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Human Factors and Ergonomics (SIT22008)

3-2. Cognitive Ergonomics II: Human error, cognitive training, and fight or flight response

Today’s topics are two.

Let’s begin with the first part.

Last time, we learned the IPM. The IPM explains how humans treat information through the brain. And good design is to reduce cognitive efforts caused while information is processed. If cognitive pressure (also called cognitive workloads) is high, people have more chances of making mistakes or human errors. Sometimes, a tiny human error can cause a huge accident, which should avoid if possible.

To prevent human errors, an ergonomically designed controller or interface is necessary. Also, not only (1) human-centered design, but also, today’s lecture explains the importance of (2) cognitive training, (3) protocol, (4) checklist, and (5) documentation.

Cognitive training is a related concept to the IPM. By doing similar cognitive works repetitively, the speed and accuracy of information processing are getting better and better. The improvement of cognitive skills (e.g., calculation, comparison, estimation, creation, conceptualization, memorization) can be explained by the IPM; and especially the working memory is the place where the cognitive works are done.

Keywords related to human error & cognitive training: #cognitive skills, #cognitive performance, #human error, #cognitive error, #cognitive training, #brain fitness, #cognitive development

[Video Lectures]

A. Human Error




B. Prevention of Human Error




C. Cognitive Training




D. Fight or Flight Response & Human Bio-Data

Let’s move to the next topic of today. To completely understand the fight and flight response, you should understand some knowledge in biology. But, I’m not saying that you have to memorize all the details of science. Just try to understand two things from this series of videos: (1) human makes specific bio-signal patterns, especially while human faces abnormal (e.g., dangerous or stressful) situation, (2) by analyzing human bio-data (e.g., heart signal, brain signal, eye movement, skin temperature), we can understand the human cognitive status (or say, workloads), and (3) the human bio-data can be used for human-centered design (which minimizes cognitive workloads).

Keywords: #human nervous system, #sympathetic nerves, #parasympathetic nerves, #fight or flight response, #human bio-data, #psychophysical data, #cognitive workload, #ECG, #EEG, #eye tracking

Assignments

List of Video Lectures