Introduction: The field of patient safety has increased in prominence over the last decade in response to information about the harm that occurs to patients in their journeys through healthcare. Healthcare education has also responded with the introduction of patient safety into many undergraduate and postgraduate curricula. Understanding how to influence healthcare worker behaviours is key to these responses. A vital area is the influence that individual factors have on patient safety behaviours. A model of the influences on patient safety has been proposed (Jackson 2008). There is little research in undergraduates that explores this area. This thesis presents a longitudinal series of studies following a cohort of students through a medical curriculum to answer the primary question: which individual factors influence learning about patient safety? Additionally to this how could these factors be tested in relation to patient safety for medical students? Methods: The series of studies used the Medical Research Council’s framework for the evaluation of complex interventions together with Kirkpatrick’s framework to test a conceptual model of individual factors relevant to medical students in patient safety. Measurable outcomes relevant to medical students needed to be identified for each level in Kirkpatrick’s hierarchy. Study 1 used focus group data, when the students were in year 1 of the curriculum, to identify the conceptual model of the influences on patient safety for medical students at level Kirkpatrick’s level 1. Study 2 tested the conceptual model at level 2a when the cohort of students was in year 3. The study used validated questionnaires to test associations between reflective ability, and knowledge and attitudes to patient safety (Kember 1999, Patey 2007). Study 3 occurred in year five. This study identified associations between reflective ability, safe behaviours and error behaviours, in a standardised simulated ward setting. This was used to establish an association between individual factors and behaviours at level 3. Results: Pilot/Study 1: The interpretation of data from seven focus groups involving sixty students identified reflection and intellectual development as individual factors which influenced learning about error. Study 2: Sixty-one students participated and the questionnaires showed acceptable levels of reliability; Cronbach alpha for the reflection questionnaire was 0.71 and the patient safety questionnaire 0.90. The following significant associations were demonstrated: • Reflection and knowledge of actions to take for patient safety, correlation coefficient 0.44 (p=0.0002). • Critical reflection and intentions regarding patient safety, correlation coefficient 0.40 (p=0.0007) Study 3: Forty-eight students participated and the self-administered questionnaires showed acceptable levels of internal consistency, Cronbach alpha for reflection was 0.70 and for critical reflection was 0.78. The generalisability coefficient for the judgments about safe behaviour was 0.84 and for the error behaviours was 0.52. The following significant association was demonstrated: • Reflection and knowledge based errors, correlation coefficient r -0.30 (p=0.03) There were no significant correlations between critical reflection and error, and reflection and safe behaviour. Discussion: The results of these studies in a single cohort identify reflection as an individual factor that influences error behaviours as shown below add greater depth to Jackson’s model (Jackson 2008). The link between reflective thinking and a reduced rate of knowledge-based errors appears to be associated with thoughtful action with reflection rather than critical reflection transforming meaning frameworks. This series of studies identify an association between reflection and error and give a new perspective on the use of reflection in patient safety education.

This dissertation focuses on the ACCESS Framework which is an open source software framework designed to address four issues with regards to older and novice users with accessibility needs – that they often do not know what support is available within their systems, that they often do not know how to change those settings they know exist, that they often lack the confidence to make the changes they know how to make, and are often unable to physically enable accessibility support.The software discussed in this dissertation serves as a bridge between what users are expected to know and what they actually know by assuming the responsibility for identifying user accessibility requirements and making those changes on the user?s behalf. User interaction with the framework is limited to either expressing approval or disapproval with regards to corrective action. Individual corrections are deployed as plug-ins within this tool.Four studies were conducted during this research. Three of these studies were aimed at evaluating the ACCESS Framework directly with the remaining study being an exploration of a cognitive support tool deployed using the framework. Two of these studies involved participants attempting to perform specific, well-defined tasks on systems that had been configured to the extremes of what was possible with operating system settings. These tasks were attempted with and without the support of the framework. The final study was a focus group in which issues of the framework were discussed by individuals who had been through the experimental trials.The research provided strong evidence that this is an effective mechanism for accessibility configuration when there is a strong match between identified accessibility needs and available operating system support. The system was seen as understandable, useful and appropriate by individuals who had been through the experimental trials. The research provided strong evidence that this is an effective mechanism for accessibility configuration when there is a strong match between identified accessibility needs and available operating system support. The system was seen as understandable, useful and appropriate by participants, with a majority stating that they would be willing to use a similar system on their own machines.

abstract: Future autonomous vehicle systems will be diverse in design and functionality since they will be produced by different brands. In the automotive industry, trustworthiness of a vehicle is closely tied to its perceived safety. Trust involves dependence on another agent in an uncertain situation. Perceptions of system safety, trustworthiness, and performance are important because they guide people’s behavior towards automation. Specifically, these perceptions impact how reliant people believe they can be on the system to do a certain task. Over or under reliance can be a concern for safety because they involve the person allocating tasks between themselves and the system in inappropriate ways. If a person trusts a brand they may also believe the brand’s technology will keep them safe. The present study measured brand trust associations and performance expectations for safety between twelve different automobile brands using an online survey. The literature and results of the present study suggest perceived trustworthiness for safety of the automation and the brand of the automation, could together impact trust. Results revelated that brands closely related to the trust-based attributes, Confidence, Secure, Integrity, and Trustworthiness were expected to produce autonomous vehicle technology that performs in a safer way. While, brands more related to the trust-based attributes Harmful, Deceptive, Underhanded, Suspicious, Beware, and Familiar were expected to produce autonomous vehicle technology that performs in a less safe way. These findings contribute to both the fields of Human-Automation Interaction and Consumer Psychology. Typically, brands and automation are discussed separately however, this work suggests an important relationship may exist. A deeper understanding of brand trust as it relates to autonomous vehicles can help producers understand potential for over or under reliance and create safer systems that help users calibrate trust appropriately. Considering the impact on safety, more research should be conducted to explore brand trust and expectations for performance between various brands. / Dissertation/Thesis / Masters Thesis Human Systems Engineering 2018

As humanoid robots move from science fictions to reality, and are gradually being used in education, health care, and entertainment areas, interactions between humans and humanoid robots are becoming critically important. Previous findings show that in human-robot interactions (HRI) people tend to communicate with humanoid robots as if they were humans, which requires humanoid robots to be behaviorally more humanlike and socially more sophisticated. Non-verbal behaviors (e.g. gaze cues and gestures) are essential communication signals in human-human interactions (HHI), and they are equally important in HRI. This thesis reports a study on nonverbal behaviors of humanoid robots in hope to facilitate more natural HRI. Through extensive HHI and HRI experiments, intuitive robot gaze cues and gestures are studied, and their impacts on HRI are demonstrated. / Gaze cues can subtly mediate how human-human handovers take place. We conjecture that such effect also exists in human-robot handovers. Based on observations of the giver’s gaze behaviors during human-human handovers, several typical gaze patterns are extracted and transferred to a PR2 humanoid robot for carrying out robot-to-human handovers. In two consecutive HRI experiments the robot hands objects to human receivers while using different gaze patterns. Results show that where the robot gazes at and how it changes its gaze direction during the handover can significantly affect human receivers’ reaching time for the handed object and their subjective experience (likeability, anthropomorphism, etc.) of the handover. / Emblematic gestures are frequently used in HHI, because their meanings are self-contained and can be understood without spoken words, such as waving. We conjecture that emblematic gestures are also applicable to humanoid robots during HRI. Several commonly used emblematic gestures are identified and transferred to a NAO humanoid robot to be evaluated by human subjects. Results show that the perceived meanings of the robot’s emblematic gestures are generally consistent with the perceived meanings of a human’s emblematic gestures, but the recognition rate in the robot case is lower. To improve this situation, two design methods are implemented, i.e. by hand-puppeteering (designers manipulate the robot’s limbs with hands as if manipulating a puppet) and by motion mapping (human gesture trajectories are captured by an RGB-D sensor, and corresponding joint trajectories are mapped to the robot’s joints). Results show that gestures designed from the motion mapping method are faster and have larger range of motion, while gestures designed from the hand-puppeteering method are perceived subjectively as more likeable and as better conveying semantic meaning. / This research contributes to the design of humanoid robots’ nonverbal behaviors with theoretically and empirically grounded methodologies, and offers better understandings of gaze cues and gestures in both HHI and HRI. Findings from this research provide instructive and valuable references for many practical application scenarios involving interactive robots. / 人形機器人從科幻小說變成現實，逐漸被應用於教育、醫療、娛樂等領域，這使得人們與人形機器人之間的交互變得至關重要。之前的研究發現，在人-機器人交互中，人們傾向於以與人溝通的方式與人形機器人溝通，這就需要人形機器人具有更加似人的行為和社交類經驗。非語言行為（例如注視和手勢）在人-人交互中是必要的溝通信號，在人-機器人交互中這些行為也同樣重要。本論文致力於研究人形機器人的非語言行為，以期促進更自然的人-機器人交互。通過廣泛的人-人交互和人-機器人交互實驗，我們研究了直觀的機器人注視行為和手勢行為，並展示了這些行為對人-機器人交互的影響。 / 注視信號在人-人傳遞物品時能夠起到微妙的調節作用，我們推測這種作用也存在於人-機器人傳遞物品的過程中。通過觀察人-人傳遞物品時物品給予者的注視行為，我們提取了幾種典型的注視行為模式，並將這些注視行為轉化到一台PR2 人形機器人上，來進行機器人向人傳遞物品的實驗。在兩次人-機器人交互實驗中，受試者接收由機器人傳遞的物品，在此過程中機器人會使用不同的注視行為模式。實驗結果表明，機器人注視哪裡以及如何改變它的注視方向，能夠顯著影響接收者伸手接物品的時間以及他們對於傳遞物品這一事件的主觀感受（喜愛程度，似人程度等）。 / 象徵性手勢廣泛應用於人-人交互中，這類手勢具有獨立的含義、可以不依賴於語言而被人理解，比如揮手。我們推測在人-機器人交互中象徵性手勢也可為人形機器人所用。我們將幾個常用的象徵性手勢轉化到一台NAO 人形機器人上，並由受試者進行評估。實驗結果表明，人們對機器人的象徵性手勢的理解與對人的象徵性手勢的理解大致相同，但在機器人情形下的識別率較低。為了改善這種狀況，我們提出了兩種設計方法，即通過手把手操縱（設計者像操縱木偶一樣操縱機器人的肢體來獲得手勢動作），和通過動作映射（用RGB-D 傳感器捕捉人的手勢軌跡，將相應的關節軌跡映射到機器人的關節上）。實驗結果表明，通過動作映射方法設計的手勢速度更快、動作幅度更大，通過手把手操縱方法設計的手勢在主觀上更令人喜愛、更好地傳達了語義含義。 / 本研究為人形機器人的非語言行為設計提供了基於理論和實驗的方法論，有助於更好地理解人-人交互和人-機器人交互中的注視行為和手勢行為。本論文的研究成果對多種涉及交互式機器人的實際應用場合具有寶貴的指導價值。 / Zheng, Minhua. / Thesis Ph.D. Chinese University of Hong Kong 2015. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 139-159). / Abstracts also in Chinese. / Title from PDF title page (viewed on 07, October, 2016). / Detailed summary in vernacular field only. / Detailed summary in vernacular field only. / Detailed summary in vernacular field only. / Detailed summary in vernacular field only.

The studies reported herein compare comprehension of Ut style literate programs to that of traditional modular programs documented by embedded comments. Novice and intermediate programmers participated in three experiments designed to determine the comprehensibility of literate programs written using a language-independent system for abstraction-oriented literate programming compared with programs written using traditional modular programming techniques (traditional modular programs). Programs were written in either the C or FORTRAN programming language. Half of the subjects in each group received a literate program, while the other half received a traditional modular program with embedded documentation. Subjects received a problem specification, input and output specifications, and a language reference for use in the study. Subjects were asked to perform a program maintenance task (complete an incomplete program). The maintenance task was used as a measure of comprehension; it simulates an actual task in the software engineering industry that requires program comprehension in order to be completed. The elapsed time to effect a solution was recorded. The completed programs were judged as correct, functionally correct with syntax errors, or incorrect; several reconstructive program comprehension measures were also collected and analyzed_ The clear overall result was that subjects using the literate programs found a solution (correct or functionally correct with syntax errors) more often than did subjects using the traditional modular programs with embedded comments. In fact, none of the subjects in this study who modified the traditional programs were able to effect a solution that was totally correct, nor even one that was functionally correct with syntax errors.

Vibrotactile feedback offers a unique opportunity to augment or reconstruct impaired tactile sensations, whether that be in the form of enhancing prosthetics or specialized protective clothing. Important information about temperature and object slippage serve to endanger the human operator or equipment. This thesis presents three experiments which investigate amplitude modulated vibrotactile signals as a scalar dimension of roughness, the effect those signals and their locations (finger pad, forearm, bicep) have on the performance of two tasks: the sensing of temperatures simulated by vibrotactile signals and gripping an object of simulated surface texture. The results show task performance increase when the feedback and site of action are co-located for sensory tasks and decrease for manipulatory tasks.

This thesis aims to investigate the relationship between the provision of spatial order and perceived sense of community in high-rise housing developments in Korea from a socio-spatial and architectural perspective. It also considers relationships between the perception of neighbourhood, provision of facilities, design aspects, and socio-economic characteristics and sense of community. The study uses a questionnaire survey as the main research instrument conducted across four case studies in Bundang new town, in metropolitan Seoul, Korea. Two of the cases were selected as having a high provision of spatial order and the other two low provision according to the concepts of Altman (1975) and Newman (1972, 1975). Quantitative analysis is carried out using the Kruskal-Wallis/Mann-Whitney test and Spearman???s rank correlation to identify differences and correlations between cases. The results indicate that there is no clear evidence that a sense of community has a direct relationship with the provision of spatial order in the selected cases. However, in the high provision cases outdoor common spaces appear to have a role in contributing to social interaction. Among Buckner???s (1988) three sub-variables of his concept of neighbourhood cohesion, ???neighbouring??? appears to be more associated with the provision of spatial order rather than ???attraction-to-neighbourhood??? or ???psychological sense of community.??? A greater number of opportunities for social interactions occur in an intermediate space located between private dwelling units and public open space in cases with a high provision of spatial order. However, this is likely to be due to the location of shared facilities and their frequency of use. In terms of the relationship between design and a sense of community, ???landscaping??? was found to be the most important variable, followed by the ???design of streets/footpath??? and ???facilities for children???, ???parking???, and ???recreational activities???. Despite the lack of a clear relationship between design and a sense of community, a strong demand was found for improved outdoor amenity and greater provision of facilities. Socio-economic status appears not to be a significant factor directly influencing the sense of community however, age and the existence of children are associated with the perception of neighbourhood.

<p>The visual design of twelve mobile telephones was studied and compared. Thirteen university students completed sorting tasks and were also interviewed. Significant correlations were found for most phones between ranks of beauty and desire to possess. Preferences varied among participants. Multi Dimensional Scaling of pile sorting data implied that phones were compared on the basis of prototypicality and trendiness. Four themes were found in the motivations of possession ranks: aesthetic judgements, symbolic perceptions and associations, conclusions of functions and practical conclusions. The results suggest that making sense of visual design determines aesthetic experiences and partly desire to possess, thus giving support to the applicability of appraisal theories of emotion to the study of design.</p>

Task Management (TM) refers to the function in which the human operator manages his/her available sensory and mental resources in a dynamic, complex, safety-critical environment in order to accomplish the multiple tasks competing for a limited quantity of attention. There is reason to believe that the level of automation on the commercial aircraft flight deck may effect TM, however to date there has been little research that directly addresses this effect. Thus, the primary objective of this study was to begin evaluating the relationship between TM of commercial airline pilots and the level of automation on the flight deck by determining how automation affects the frequency of Task Prioritization errors as reported in Aviation Safety Reporting System (ASRS) incident reports. The secondary objective of this study was to create a methodology that modeled an effective way to use ASRS incident report data in an inferential analysis. Two samples of ASRS incident reports were compared. The first sample was composed of 210 incident reports submitted by pilots flying advanced technology aircraft and the second sample was composed of 210 incident reports submitted by pilots flying traditional technology aircraft. To help avoid confounding effects, the two samples were further divided into three sub-samples each made up of 70 reports submitted during a specified time period: 1988-1989, 1990-1991, and 1992-1993. Each incident report was analyzed using an incident analysis form designed specifically for this study. This form allowed the analyst to classify the incident report as either containing a Task Prioritization error or not based on the narrative of the report. Twenty-eight incident reports from the advanced technology sample and 15 from the traditional technology sample were classified as containing Task Prioritization errors. Using the Chi Square (x��) test and a significance level of 0.05, this difference was found to be statistically significant. / Graduation date: 1998

A significant number of aircraft incidents and accidents have been caused, in part, by flightcrew failure to properly manage cockpit activities, such as failure to initiate activities at the appropriate time, misprioritization of activities, or the failure to appropriately monitor activities and terminate them when required. To facilitate the management of the cockpit activities, a computational aid, the Agenda Manager (AM) has been developed for use in simulated cockpit environments in an investigation which was one aspect of a more extensive research project supported by the NASA Ames Research Center. The AM is directed at the management of goals and functions, the actors who perform those functions, and the resources used by these actors. Development of an earlier AM version, the Cockpit Task Management System (CTMS), demonstrated that it could be used to assist flightcrews in the improvement of cockpit activity management under experimental conditions, assuming that the AM determined pilot goals accurately as well as the functions performed to achieve those goals. To overcome AM limitations based on that assumption, a pilot goal communication method (GCM) was developed to facilitate accurate recognition of pilot goals. Embedded within AM, the GCM was used to recognize pilot goals and to declare them to the AM. Two approaches to the recognition of pilots goals were considered: (1) The use of an Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR) system to recognize overtly or explicitly declared pilot goals, and (2) inference of covertly or implicitly declared pilot goals via use of an intent inferencing mechanism. These two methods were integrated into the AM to provide a rich environment for the study of human-machine interactions in the supervisory control of complex dynamic systems. Through simulated flight environment experimentation, the proposed GCM has demonstrated its capability to accurately recognize pilot goals and to handle incorrectly declared goals, and was validated in terms of subjective workload and pilot flight control performance. / Graduation date: 1997