Levels of analysis in motor control

The analysis of skilled performance must proceed at many levels. As illustrated in the two experiments presented here, what we observe in human skilled behavior is the rich intermingling of these various levels of control as a function of the task demands, the state of learning of the subject and the constraints imposed on the task and the subject by the environment. While we should be interested in the neurophysiological correlates of such behavior we still have a long way to go even to understand what to expect in terms of the behavior itself. The job of the researcher is different depending on the level of analysis at which he is interested, but a general theory of skill acquisition will only result from consideration of the ramifications of a multi-level process-oriented description of skilled performance.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/22354/1/0000800.pd

A principled approach to the measurement of situation awareness in commercial aviation

The issue of how to support situation awareness among crews of modern commercial aircraft is becoming especially important with the introduction of automation in the form of sophisticated flight management computers and expert systems designed to assist the crew. In this paper, cognitive theories are discussed that have relevance for the definition and measurement of situation awareness. These theories suggest that comprehension of the flow of events is an active process that is limited by the modularity of attention and memory constraints, but can be enhanced by expert knowledge and strategies. Three implications of this perspective for assessing and improving situation awareness are considered: (1) Scenario variations are proposed that tax awareness by placing demands on attention; (2) Experimental tasks and probes are described for assessing the cognitive processes that underlie situation awareness; and (3) The use of computer-based human performance models to augment the measures of situation awareness derived from performance data is explored. Finally, two potential example applications of the proposed assessment techniques are described, one concerning spatial awareness using wide field of view displays and the other emphasizing fault management in aircraft systems

Pilot opinions on high level flight deck automation issues: Toward the development of a design philosophy

There has been much concern in recent years about the rapid increase in automation on commercial flight decks. The survey was composed of three major sections. The first section asked pilots to rate different automation components that exist on the latest commercial aircraft regarding their obtrusiveness and the attention and effort required in using them. The second section addressed general 'automation philosophy' issues. The third section focused on issues related to levels and amount of automation. The results indicate that pilots of advanced aircraft like their automation, use it, and would welcome more automation. However, they also believe that automation has many disadvantages, especially fully autonomous automation. They want their automation to be simple and reliable and to produce predictable results. The biggest needs for higher levels of automation were in pre-flight, communication, systems management, and task management functions, planning as well as response tasks, and high workload situations. There is an irony and a challenge in the implications of these findings. On the one hand pilots would like new automation to be simple and reliable, but they need it to support the most complex part of the job--managing and planning tasks in high workload situations

Repairing Trust in Organizations and Institutions: Toward a Conceptual Framework

Trust plays a fundamental role in facilitating social exchange, yet recent global events have undermined trust in many of society’s institutions and organizations. This raises the pertinent question of how trust in organizations and institutions can be restored once it has been lost. The emerging literature on trust repair is largely focused at the micro level, with limited examination of how these processes operate at the macro level and across levels. In this introductory essay, we show how the papers in this special issue each advance our understanding of macro-level trust repair. We draw on these papers, as well as the extant interdisciplinary literature, to propose an integrated conceptual model of six key mechanisms for restoring trust in organizations and institutions, highlighting the merits, limits and paradoxes of each. We conclude that no single mechanism can be relied on to rebuild organizational trust and identify a future research agenda for advancing scholarly understanding of organizational and institutional trust repair

The speed-accuracy operating characteristic

An analysis of the relationship between speed and accuracy of performance under a wide variety of task conditions reveals a linear relationship between log odds in favor of a correct response and reaction time. This result is consistent with the conceptual logic of the statistical decision model of choice reaction time and suggests the definition of a speed-accuracy operating characteristic analagous to the receiver operating characteristic in signal detection.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/33038/1/0000424.pd