Cognitive modeling of social behaviors

To understand both individual cognition and collective activity, perhaps the greatest opportunity today is to integrate the cognitive modeling approach (which stresses how beliefs are formed and drive behavior) with social studies (which stress how relationships and informal practices drive behavior). The crucial insight is that norms are conceptualized in the individual mind as ways of carrying out activities. This requires for the psychologist a shift from only modeling goals and tasks —why people do what they do—to modeling behavioral patterns—what people do—as they are engaged in purposeful activities. Instead of a model that exclusively deduces actions from goals, behaviors are also, if not primarily, driven by broader patterns of chronological and located activities (akin to scripts). To illustrate these ideas, this article presents an extract from a Brahms simulation of the Flashline Mars Arctic Research Station (FMARS), in which a crew of six people are living and working for a week, physically simulating a Mars surface mission. The example focuses on the simulation of a planning meeting, showing how physiological constraints (e.g., hunger, fatigue), facilities (e.g., the habitat’s layout) and group decision making interact. Methods are described for constructing such a model of practice, from video and first-hand observation, and how this modeling approach changes how one relates goals, knowledge, and cognitive architecture. The resulting simulation model is a powerful complement to task analysis and knowledge-based simulations of reasoning, with many practical applications for work system design, operations management, and training

Visualizing practical knowledge: The Haughton-Mars Project

To improve how we envision knowledge, we must improve our ability to see knowledge in everyday life. That is, visualization is concerned not only with displaying facts and theories, but also with finding ways to express and relate tacit understanding. Such knowledge, although often referred to as "common," is not necessarily shared and may be distributed socially in choreographies for working together—in the manner that a chef and a maitre d’hôtel, who obviously possess very different skills, coordinate their work. Furthermore, non-verbal concepts cannot in principle be inventoried. Reifying practical knowledge is not a process of converting the implicit into the explicit, but pointing to what we know, showing its manifestations in our everyday life. To this end, I illustrate the study and reification of practical knowledge by examining the activities of a scientific expedition in the Canadian Arctic—a group of scientists preparing for a mission to Mar

how to improve worker s well being and company performance a method to identify effective corrective actions

Abstract In manufacturing context, social dimension is often neglected. With Industry 4.0, companies focus more on technologies and data. However, human continues to play a key role in cyber-physical systems and company growth. This work proposes a method to help the company to evaluate workers' experience and identify the optimal solution to improve workers' well-being and company performance. It starts from personalized social analysis within a production plant to identify ergonomics problems and intelligently suggest effective corrective actions. The latter are selected achieving the best trade-off between social, economic and productive aspects. Three case studies are proposed to validate the method

Occupational health and safety in readymade garments industry:an assessment on three Bangladeshi factories

Abstract. In addition, with productivity issues, occupational health, and safety (OHS) are also a major concern in the Ready-Made Garments (RMG) industry of Bangladesh. However, RMG industry is far behind to achieve acceptable OHS standards. Although OHS is directly and indirectly linked to the productivity of garment workers, the extant literature overlooks the impact of OHS on productivity in the RMG industry of Bangladesh. In the context of Bangladesh, productivity is not optimal due to different OHS-related factors. Therefore, the effect of OHS cannot be condoned. So, this study emphasizes the identification of the current OHS condition on the production floor and the impact of that condition on the productivity of Bangladeshi garment workers. To achieve the research objective both qualitative and quantitative approaches have been applied and the required data were collected from three RMG factories. The workers were assessed by their experience, habit, knowledge, and suggestion regarding OHS. OHS parameters such as sitting posture, easy reach material, and other safety practices were measured by following a checklist. The factories have been assessed based on the intervention on the production floor and by observing various OHS-related parameters which ultimately affect productivity. The study has unveiled some noticeable drawbacks such as improper ergonomics implications, poor working posture, and poor raw material handling. In this thesis it was observed that OHS activities have a significant impact into the productivity. The productivity has been increased up to 6–12% after the implementation

Space Station Human Factors Research Review. Volume 4: Inhouse Advanced Development and Research

A variety of human factors studies related to space station design are presented. Subjects include proximity operations and window design, spatial perceptual issues regarding displays, image management, workload research, spatial cognition, virtual interface, fault diagnosis in orbital refueling, and error tolerance and procedure aids

A human-oriented design process for collaborative robotics

The potential of collaborative robotics often does not materialize in an efficient design of the human-robot collaboration. Technology-oriented approaches are no longer enough in the Industry 4.0 era. This work proposes a set of methods to support manufacturing engineers in the human-oriented design process of integrated production systems to obtain satisfactory performance in the mass customization paradigm, without impacting the safety and health of workers. It founds the design criteria definition on five main pillars (safety, ergonomics, effectiveness, flexibility, and costs), favors the consideration of different design alternatives, and leads their selection. The dynamic impact of the design choices on the various elements of the system prevails over the static design constraints. The method has been experimented in collaboration with the major kitchen manufacturer in Italy, which introduced a collaborative robotics cell in the drawers' assembly line. It resulted in a more balanced production line (10% more), a verified risk minimization (RULA score reduced from 5 to 3 and OCRA score from 13.30 to 5.70), and a greater allocation of operators to high added value activities

Simulating activities: Relating motives, deliberation, and attentive coordination

Activities are located behaviors, taking time, conceived as socially meaningful, and usually involving interaction with tools and the environment. In modeling human cognition as a form of problem solving (goal-directed search and operator sequencing), cognitive science researchers have not adequately studied “off-task” activities (e.g., waiting), non-intellectual motives (e.g., hunger), sustaining a goal state (e.g., playful interaction), and coupled perceptual-motor dynamics (e.g., following someone). These aspects of human behavior have been considered in bits and pieces in past research, identified as scripts, human factors, behavior settings, ensemble, flow experience, and situated action. More broadly, activity theory provides a comprehensive framework relating motives, goals, and operations. This paper ties these ideas together, using examples from work life in a Canadian High Arctic research station. The emphasis is on simulating human behavior as it naturally occurs, such that “working” is understood as an aspect of living. The result is a synthesis of previously unrelated analytic perspectives and a broader appreciation of the nature of human cognition. Simulating activities in this comprehensive way is useful for understanding work practice, promoting learning, and designing better tools, including human-robot systems

The Job Task Model as a Means for Understanding Computer Usage in the Work Place

A qualitative study of a workplace was conducted through the use of interviews and observation of ten participants working in hardware and software engineering. The study arose from a lack of information on computer usage in workplace settings and a lack of identified functional needs for skills-based training. There were three primary guiding questions and areas of findings in this study: l.Does the job task model define the areas of computer literacy for the individual worker? The job task model proved to be an effective method for analyzing tasks, tools, and the environment for usage of computer technologies in specialized professions. 2.Does the type of job task influence the functional needs for computer usage in the areas of training, hardware and software usage, application of individual anthropometric data, and workstation design? The job tasks did not influence how the participants were trained in the use of computers. The primary method of learning to use computer hardware and software was through self-instruction. However, the type of job task did influence the type of hardware and software needed to perform a task. Professional employees needed to know how to use both general and specific types of hardware and software. The job task affected the ergonomic arrangement of work areas, but the participants generally lacked training in how to identify and correct risk factors that may lead to computer-related injury.3.What are the stress factors in this workplace setting? Do the stress factors influence computer-related injury rates in this workplace and if so, how can those types of injuries be reduced? The stress factors identified in this setting included job demand factors, psychosocial factors, and ergonomic factors. Although these types of stress factors have been associated with computer-related injury through research, none of the participants reported injury associated with computer usage. It was also found that the participants did not consider musculoskeletal disorders to be injuries but rather illnesses. Implications of the study suggest that the job task model provides a balanced approach to the design of instructional materials. Further, by allowing one category of the job task model to be dominant in the instructional content also appears to weaken the overall instructional validity