Cognitive conflict in human–automation interactions: A psychophysiological study

The review of literature in sociology and distributed artificial intelligence reveals that the occurrence of conflict is a remarkable precursor to the disruption of multi-agent systems. The study of this concept could be applied to human factors concerns, as man-system conflict appears to provoke perseveration behavior and to degrade attentional abilities with a trend to excessive focus. Once entangled in such conflicts, the human operator will do anything to succeed in his current goal even if it jeopardizes the mission. In order to confirm these findings, an experimental setup, composed of a real unmanned ground vehicle, a ground station is developed. A scenario involving an authority conflict between the partici- pants and the robot is proposed. Analysis of the effects of the conflict on the participants’ cognition and arousal is assessed through heart-rate measurement (reflecting stress level) and eye-tracking techniques (index of attentional focus). Our results clearly show that the occurrence of the conflict leads to perseveration behavior and can induce higher heart rate as well as excessive attentional focus. These results are discussed in terms of task commitment issues and increased arousal. Moreover, our results suggest that individual differences may predict susceptibility to perseveration behavior

Improving the quality of numerical software through user-centered design

The software interface - whether graphical, command-oriented, menu-driven, or in the form of subroutine calls - shapes the user`s perception of what software can do. It also establishes upper bounds on software usability. Numerical software interfaces typically are based on the designer`s understanding of how the software should be used. That is a poor foundation for usability, since the features that are ``instinctively right`` from the developer`s perspective are often the very ones that technical programmers find most objectionable or most difficult to learn. This paper discusses how numerical software interfaces can be improved by involving users more actively in design, a process known as user-centered design (UCD). While UCD requires extra organization and effort, it results in much higher levels of usability and can actually reduce software costs. This is true not just for graphical user interfaces, but for all software interfaces. Examples show how UCD improved the usability of a subroutine library, a command language, and an invocation interface

Affect and Decision Making in Troubled Information Technology Projects

IT project failure is an enduring problem which has often been associated with bad news reporting and escalation of commitment. The literature in bad news reporting has focused on identifying factors (e.g., organizational climate of silence) that could influence one’s reporting decision. Similarly, the de-escalation literature has primarily investigated conditions or activities (e.g., changes in top management) which promote de-escalation. Nonetheless, what is missing in our understanding is how affect can influence bad news reporting and de-escalation decisions within IT projects. This represents a significant gap in bad news reporting and de-escalation research, as affect (i.e., mood and emotions) is recognized as a fundamental aspect of human life which strongly influences individual perceptions, judgment, and decision making. The aim of this dissertation to provide new insights regarding how affect can influence bad news reporting decisions and de-escalation of commitment within the context of troubled IT projects

Mindfulness and Individual Error Orientation in High Reliability Organizations

Mindfulness is a concept drawn from the contemplative traditions that refers to present-moment, non-judgmental awareness. Exactly how applicable mindfulness is in the workplace requires further empirical validation, particularly on outcomes immediately relevant to organizations. This study contributes to literature examining the effects of mindfulness in organizational settings by considering the effects of an 8-week workplace mindfulness training program in a high-reliability organization (hospital) on individual error orientation, an individual’s propensity to learn from error, worry about error, or hide error. This study adds to the current state of knowledge by providing further insight into why one holds a particular error orientation and what can be done to encourage productive responses to error. Applying a randomized control trial design, employees of multiple hospital sites were recruited and assigned to one of three conditions: mindfulness, Pilates, or a no-treatment control condition. It was hypothesized that mindfulness training would increase the mindfulness levels of individuals and further, that mindfulness levels would predict error orientation. Three mechanisms were proposed as mediators of mindfulness and the positive relationship with learning from error, negative relationship with worrying about error, and negative relationship with hiding error: core self-evaluations, self-compassion, and authenticity. Quantitative findings confirmed that participants who received the mindfulness training reported increases in their perceived levels of mindfulness. Mindfulness levels were also related to worrying about error and hiding error in the hypothesized directions. The mediation hypotheses had mixed findings. While mindfulness showed significant relationships with the proposed mediators, these constructs were not always significantly related to the facets of error orientation. Qualitative findings suggest that mindfulness training offers emotion regulation skills that support productive responses to error. Mindfulness may be a meaningful training for employees with a wide range of cognitive, affective, attitudinal and behavioural benefits. It appears there may be a role for workplace mindfulness training as it relates to error orientation, productivity, and overall employee well-being

Errors in Creative Problem-Solving: Identify, Deliberate, and Remediate

It is often assumed creative performance is error free. Even a cursory inspection of eminent, creative, individuals indicates errors permeate creative efforts. In the present effort, we examine the impact of error management on creative problem-solving. Undergraduates, 136 in all, were asked to work through 10 potential problem solutions where half the solutions evidenced errors and half did not. Participants were asked to identify potential errors, deliberate on these errors, and remediate, or fix, errors prior to providing solutions to a problem calling for creative thought. It was found the number of errors correctly identified and the quality of error remediation was positively related to the quality, originality, and elegance of problem solutions. More extensive deliberation, however, was found to be especially important for production of original problem solutions. The implications of these observations for understanding the importance of error management in creative problem-solving are discussed

Forecasting Errors in Creative Problem-Solving: Deliberating about the Future

There are a number of key processes involved in creative thought, giving rise to the potential for errors to occur. Error management training has been shown to be more effective than error avoidance, suggesting the need for research on error management in creative problem-solving. In the present effort, we examined the impact of forecasting timeframe, forecasting extensiveness, and deliberation on errors on creative problem-solving. This study asked 225 undergraduate participants to work through six scenarios, identify errors in those scenarios, and forecast and/or deliberate on those errors prior to completing a final marketing plan appraised for creativity. It was found the number of errors identified, number of positive and negative outcomes listed, specificity of forecasts and deliberations, and quality of forecasts and deliberations led to better creative solutions. The implications of these findings for understanding how people work with errors, specifically in creative problem-solving, are discussed

Error Detection and Recovery in Software Development

Software rarely works as intended when it is first written. Software engineering research has long been concerned with assessing why software fails and who is to blame, or why a piece of software is flawed and how to prevent such faults in the future. Errors are examined in the context of bugs, elements of source code that produce undesirable, unexpected and unintended deviations in behaviour. Though error is a prevalent, mature topic within software engineering, error detection and recovery are less well understood. This research uses rich qualitative methods to study error detection and recovery in professional software development practice. It has considered conceptual representations of error in software engineering research and trade literature. Using ethnographic principles, it has gathered accounts given by professional developers in interviews and in video-recorded paired interaction. Developers performing a range of tasks were observed, and findings were compared to theories of human error formed in psychology and safety science. Three empirical studies investigated error from the perspective of developers, recon- structing the view they hold when errors arise, to build a catalogue of active encounters with error in conceptual design, at the desk and after the fact. Analyses were structured to consider development holistically over time, rather than in terms of discrete tasks. By placing emphasis on “local rationality”, analytical focus was redirected from outcomes toward factors that influence performance. The resultant observations are assembled in an account of error handling in software development as personal and situated (in time and the developer’s environment), with implications for the changing nature of expertise

Recovery uncovered : how people in the chemical process industry recover from failures

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Nurses' problem detection of infection risk: The effects of risk factors, expertise, and time pressure

Problem detection is a critical component in nursing, such that superior detection could lead to quicker intervention, even if the nature of the problem is not yet clear. A critical problem intensive care nurses typically engage in is detecting the threat of an impending hospital-acquired infection. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of the presence of risk factors, expertise, and time pressure on problem detection. The results suggested that time pressure seemed to have a detrimental effect on problem detection, and nurses benefitted from the presence of more risk factors. When not under time pressure, nurses were more sensitive in their problem detection judgments, and only needed one risk factor to trigger problem detection. Experienced nurses were more sensitive to the type of infection at detection, and were more likely to identify the problem correctly after information had been accumulated. These results suggest that problem detection was differentially affected by risk factors based on the presence or absence of time pressure. In addition, experienced nurses took a different approach to problem detection when compared to novices. Finally, problem detection and problem identification can in some situations occur simultaneously, but are distinct processes.M.S