Driving Into the Future

This work considers the future of driving in terms of both its short- and long-term horizons. It conjectures that human-controlled driving will follow in the footsteps of a wide swath of other, now either residual or abandoned human occupations. Pursuits that have preceded it into oblivion. In this way, driving will dwindle down into only a few niche locales wherein enthusiasts will still persist, much in the way that steam train hobbyists now continue their own aspirational inclinations. Of course, the value of any such prognostication is in direct proportion to the degree that information is conveyed, and prospective uncertainty reduced. In more colloquial terms: the devil is in the details of these coming transitions. It is anticipated that we will see a progressive transformation of the composition of on-road traffic that will be registered most immediately in the realm of professional transportation in which the imperative for optimization exceeds that in virtually all other user segments. The transition from manual control to full automation will be more punctate than gradualist in its evolutionary development. As performance optimization slowly exhausts the commercial sector, it will progressively transition more into the discretionary realm by dint of simple technology transfer alone. The hedonic dimension of everyday driving will be dispersed and pursued by progressively fewer individuals. The traveling window of generational expectation will soon mean that human driving will be largely “forgotten,” as each sequential generation matures without this, still presently common experience. Indications of this stage of progress are beginning to be witnessed in the demographic profile of vehicle usage and ownership rates. The purpose of the exposition which follows is to consider and support each of these stated propositions.

On Senders's Models of Visual Sampling Behavior

OBJECTIVE

We review the sampling models described in John Senders's doctoral thesis on "visual sampling processes" via a ready and accessible exposition.

BACKGROUND

John Senders left a significant imprint on human factors/ergonomics (HF/E). Here, we focus on one preeminent aspect of his career, namely visual attention.

METHODS

We present, clarify, and expand the models in his thesis through computer simulation and associated visual illustrations.

RESULTS

One of the key findings of Senders's work on visual sampling concerns the linear relationship between signal bandwidth and visual sampling rate. The models that are used to describe this relationship are the periodic sampling model (PSM), the random constrained sampling model (RCM), and the conditional sampling model (CSM). A recent replication study that used results from modern eye-tracking equipment showed that Senders's original findings are manifestly replicable.

CONCLUSIONS

Senders's insights and findings withstand the test of time and his models continue to be both relevant and useful to the present and promise continued impact in the future.

APPLICATION

The present paper is directed to stimulate a broad spectrum of researchers and practitioners in HF/E and beyond to use these important and insightful models.

Specifying advantages of multi-modal cueing: Quantifying improvements with augmented tactile information

This work examines how tactile cues, encoded with azimuth and distance information, compare with visual and speech cues on performance and mental workload in a target detection task. Two experiments are reported using a simulated environment in which targets were presented at varying azimuth and distance locations. In the first experiment, participants engaged targets both while stationary and while in motion using tactile, visual, or speech cues. A no cueing control was included. In the second multi-modal experiment, participants completed the same task using cue pairings. Performance metrics consisted of hits, misses due to non-detection, misses due to inaccurate engagement, false alarms, response time, navigation errors as well as subjective ratings of mental workload scores were also collected. Results demonstrate the superiority of tactile cues as a means to communicate target location information either as a single modality or when paired with the two other cue types.

A Distracted Scientist: The Life and Contributions of John Senders

OBJECTIVE

To provide an evaluative and personal overview of the life and contributions of Professor John Senders and to introduce this Special Issue dedicated to his memory.

BACKGROUND

John Senders made many profound contributions to HF/E. These various topics are exemplified by the range of papers which compose the Special Issue. Collectively, these works document and demonstrate the impact of his many valuable research works.

METHOD

The Special Issue serves to summarize Senders' collective body of work as can be extracted from archival sources. This introductory paper recounts a series of remembrances derived from personal relationships, as well as the products of cooperative investigative research.

RESULTS

This collective evaluative process documents Senders' evident and deserved status in the highest pantheon of HF/E pioneers. It records his extraordinary life, replete with accounts of his insights and joie de vivre in exploring and explaining the world which surrounded him.

APPLICATIONS

Senders' record of critical contributions provides the example, par excellence, of the successful and fulfilling life in science. It encourages all, both researchers and practitioners alike, in their own individual search for excellence.

Specifying and Mitigating Thermal Stress Effects on Cognition During Personal Protective Equipment Use

OBJECTIVE

To report present understanding concerning selected task and environmental factors influencing the changing performance capacity associated with use of personal protective equipment (PPE).

BACKGROUND

Much knowledge is available concerning change in complex cognitive capacities under the effects of thermal stress. Our science can inform critical care facilities as to remediation strategies such as work-rest schedules to minimize performance error in highly cognitively demanding circumstances such as intensive care units.

METHOD

The present exposition draws from the state-of-the-art understanding concerning thermal stress effects on cognition and workload in complex and demanding tasks.

RESULTS

The summation and synthesis of HF/E findings provides important insights into combinatorial effects of forms of stress, typically dealt with only as discrete sources in traditional standards and regulations. The identified interaction between ascending thermal stress and cognitive task demand provides an instance of the plurality of ways HF/E can specify performance limitations in safety-critical circumstances, as witnessed in the current pandemic.

CONCLUSION

Accumulated HF/E insights provide systematic ways in which to address and ameliorate the combined forces of physical and cognitive stress on medical personnel constrained to use varying forms of PPE. These principles extend beyond this specific domain to all who are required to work in differential and isolated microclimates.

APPLICATION

To minimize the possibility of critical and life-threatening error in intensive care facilities which necessitate PPE use, we need principled work-rest ratio and heat stress mitigation guidance. To promote health, we need to champion healthy work practices in our health workers. HF/E insights can help achieve this important goal.

Quantifying the qualities of language

We here quantify the qualities of language. Specifically, we derive numerical values, and associated variability scores for statements of general probability as well as for anchor terms commonly expressed on Likert-type scales. Our results show significant inter-responder variability in the understanding of such terms. We also demonstrate scale compression such that average estimates are poorly aligned to the a priori expectations of equal response spacing in commonly used verbal response instruments. Terms further show intriguing propensities such that people agree more about statements of agreement, but manifestly disagree more about statements of disagreement. The valence of these terms is thus systematically related to their degree of common understanding. The accuracy of language, especially when used in conjunction with modern advanced technologies, proves vital for effective communication. Our work demonstrates that the tool of language still remains a fairly blunt one, but one that can be sharpened by systematic quantitative evaluation, as we demonstrate here.

Understanding individualistic response patterns when assessing expert operators on nuclear power plant control tasks

We evaluated the performance of three highly practiced participants on three task types that comprised a simulated nuclear power plant control operation. Multiple subjective, physiological, and objective performance measures were collected on these three highly-practiced individuals. Results indicated ceiling effects in terms of performance accuracy, yet each individual adopted a unique response strategy across the respective sub-tasks. Their maximised accuracy was achieved at the expense of longer response times across differing sub-tasks. The measures which proved diagnostic and predictive of performance capacity were explored. The current conclusion presents us with an invidious problem in that performance and workload associations, insensitivities, and dissociations may be unique to each individual operator, and may well depend also upon the overall task in context. Such findings push our science away from seeking nomothetic assertions and toward individuated concerns. In consequence, the age of the idiographic may well be upon us. Practitioner summary: The importance and relevance of nuclear power control is self-evident. Concerns here have centred around the safety of the technology and its operators. Our work informs practitioners in this industry, and in Ergonomics in general, of the response of highly trained individuals in these safety-critical, operational domains. We show that even experts engage in personal and individual strategies, an observation critical to the assessment of this specific workplace, and potentially all others. Abbreviations: NPP: nuclear power plant; ROs: reactor operators; MCR: main control room; LOA: levels of automation; EOP: emergency operating procedure; OP: operating procedures; ISA: instantaneous self-assessment; DSSQ: Dundee stres state questionnaire.

Challenges to Human Drivers in Increasingly Automated Vehicles

OBJECTIVE

We examine the relationships between contemporary progress in on-road vehicle automation and its coherence with an envisioned "autopia" (automobile utopia) whereby the vehicle operation task is removed from all direct human control.

BACKGROUND

The progressive automation of on-road vehicles toward a completely driverless state is determined by the integration of technological advances into the private automobile market; improvements in transportation infrastructure and systems efficiencies; and the vision of future driving as a crash-free enterprise. While there are many challenges to address with respect to automated vehicles concerning the remaining driver role, a considerable amount of technology is already present in vehicles and is advancing rapidly.

METHODS

A multidisciplinary team of experts met to discuss the most critical challenges in the changing role of the driver, and associated safety issues, during the transitional phase of vehicle automation where human drivers continue to have an important but truncated role in monitoring and supervising vehicle operations.

RESULTS

The group endorsed that vehicle automation is an important application of information technology, not only because of its impact on transportation efficiency, but also because road transport is a life critical system in which failures result in deaths and injuries. Five critical challenges were identified: driver independence and mobility, driver acceptance and trust, failure management, third-party testing, and political support.

CONCLUSION

Vehicle automation is not technical innovation alone, but is a social as much as a technological revolution consisting of both attendant costs and concomitant benefits.

How and why the brain evolves time

The present work evaluates the proposition that the dimension of time is iatrogenically created. That is, time is a property that necessarily emerges alongside the genesis of living systems. Humans, as the most complex known expression of such living creatures, exhibit the most intricate and sophisticated incarnation of this fabricated temporality. Evidence is considered to support this contention; most pointedly, the problem concerning the vacuity of a temporal foundation in the brain. I argue that one can 'force' processes, that are intrinsic to brain operations, to demonstrate such a temporal base; and even necessarily confirm this synchrony. However, this insistence is a categorical error. It conflates processes in time, with time itself. I also consider the observation of the psychophysical exponent at unity represents one that indicates support for the proposition I advance. I anticipate that the fundamental proposition of temporal iatrogenesis, that founds the present work, will be rejected 'out-of-hand.' Such vehement visceral rejections, alongside an even instinctive revulsion to the fracture of the idea known as the 'phenomenological constraint,' can also be taken as one essential form of validation for this observed delusion of time.

Diminishing Cognitive Capacities in an Ever Hotter World: Evidence From an Applicable Power-Law Description

OBJECTIVE

Modeling and evaluating a series of power law descriptions for boundary conditions of undiminished cognitive capacities under thermal stress.

BACKGROUND

Thermal stress degrades cognition, but precisely which components are affected, and to what degree, has yet to be fully determined. With increasing global temperatures, this need is becoming urgent. Power-law distributions have proven their utility in describing differing natural mechanisms, including certain orders of human performance, but never as a rationalization of stress-altered states of attention.

METHOD

From a survey of extant empirical data, absolute thresholds for thermal tolerance for varying forms of cognition were identified. These thresholds were then modeled using a rational power-law description. The implications of the veracity of that description were then identified and analyzed.

RESULTS

Cognitive performance thresholds under thermal stress are advanced as power-law relationships, t = f(T) = c[(T - T_ref)/T_ref]^-α. Coherent scaling parameters for diverse cognitive functionalities are specified that are consistent with increases in deep (core) body temperature. Therefore, scale invariance provides a "universal constant," viz, 20% detriment in mental performance per 10% increase in T deviation, from a comfortable reference temperature T_ref.

CONCLUSION

We know the thermal range within which humans can survive is quite narrow. The presented power-law descriptions imply that if making correct decisions is critical for our future existence, then our functional thermal limits could be much more restricted than previously thought.

APPLICATION

We provide our present findings, such that others can both assess and mitigate the effects of adverse thermal loads on cognition, in whatever human scenario they occur.

The humane use of human beings?

The closing of loops exerts magical effects. This powerful act sculpts both the structural form and the functional expression of the systems which accrue from this ultimate connection. Systems and societies are each erected upon, and composed of, such intricate webs of self-correcting and self-shaping influences. However, without appropriate feedback regulation, these loops can become, in a utilitarian sense, dysfunctional. This is as true for social architectures as it is for any intentionally designed technological system. Here, a sequence of examples are used to expose an evident divergence between what is espoused for our social systems and what is actually enacted therein. Failure of regulation and associated diminution or even disconnection of such regulatory loops leads to an evident and growing dissonance between aspiration and reality. The first two of these examples used here are rather facile and even trivial while the third example is much more serious. All examples provide insight concerning, and expose the ways in which, a fuller understanding of cybernetic principles may rectify such discordant circumstances, at least in principle if not in practice.

On the Dynamics of Conspicuity

OBJECTIVE

To examine the influences of dynamic conspicuity on object recognition and to evaluate the real-world implications of these processes.

BACKGROUND

Conspicuity is the major influence on persons' abilities to recognize the presence of entities within their environment. Shortfalls in sensory and cognitive conspicuity are implicated in many, if not most, real-world systemic failures.

METHOD

The present observations derive from an overview of relevant empirical research allied to a synthetic integration. From these foundations, I articulate a proposed taxonomy through which to parse the essential dimensions of conspicuity.

RESULTS

The taxonomy features three axes related to (a) modality (e.g., visual vs. auditory, etc.), (b) processing directionality (e.g., top-down vs. bottom-up information flow), and finally (c) temporality (i.e., the differences between static vs. dynamic presentations).

CONCLUSION

Existing conspicuity studies have primarily featured static, sensory comparisons. Exploration of the other quadrants of the proposed taxonomy can serve to frame future conspicuity research. This taxonomic description also provides the basis from which to understand failure etiology in a wide spectrum of human-machine systems.

APPLICATION

Improvements in the understanding of conspicuity can help in all domains of HF/E and can serve to reduce failure in a wide variety of operational contexts.

Social Conformity Effects on Trust in Simulation-Based Human-Robot Interaction

OBJECTIVE

We investigated the co-acting influences of communication and social conformity on trust in human-robot interaction.

BACKGROUND

Previous work has investigated aspects of the robot, the human, and the environment as influential factors in the human-robot relationship. Little work has examined the conjoint effects of social conformity and communication on this relationship. As social conformity and communication have been shown to affect human-human trust, there are a priori reasons to believe that they will play an influential role in human-robot trust also.

METHOD

The experiment examined the influences of social conformity and robot communication on trust. A 2 × 2 (communication × social group) design was implemented with each variable having two levels (communication, no communication; positive social group, negative social group).

RESULTS

We created a communication manipulation which we then demonstrated to mediate the trust level between human and robot. However, this influence on trust was overcome by social information in which the subsequent trust level, attributed to the robot, was dominated by expressed social group attitudes to that robot.

CONCLUSION

The results confirm the importance of human social assessments over direct robot communication in setting human-robot trust levels. When social opinions are expressed, observers appear to conform to the trust displayed by the group than relying on their own judgment.

APPLICATION

In human-robot teams, the perceptions of the group may exert a greater impact than even robot communication. This may be especially important when new human members are introduced into such teams.

The Relationship Between Trust and Use Choice in Human-Robot Interaction

OBJECTIVE

To understand the influence of trust on use choice in human-robot interaction via experimental investigation.

BACKGROUND

The general assumption that trusting a robot leads to using that robot has been previously identified, often by asking participants to choose between manually completing a task or using an automated aid. Our work further evaluates the relationship between trust and use choice and examines factors impacting choice.

METHOD

An experiment was conducted wherein participants rated a robot on a trust scale, then made decisions about whether to use that robotic agent or a human agent to complete a task. Participants provided explicit reasoning for their choices.

RESULTS

While we found statistical support for the "trust leads to use" relationship, qualitative results indicate other factors are important as well.

CONCLUSION

Results indicated that while trust leads to use, use is also heavily influenced by the specific task at hand. Users more often chose a robot for a dangerous task where loss of life is likely, citing safety as their primary concern. Conversely, users chose humans for the mundane warehouse task, mainly citing financial reasons, specifically fear of job and income loss for the human worker.

APPLICATION

Understanding the factors driving use choice is key to appropriate interaction in the field of human-robot teaming.

Microsaccades Distinguish Looking From Seeing

Understanding our visual world requires both looking and seeing. Dissociation of these processes can result in the phenomenon of inattentional blindness or 'looking without seeing'. Concomitant errors in applied settings can be serious, and even deadly. Current visual data analysis cannot differentiate between just 'looking' and actual processing of visual information, i.e., 'seeing'. Differentiation may be possible through the examination of microsaccades; the involuntary, smallmagnitude saccadic eye movements that occur during processed visual fixation. Recent work has suggested that microsaccades are post-attentional biosignals, potentially modulated by task. Specifically, microsaccade rates decrease with increased mental task demand, and increase with growing visual task difficulty. Such findings imply that there are fundamental differences in microsaccadic activity between visual and nonvisual tasks. To evaluate this proposition, we used a high-speed eye tracker to record participants in looking for differences between two images or, doing mental arithmetic, or both tasks in combination. Results showed that microsaccade rate was significantly increased in conditions that require high visual attention, and decreased in conditions that require less visual attention. The results support microsaccadic rate reflecting visual attention, and level of visual information processing. A measure that reflects to what extent and how an operator is processing visual information represents a critical step for the application of sophisticated visual assessment to real world tasks.

Sustained Attention to Science: A Tribute to the Life and Scholarship of Joel Warm

OBJECTIVE

To provide an evaluative synthesis of the life and scientific contributions of the late Joel Warm.

BACKGROUND

As the doyen of vigilance research, Joel Warm expanded our understanding and horizons concerning this critical response capacity. However, he also made widespread and profound contributions to many other areas of perception and applied psychology, as we elucidate here.

METHOD

Using archival sources, personal histories, and analysis of extant literature documenting Warm's own productivity, we articulate his life in science.

RESULTS

Our synthesis illustrates the continued, broad, influential, and expanding impact that one individual can exert on diverse fields of study. Whole bodies of understanding of human behavior have been illuminated by his exemplary career.

APPLICATION

By understanding his path to success in applied experimental psychology, we anticipate that others will be motivated, inspired, and guided to replicate and even outstrip a lifetime of such seminal and influential contributions. The presence of individuals such as Warm serves as a primary motive in enhancing Humans Factors/Ergonomics Science.

Workload and Performance: Associations, Insensitivities, and Dissociations

OBJECTIVE

The aim of this study was to distill and define those influences under which change in objective performance level and the linked cognitive workload reflections of subjective experience and physiological variation either associate, dissociate, or are insensitive, one to another.

BACKGROUND

Human factors/ergonomics frequently employs users' self-reports of their own conscious experience, as well as their physiological reactivity, to augment the understanding of changing performance capacity. Under some circumstances, these latter workload responses are the only available assessment information to hand. How such perceptions and physiological responses match, fail to match, or are insensitive to the change in primary-task performance can prove critical to operational success. The reasons underlying these associations, dissociations, and insensitivities are central to the success of future effective human-machine interaction.

METHOD

Using extant research on the relations between differing methods of workload assessment, factors influencing their association, dissociation, and insensitivity are identified.

RESULTS

Dissociations and insensitivities occur more frequently than extant explanatory theories imply. Methodological and conceptual reasons for these patterns of incongruity are identified and evaluated.

APPLICATION

We often seek convergence of results in order to provide coherent explanations as bases for future prediction and practical design implementation. Identifying and understanding the causes as to why different reflections of workload diverge can help practitioners toward operational success.

Some pitfalls in the promises of automated and autonomous vehicles

Differing forms of self-operating transportation are already among us and some have been in operation now for an extended period of time. From elevators and escalators to airport transit trams, we already use many fully automatic systems. Now such technologies are very publicly and prominently penetrating into the on-road environment of everyday personal vehicle usage. The present article raises and addresses a number of the specific and more general human factors/ergonomic issues associated with such an evolutionary step. One particular concern is that of identified responsibility when such systems fail to perform flawlessly. The ways in which this (r)evolution will impact the social and cultural fabric of affected societies is also considered. Further observations as to the vector of the future characteristics of these vehicular forms and how they and other autonomous systems will affect our world are examined. The very future of the human experience depends upon the ways in which such systems are designed, enacted and integrated into everyday life and these are fundamentally ergonomic endeavours.Practitioner's Summary: The prominence of practitioners working on advanced human-machine systems will increase with public concerns surrounding self-driving vehicles. Driverless cars are not only a technological step but they will also exert widespread effects throughout society. Practitioners should prepare for these broad socio-technical challenges in an evolving, autonomous world.

Some promises in the pitfalls of automated and autonomous vehicles: A response to commentators

My interlocutors have offered numerous and important responses to my target article. Here, I endeavour to respond to the issues raised. Despite some contentions over specifics, the overall tenor of these commentaries is one of general agreement. One particular challenge, as noted, is how to disseminate our discipline's knowledge beyond the pages of our journals to effect the impact and change in the world to which we aspire. This is a challenge that transcends efforts solely associated with automated vehicles, but it may be in this specific realm that our science can offer its most widespread impact in the immediate, coming future.

The Effects of Handedness and Dominance on Motor Task Performance

Two studies were carried out to examine the effects of user handedness and hand dominance on a motor task using Fitts’ law. Study one was designed to validate our previous findings showing differences between left- and right-handed participants who completed a mouse-pointing task using Fitts’ law. Results showed that right-handed participants were significantly faster than their left-handed peers, thereby validating our previous findings. Study two examined the effect of handedness and hand dominance on motor task performance by requiring two groups of left- and right-handed participants perform the motor task using both their dominant and non-dominant hands. Results showed a significant interaction between handedness and hand dominance on task performance. Right-handed participants were again significantly faster than their left-handed peers when both groups were using their dominant hand. However, left-handed participants were significantly faster than their right-handed peers when both groups were using their non-dominant hand. These findings might be attributed to prior training with computer mice designs that do not account for user handedness. Both theoretical and practical implications, as well as directions for future studies are also discussed.