18 research outputs found
Making a Task Difficult: Evidence That Device-Oriented Steps Are Effortful and Error-Prone
Errors in the execution of procedural tasks can have severe consequences. Attempts to ameliorate these slip errors through increased training and motivation have been shown to be ineffective. Instead, we identified the steps in a task procedure on which errors are most likely to occur, so that these might be designed out of the task procedure in the first place. Specifically, we considered whether device-oriented steps (i.e., steps in the task procedure that do not directly contribute to the achievement of the task goal) are more error-prone than task-oriented steps (i.e., steps that do directly contribute to the task goal). Two experiments are reported in which participants were trained to perform a novel procedural task. Across conditions, we manipulated the extent to which each step in the task procedure appeared to contribute to the achievement of the task goal (i.e., alternating the assignment of a task step between device- and task-oriented), while keeping the interface and underlying task procedure the same. Results show that participants made more errors and took longer to complete a task step when it played a device-oriented role rather than a task-orientated role. These effects were exacerbated by the introduction of a secondary task designed to increase working memory load, suggesting that when a task step plays a device-oriented role it is more weakly represented in memory. We conclude that device-oriented task steps are inherently problematic and should be avoided where possible in the design of task procedures
Human Error Analysis in Software Engineering
As the primary cause of software defects, human error is the key to understanding, detecting and preventing software defects. This chapter first reviews the state of art of an emerging area: software fault defense based on human error mechanisms. Then, an approach for human error analysis (HEA) is proposed. HEA consists of two important components: human error modes (HEM) and an undated version of causal mechanism graphs (CMGs). Human error modes are the general erroneous patterns that humans tend to behave in a variety of activities. Causal mechanism graph provides a way to extract the error-prone contexts in software development, and link the contexts to general human error modes. HEA can be used at various phases of software development, for both defect detection and prevention purposes. An application case is provided to demonstrate how to use HEA
The design with intent method: A design tool for influencing user behaviour
The official published version can be found at the link below.Using product and system design to influence user behaviour offers potential for improving performance and reducing user error, yet little guidance is available at the concept generation stage for design teams briefed with influencing user behaviour. This article presents the Design with Intent Method, an innovation tool for designers working in this area, illustrated via application to an everyday human–technology interaction problem: reducing the likelihood of a customer leaving his or her card in an automatic teller machine. The example application results in a range of feasible design concepts which are comparable to existing developments in ATM design, demonstrating that the method has potential for development and application as part of a user-centred design process
Home is Where the Lab is: A Comparison of Online and Lab Data From a Time-sensitive Study of Interruption
While experiments have been run online for some time with positive results, there are still outstanding questions about the kinds of tasks that can be successfully deployed to remotely situated online participants. Some tasks, such as menu selection, have worked well but these do not represent the gamut of tasks that interest HCI researchers. In particular, we wondered whether long-lasting, time-sensitive tasks that require continuous concentration could work successfully online, given the confounding effects that might accompany the online deployment of such a task. We ran an archetypal interruption experiment both online and in the lab to investigate whether studies demonstrating such characteristics might be more vulnerable to a loss of control than the short, time-insensitive studies that are representative of the majority of previous online studies. Statistical comparisons showed no significant differences in performance on a number of dimensions. However, there were issues with data quality that stemmed from participants misunderstanding the task. Our findings suggest that long-lasting experiments using time-sensitive performance measures can be run online but that care must be taken when introducing participants to experimental procedures
Talk, text, tag? Understanding self-annotation of smart home data from a user’s perspective
Delivering effortless interactions and appropriate interventions through pervasive systems requires making sense of multiple streams of sensor data. This is particularly challenging when these concern people’s natural behaviours in the real world. This paper takes a multidisciplinary perspective of annotation and draws on an exploratory study of 12 people, who were encouraged to use a multi-modal annotation app while living in a prototype smart home. Analysis of the app usage data and of semi-structured interviews with the participants revealed strengths and limitations regarding self-annotation in a naturalistic context. Handing control of the annotation process to research participants enabled them to reason about their own data, while generating accounts that were appropriate and acceptable to them. Self-annotation provided participants an opportunity to reflect on themselves and their routines, but it was also a means to express themselves freely and sometimes even a backchannel to communicate playfully with the researchers. However, self-annotation may not be an effective way to capture accurate start and finish times for activities, or location associated with activity information. This paper offers new insights and recommendations for the design of self-annotation tools for deployment in the real world
If Erring is Human, is System Use Divine?:Omission Errors During Post-Adoptive System Use
Our study contributes to the research on human error during IS use by studying the antecedents of the omission errors that occur during routine instances of computerized work. While attention lapses have been identified as the main mechanism leading to omission errors, we still know little about how such lapses come about during post-adoptive system use. To address this limitation, we draw our theoretical insights from theories of attention and prospective memory to illustrate how the different forms of system use carry the potential to explain patterns of human error. Accordingly, we distinguish between two forms of use history that can consist of features that are either related or unrelated to the execution of a focal task and examine their effects on the frequency of omission errors. We also examine the interaction effects of task variation on the aforementioned relationship. Our hypotheses are tested by analyzing log data associated with the use of a newly introduced mobile application in the context of a sailing sports event. Our results indicate that restricting one's system use on related task features reduces omission errors, whereas a use history based on unrelated task features produces the opposite effects. Further, task diversity positively moderates the relationship between a use history of unrelated features and omission errors, but has no significant moderating effect on the relationship between a use history of related features and omission errors. Our findings hold a number of implications for the literature on human error, and these are discussed alongside with the implications of our study for practitioners and system design
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The Effect of Interruptions on Primary Task Performance in Safety-Critical Environments
Safety critical systems in medicine utilize alarms to signal potentially life threatening situations to professionals and patients. In particular, in the medical field multiple alarms from equipment are activated daily and often simultaneously. There are a number of alarms which require caregivers to take breaks in complex, primary tasks to attend to the interruption task which is signaled by the alarm. The motivation for this research is the knowledge that, in general, interrupting tasks can have a potentially negative impact on performance and outcomes of the primary task.
The focus of this research is on the effect of an interrupting task on the cognitive behavior of nurses on a primary task: administering medication to a simulated patient. Fifty-eight student nurses were monitored with eye-tracking technology as they perform direct patient care and a medication administration task. There are four hypotheses. First, it is hypothesized that an interruption generated by an alarm during medication administration significantly increases errors because it causes caregivers to forget components of the original task. These errors result when the primary task is suspended in memory, as a result of the intervening task, and because of this suspension, memory for the original task can decay. Second, it is hypothesized that interrupting tasks result in time delays on the primary task (the time during which the caregiver is performing the interrupting task is not included in the time to perform the original task). Third, it is hypothesized that metacognition training will mitigate the negative effects of the interrupting task on the primary task. The metacognition training is based on knowledge of how memory processes are affected by interruptions and how modifying these processes can potentially result in a reduction of errors. Fourth, it is hypothesized that the intervention strategy will lead to improvements in the memory for the material that is required to resume and complete the primary task. This improvement will be measured by increases in the number of eye fixations to the primary task before attending to the secondary task. Furthermore, this measurement will correlate with a reduction in errors
An empirical investigation of post-completion error: A cognitive perspective.
Forgetting to retrieve your original after photocopying, forgetting to collect your card after a withdrawal from a cash machine, are examples of a specific type of omission error termed post-completion error (Byrne & Bovair, 1997). A post-completion error (PCE) is the omission of a "clean-up" step after the main goal of a task is fulfilled. The error phenomenon has the property of being infrequent but persistent it does not occur very often and, yet, it continues to occur now and again. This thesis is an empirical investigation of PCE to examine factors that provoke or mitigate the error. The investigation consists of two series of experiments. The first series of experiments is an extension of Byrne & Bovair's finding of the effect of high working memory demand on the increased occurrences of PCE. A novel paradigm was designed and adopted in the experiments it was found that PCE also occurs in problem-solving tasks, which impose a high demand on working memory load. Results from the experiments also suggest that the use of static visual cues may reduce the error rate. The second series of experiments investigates the effect of interruption on PCE in a procedural task paradigm. Based on the activation-based goal memory model (Altmann & Trafton, 2002) predictions were made on the effect of interruption position and duration on the error. Results show that PCE is more likely to occur with interruption occurring just before the post-completion step. Interruption occurring earlier in the task has no effect on PCE rate it was found to be the same as having no interruptions at all. Moreover, interruption as brief as 15 seconds was found to be disruptive enough to increase PCE rate. The same disruptive effect was also obtained for other non-PCEs. The scarcity and disparate nature of the existing theoretical approaches to PCE motivated a meta-theoretical analysis of PCE. The analysis has resulted in the identification of the major criteria required for an adequate account of PCE. Although a complete cognitive model of PCE is beyond the scope of the current thesis, the meta-theoretical analysis offers new insights into the understanding of PCE and aids future theoretical development. The current thesis constitutes a methodological advance in studying PCE. New factors that provoke or mitigate the occurrence of the error were identified through empirical investigations. New insights into the understanding of the error were also possible through a meta-theoretical analysis within a coherent theoretical structure
The role of goal relevance in the occurrence of systematic slip errors in routine procedural tasks
Slip errors can have severe consequences but are notoriously difficult to reduce. Training, visual
cues and increasing motivation are generally not effective in eliminating these slips. Instead, the
approach this work takes is to identify which steps in a routine task are most error prone, so
that these can be designed out of device interactions. In particular, device- and task-oriented
steps are investigated. Device-oriented steps are "extra" steps imposed by the device that do
not directly contribute towards the task goal. Conversely, task-oriented steps directly bring the
user closer to their goal. The main hypothesis addressed in this work is that device-oriented
steps are more problematic than task-oriented ones.
The concepts of device- and task-oriented steps are investigated more closely, by analysing
the literature on routine action and mental representations of different steps. The core diff erence
between the steps is found to be how relevant a step is to the goal. This is further supported
by two qualitative studies.
A series of experimental studies investigates the cognitive mechanisms underlying device and
task-oriented steps. This is addressed through six experiments that address error rates, step
times, proportion of omissions and sensitivity to working memory load. Participants learned
one of three routine tasks, with several carefully controlled device- and task-oriented steps. The
results show that on device-oriented steps, error rates are higher, step times are longer, the
proportion of omissions is greater, and working memory load has an increased effect. These
findings support the hypothesis that activation levels are lower on device-oriented steps.
The thesis concludes that a step's relevance to the task goal plays an important role in
the occurrence of errors. This work has implications for both our understanding of routine
procedural action as well as the design of devices