Engineering psychology: Contribution to system safety

There has been a growing interest in the area of engineering psychology. This article considers some of the major accidents which have occurred in recent years, and the contribution which engineering psychology makes to designing systems and enhancing safety. Accidents are usually multi-causal, and the resident pathogens in the design and operation of human-machine systems can lead to devastating consequences not only for the workers themselves but also for people in the surrounding communities. Specifically, in each of the accidents discussed, operators were unaware of the seriousness of the system malfunctions because warning displays were poorly designed or located, and operators had not been sufficiently trained in dealing with these emergency situations. Since the 1940s machines and equipment have become more complex in nearly every industry. This, coupled with the continuing need to produce effective and safe systems, has resulted in psychology professionals being called to assist in designing even more efficient operating systems. In earlier times, a worker who made a mistake might spoil a piece of work or waste some time. Today, however, a worker's erroneous action can lead to dire consequences

A culture of blame – Sunday school teachers, youth workers and the decline of young people in churches

When the Sunday School pioneers saw a need in their communities in the late eighteenth century, their response gave rise to a 200 year movement, the remnants of which still exist today. Robert Raikes, disputed founder of the first Sunday Schools in 1780 (but certainly one of the early pioneers), found that the young people in his Gloucestershire community were lacking in basic education and the community did not like these young people ‘hanging around’ on the streets on Sundays, their day off from work. The early Sunday Schools met a clear social need and they were a lay movement not attached to specific churches. Young people met in the homes of their teachers on Sunday afternoons. However, by the twentieth century, Sunday Schools were highly-structured, centralised and attached to churches and Unions, with their original purpose made redundant by the growth of mainstream education. They faced rapid decline in the 1960s; a rigid institution amidst societal change. Over recent decades, Christian youth work has emerged as a response to youth decline within churches. Many youth workers engage with young people’s self-identifiable needs by delivering open access youth provision in their local communities alongside more specifically-Christian activities. Tensions emerge over whether the youth worker’s role is to serve community or church needs, with churches often emphasising the desire to see young people in services. This echoes the discourse of Sunday Schooling where religious education and church membership became prioritised at the expense of social need. This article considers the criticism of Sunday School teachers during the twentieth century by both churches and Sunday School Unions. Sunday Schools had their peak in attendance in the early 1900s and the blame for the lack of young people in church was laid at the feet of the teachers who were successfully engaging them, usually on a Sunday afternoon. As the century progressed, Sunday Schools did decline and faced their most crucial downfall during the 1960s. The 1950s and 60s were also when, on a national scale, churches moved their Sunday Schools from the afternoon to the morning to fit with church service times; a move entirely premised on the needs of the church rather than of those they were serving. This internal factor is often ignored in talk of Sunday School decline in the 1960s as families, and even teachers, are viewed as having been drawn away from church by external distractions. In the post Sunday School era, youth work is the most comparable form of church outreach to young people. There are echoes of the criticism thrown at Sunday School teachers levelled at these youth workers when young people are not in Sunday services. This article draws on my research into Sunday Schools in the 1900-10 and 1955-72 periods as well as my research into Christian youth work today. It considers how the criticism of Sunday School teachers and youth workers both distracts churches from considering the reasons why church is not welcoming or accessible to young people and serves to destroy the enthusiasm of those who are successfully engaging young people

The ergonomics of command and control

Since its inception, just after the Second World War, ergonomics research has paid special attention to the issues surrounding human control of systems. Command and Control environments continue to represent a challenging domain for Ergonomics research. We take a broad view of Command and Control research, to include C2 (Command and Control), C3 (Command, Control and Communication), and C4 (Command, Control, Communication and Computers) as well as human supervisory control paradigms. This special issue of ERGONOMICS aims to present state-of-the-art research into models of team performance, evaluation of novel interaction technologies, case studies, methodologies and theoretical review papers. We are pleased to present papers that detail research on these topics in domains as diverse as the emergency services (e.g., police, fire, and ambulance), civilian applications (e.g., air traffic control, rail networks, and nuclear power) and military applications (e.g., land, sea and air) of command and control. While the domains of application are very diverse, many of the challenges they face share interesting similarities

Automotive automation: Investigating the impact on drivers' mental workload

Recent advances in technology have meant that an increasing number of vehicle driving tasks are becoming automated. Such automation poses new problems for the ergonomist. Of particular concern in this paper are the twofold effects of automation on mental workload - novel technologies could increase attentional demand and workload, alternatively one could argue that fewer driving tasks will lead to the problem of reduced attentional demand and driver underload. A brief review of previous research is presented, followed by an overview of current research taking place in the Southampton Driving Simulator. Early results suggest that automation does reduce workload, and that underload is indeed a problem, with a significant proportion of drivers unable to effectively reclaim control of the vehicle in an automation failure scenario. Ultimately, this research and a subsequent program of studies will be interpreted within the framework of a recently proposed theory of action, with a view to maximizing both theoretical and applied benefits of this domain

Comparing verbal media for alarm handling: Speech versus textual displays

The rise of computers in command and control domains has meant that control operations can be performed via desk-based visual display terminals. This trend has also produced the potential to display information to operators in a variety of formats. Of particular interest has been the use of text-based displays for alarm presentation. There are possible limitations to the use of text for alarm presentation, not least of which is the need for a dedicated alarms display screen (or, at least, a display page). Given the capability of computers to synthesize speech, it is possible that speech-based alarms could generate the same information as text-based displays without the need for dedicated screen space. In this paper an experimental comparison of speech-based and text-based displays for presentation of alarms is reported. The findings show that speech leads to longer response times than text displays, but that it has minimal effect on the efficacy of fault handling. The results are discussed within the alarm initiated activities framework and implications for alarm system design are outlined

Lucius Chittenden\u27s journey to the inside of the earth transcribed and annotated by Michael N. Stanton.

Occasional paper (University of Vermont. Center for Research on Vermont) ; #17. Introduction -- A note on the text -- [ To the inside of the Earth! ] -- The nebular hypothesis -- Chambers makes planets -- They plan the expedition -- Las diablos del Volcan -- A discussion concerning air and heat -- Appendix : the discussion -- A note on the transcriber and annotater

Jefferson Health System Quality Council

No abstract available

A Report on the Medical Care Availability and Reduction of Error Act

No abstract available

Behavioural compensation by drivers of a simulator when using a vision enhancement system

Technological progress is suggesting dramatic changes to the tasks of the driver, with the general aim of making driving environment safer. Before any of these technologies are implemented, empirical research is required to establish if these devices do, in fact, bring about the anticipated improvements. Initially, at least, simulated driving environments offer a means of conducting this research. The study reported here concentrates on the application of a vision enhancement (VE) system within the risk homeostasis paradigm. It was anticipated, in line with risk homeostasis theory, that drivers would compensate for the reduction in risk by increasing speed. The results support the hypothesis although, after a simulated failure of the VE system, drivers did reduce their speed due to reduced confidence in the reliability of the system

Nematodes of forage legumes and grasses: Catalogue and Bibliography 1961- 1985

Se presentan 1 catalogo y 1 bibliografia sobre investigaciones relacionadas con el efecto de nematodos en gramineas y leguminosas forrajeras. En la seccion de catalogo, se incluyen nombres cientificos de plantas forrajeras (gramineas y leguminosas), nombres cientificos de nematodos asociados con ellas, pais donde se registro o se estudio el nematodo y no. de registro bibliografico. La bibliografia esta compuesta por 840 referencias bibliograficas (la mayoria con resumen) de trabajos de investigacion sobre nematodos y un listado de 308 referencias bibliograficas de registros unicos de asociaciones entre plantas y nematodos. (CIAT