesis we investigate visual place categorization by combining successful global image descriptors with a method of visual attention in order to automatically detect meaningful objects for places. The idea behind this is to incorporate information about typical objects for place categorization without the need for tedious labelling of important objects. Instead, the applied attention mechanism is intended to find the objects a human observer would focus first, so that the algorithm can use their discriminative power to conclude the place category. Besides this object-based place categorization approach we employ the Gist and the Centrist descriptor as holistic image descriptors. To access the power of all these descriptors we employ SVM-DAS (discriminative accumulation scheme) for cue integration and furthermore smooth the output trajectory with a delayed Hidden Markov Model. For the classification of the variety of descriptors we present and evaluate several classification methods. Among them is a joint probability modelling approach with two approximations as well as a modified KNN classifier, AdaBoost and SVM. The latter two classifiers are enhanced for multi-class use with a probabilistic computation scheme which treats the individual classifiers as peers and not as a hierarchical sequence. We check and tweak the different descriptors and classifiers in extensive tests mainly with a dataset of six homes. After these experiments we extend the basic algorithm with further filtering and tracking methods and evaluate their influence on the performance. Finally, we also test our algorithm within a university environment and on a real robot within a home environment.

This thesis presents a technique termed Blended Shared Control, whereby a human operator's commands are merged with the commands of an electronic agent in real time to control a manipulator. A four degree-of-freedom hydraulic excavator is used as an application example, and two types of models are presented: a fully dynamic model incorporating the actuator and linkage systems suitable for high-fidelity user studies, and a reduced-order velocity-constrained kinematic model amenable for real-time optimization. Intended operator tasks are estimated with a recursive algorithm; the task is optimized in real time; and a command perturbation is computed which, when summed with the operator command, results in a lower task completion time. Experimental results compare Blended Shared Control to other types of controllers including manual control and haptic feedback. Trials indicate that Blended Shared Control decreases task completion time when compared to manual operation.

This research focuses on the development and study of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) that support religious practices and the use of standpoint theory in ICT evaluation studies. Three phases makeup this work: formative studies to understand how megachurches, their members and leaders use ICT in ways tied to their Protestant Christian faith and the design of a technology probe, a photo sharing website named ChurchShare. The final and most significant phase is the evaluation of this probe in two churches. I deployed ChurchShare in a Christian church comprised of U.S. born individuals and argue this initial deployment took place with â ideal users,â or those I intended to use the application and who represent the traditional targets of HCC (Human-Centered Computing) research. More than 200 photos were uploaded to ChurchShare and findings suggest that the technology probe was successfully integrated into the churchâ s worship services. Standpoint theory guided the second deployment study that was conducted with individuals who are marginalized in HCC researchâ "Kenyan immigrants. Participants rejected ChurchShare and zero pictures were uploaded to the website. I compare findings from both deployments and conclude that conducting ICT evaluation studies with marginalized users leads to more objective findings than conducting such studies with ideal users. I end with a discussion describing how standpoint theory can be incorporated into HCC, focusing on how this approach offers a practical way for researchers to uncover value differences between themselves and the people who interact with their work.

Many dangerous or tragic events such as airplane crashes and medical errors are often the result of human errors, and these errors are often the result of a professional worker being interrupted during a critical task. Although their impact can be serious, the ways that interruptions are affected by the physical environment have rarely been examined in the study of architecture. Therefore, this thesis investigates how the physical environment helps manage the interruptions by observing the process of medication administration by nurses in hospital units. Nurse shadowing observation data showed that the level of visibility of work areas in and around nurse stations significantly contributed to the number of interruptions initiated by others. Therefore, this thesis concludes that the physical environment affects interruption events and discusses the design implications of observation-based findings and the potential impact of the physical environment on major clinical errors. As for future directions for investigation, this thesis suggests that interruptions become a more prominent subject for consideration in architecture, and the physical environment as a subject for analyzing interruption and performance in human factors and health care.

Abstract Background An analysis of Accident Compensation Corporation claims shows “inconsistent and inadequate diagnoses” by health care providers. Diagnostic performance is a result of two independent parameters, namely discrimination (accuracy) and decision (bias). Bias is related to the medical practitioner’s perception of the costs and benefits of making one choice over another. Bias may be statistical, sociological, political, biological or psychological in nature. This study investigated the factors that potentially bias diagnostic decision-making by general practitioners and the subjective value placed on these factors by different stakeholder groups in society. Methods Phase 1 of the study used focus groups of standard setters for general practitioners to identify factors that influenced diagnostic decision-making in general practice. These factors were evaluated for importance and desirability using standard Delphi methodology and Rasch analysis. Phase 2 of the study evaluated the importance and desirability of the factors identified in Phase 1 for influencing decision making as judged by significant health care stakeholder groups in New Zealand. Participant response was via questionnaire analysed by the Rasch Model. Results Thirty-nine factors were identified that potentially biased diagnostic decision-making in general practice. The measurements of, particularly, desirability have high reproducibility across stakeholder groups and high positive loading for the first principal component consistent with construct validity. No stakeholder group identifies factors consistent with Bayes’ theorem of diagnostic reasoning as being the only desirable influence on diagnosis. There is considerable categorical homogeneity between the stakeholder groups GP, GPACC, P, RACCSLT and RACCSST. Conclusions The findings of this and other studies challenge the current biomedical paradigm, indicating a less than Bayesian approach to medical decision-making. A social constructivist model, incorporating non-Bayesian factors into the definition of “illness” versus “disease”, may be more representative of reality. A social constructivist model of medicine is incompatible with the current legislatory and administrative framework within which the Accident Compensation Corporation and a number of other medical organisations operate. / Accident Compensation Corporation of New Zealand