Many information technology artefacts can be found in today’s cars. The interaction with these artefacts is the driver’s secondary task while driving the car in a safe way is the primary task. When designing interfaces for in-vehicle usage, measures have to be taken in order to make the interaction with the artefact suit the in-vehicle environment. One of these measures is to have the appropriate screen density level, which is the amount of information present on the screen. This thesis compares the usability of two integrated in-vehicle display prototypes, one with low screen density and one with high screen density. The usability comparison considers both safety and user preferences. Safety was measured by a Lane Change Test (LCT) which measures distraction of a primary task while performing a secondary task, and user preferences was measured with a questionnaire. Before the comparison was made, controls and a graphical user interface were designed. Results showed no significant difference in driver distraction between performing tasks on the high screen density display and the low screen density display. However, a vast majority of the users preferred high screen density over low. Furthermore, the distraction levels for both the high and the low screen density displays were below the proposed 0.5 meter limit for allowed driver distraction. The results indicate that in-vehicle displays can have a high level of screen density without imposing a level of distraction on the driver that is unsuitable for driving.

Today’s automobile cockpit is filled with different buttons and screen-based displays giving input and relaying information in a complex human-machine system. Following in the footsteps of the early 1970s flight industry, this thesis work focused on creating a complete glass cockpit concept in the automobile. Our automobile glass cockpit consists of three displays. A touch screen based centre console with an interface that we took part in creating during the spring of 2006. Parallel to this ongoing master thesis, a head-up display was installed by a group of students and we had the opportunity of giving input regarding the design of the graphical interface. The third display, a LCD, replaces the main instruments displaying speed, RPM, fuel level, engine temperature etc. Together with ideas on an extended allocation of functions to the area on and around the steering wheel, creating a dynamic mode based interface replacing today’s static main instruments was the focus of this project. After conducting a thorough theoretical study, a large number of ideas were put to the test and incorporated in concept sketches. Paper sketches ranging from detailed features to all-embracing concepts combined with interviews and brainstorming sessions converged into a number of computer sketches made in an image processing software. The computer sketches was easily displayed in the cockpit environment and instantly evaluated. Some parts were discarded and some incorporated in new, modified, ideas leading to a final concept solution. After the design part was concluded, the new graphical interface was given functionality with the help of a programming software. As was the case with the computer sketches, the functionality of the interface could be quickly evaluated and modified. With the help of a custom-made application our interface could be integrated with the simulator software and fully implemented in the automobile cockpit at the university simulator facilities. Using a custom made scenario, the interface underwent a minor, informal evaluation. A number of potential users were invited to the VR-laboratory and introduced to the new concept. After driving a pre-determined route and familiarizing themselves with the interface, their thoughts on screen-based solutions in general and the interface itself was gathered. In addition, we ourselves performed an evaluation of the interface based on the theoretical study.

This thesis focuses on the cooperative and communicative aspects of control over dynamic situations such as emergency management and military operations. Taking a stance in Cognitive Systems Engineering, Decision making and Communication studies, the role of information systems as tools for communication in dynamic situations is examined. Three research questions are examined; 1 ) How new forms of information technology affects joint control tasks in dynamic situations, and how/if microworld simulations can be used to investigate this. 2 ) What the characteristics of actual use of information systems for joint control are in dynamic situations? 3 ) What the pre-requisites are for efficient communication in joint control tasks and especially in dynamic, high-risk situations? Four papers are included. A study performed with a microworld simulation involving military officers as participants is presented, and the method of using microworlds for investigating the effects of new technology is discussed. Field observations from an emergency call centre are used to exemplify how information systems actually are used in a cooperative task. An interview study with military officers from a UN-mission describes the social aspects of human-human communication in a dynamic, high risk environment. Finally, an elaborated perspective on the role of information systems as tools for communication, and especially the relation between the social, organisational and technical layers of a joint control activity is presented.

The main purpose of the thesis is to discuss the accident models which underlie accident prevention in general and road safety in particular, and the consequences of relying on a particular model have for actual preventive work. The discussion centres on two main topics. The first topic is whether the underlying accident model, or paradigm, of traditional road safety should be exchanged for a more complex accident model, and if so, which model(s) are appropriate. From a discussion of current developments in modern road traffic, it is concluded that the traditional accident model of road safety needs replacing. An analysis of three general accident model types shows that the work of traditional road safety is based on a sequential accident model. Since research in industrial safety has shown that such model are unsuitable for complex systems, it needs to be replaced by a systemic model, which better handles the complex interactions and dependencies of modern road traffic. The second topic of the thesis is whether the focus of road safety should shift from accident investigation to accident prediction. Since the goal of accident prevention is to prevent accidents in the future, its focus should theoretically be on how accidents will happen rather than on how they did happen. Despite this, road safety traditionally puts much more emphasis on accident investigation than prediction, compared to areas such as nuclear power plant safety and chemical industry safety. It is shown that this bias towards the past is driven by the underlying sequential accident model. It is also shown that switching to a systemic accident model would create a more balanced perspective including both investigations of the past and predictions of the future, which is seen as necessary to deal with the road safety problems of the future. In the last chapter, more detailed effects of adopting a systemic perspective is discussed for four important areas of road safety, i.e. road system modelling, driver modelling, accident/incident investigations and road safety strategies. These descriptions contain condensed versions of work which has been done in the FICA and the AIDE projects, and which can be found in the attached papers.

This dissertation addresses the role of tools in social interactions, or more precisely the significance of tools in cognition and cooperation, from a situated cognition perspective. While mainstream cognitive science focuses on the internal symbolic representations and computational thought processes inside the heads of individuals, situated cognition approaches instead emphasise the central role of the interaction between agents and their material and social environment. This thesis presents a framework regarding tools and (some) of their roles in social interactions, drawing upon work in cognitive science, cultural-historical theories, animal tool use, and different perspectives on the subject-object relationship. The framework integrates interactions between agents and their environment, or agent-agent-object interaction, conceptualisations regarding the function of tools, and different ways in which agents adapt their environments to scaffold individual and social processes. It also invokes stigmergy (tool mediated indirect interactions) as a mechanism that relates individual actions and social activity. The framework is illustrated by two empirical studies that consider tool use from a social interaction perspective, carried out in settings where tools assume a central role in the ongoing collaborative work processes; a children’s admission unit in a hospital and the control room of a grain silo. The empirical studies illustrate theoretical issues discussed in the background chapters, but also reveal some unforeseen aspects of tool use. Lastly, the theoretical implications for the study of individual and social tool use in cognitive science are summarised and the practical relevance for applications human-computer interaction and artificial intelligence is outlined.

Judgments that demand consideration of pieces of information in the environment occur repeatedly throughout our lives. One professional example is that of a physician that considers multiple symptoms to make a judgment about a patient’s disease. The scientific study of such, so called, multiple-cue judgments that involve multiple pieces of information (cues: e.g., symptoms) and continuous criterion (e.g., blood pressure) has been concerned with the statistical modelling of judgment data (see Brehmer, 1994; Cooksey, 1996; Hammond & Stewart, 2001). In this thesis behavioural experiments, cognitive modelling and brain imaging is used to investigate an adaptive division of labor between multiple memory representations in multiple-cue judgment. It is hypothesized that the additive, independent linear effect of each cue can be explicitly abstracted and integrated by a serial, additive judgment process (Einhorn, Kleinmuntz, & Kleinmuntz, 1979). It is further hypothesized that a variety of sophisticated task properties, like non-additive cue combination, nonlinear relations, and inter-cue correlation, are carried implicitly by exemplar-memory (Medin & Schaffer, 1978; Nosofsky, 1984; Nosofsky & Johansen, 2000). Study I and II investigates the effect of additive versus non-additive cue-combination and verify the predicted shift in cognitive representations as a function of the underlying cue-combination rule. The third study is a review that discusses the nature of these representational shifts; are they contingent upon early perceived learning performance instead of automatic and error-driven? Study IV verifies that this shift is evident also in the neural activity associated with making judgments in additive and non-additive tasks.

The great amount of METH abuse all over the world causes enormous social and criminal justice problems. In the human brain the abuse of METH causes implications on both structures and functions given rise to acute as well as long term symptoms. In this essay the effects of METH abuse is described in the manner of the drug mechanism such as the impact on neurotransmitters, structural deficits with decreased and increased volumes and the implication on attention, memory, decision  making and emotions. Results from studies showing brain structural and cognitive impairments in METH abusers and in prenatal METH exposed children.

In studies on Near Death Experiences (NDE) data has been collected by using the recently developed scaling methods, the scale developed by Ring and the Greyson NDE Scale. In order to illustrate the problems in the empirical study of NDEs, my intention is to compare the Greyson NDE-scale with the most common theories on NDEs.  After series of modifications the final scale consisted of a questionnaire consisting of sixteen different questions, that yielded into four different areas, Cognitive components, Emotional components, Paranormal components, and Transcendental components. In the end the theory that has the most likely possibility to explain NDEs in the future must be the Dying Brain theory, but one should not disclose the different features of the Afterlife theory (but without the origin explanation).

Mental ljudföreställning (eng. auditory imagery) innebär att uppleva ett ljud för sitt inre i frånvaro av yttre sinnesintryck. Tidigare studier har visat att ljud­föreställning kan inverka såväl faciliterande (t.ex. Farah & Smith, 1983) som interfererande (t.ex. Okada & Matsuoka, 1992) på perceptuell ljuddetektion. Syftet med föreliggande studie var att undersöka om ljudföreställning faciliterar eller interfererar perceptuell detektion av kongruenta och inkongruenta komplexa ljud. De 39 under­sök­nin­g­­s­­deltagarna randomiserades till en av två betingelser (ljudföreställning eller ingen ljudföreställning) och fick därefter lyssna samt detektera olika ljud (varav ett var detsamma som föreställningsljudet). Resultatet visade att ljudföreställning varken hade en signifikant faciliterande eller interfererande effekt på vare sig kongruenta eller inkongruenta komplexa ljud.

Ansatsen; Deltagande design inom MDI förespråkar att användare är med under hela designprocessen, även under det tidigaste skedet, före det har skissats på någon prototyp över huvudtaget. Medverkan innebär då att användarna får klargöra sina behov, åsikter och önskemål om en produkt. En speciell deltagarteknik har utvecklats för att göra detta möjligt och heter Contextual inquiry. I detta arbete har tekniken tillämpats på hyresgäster inom Skövdebostäder och har gällt produkten elektronisk anslagstavla. Hypotesen har varit att inställningen till en produkt är mer positiv när användare har deltagit i det tidigaste stadiet i designprocessen och skulle då förklaras med hjälp av ett psykologiskt "fenomen" som kallas Hawthorne-effekten. Resultatet från studien kunde inte ge stöd för hypotesen, det fanns med andra ord ingen signifikant skillnad mellan experimentgrupp och kontrollgrupp.