Habitability and Performance Issues for Long Duration Space Flights

Advancing technology, coupled with the desire to explore space has resulted in increasingly longer manned space missions. Although the Long Duration Space Flights (LDSF) have provided a considerable amount of scientific research on human ability to function in extreme environments, findings indicate long duration missions take a toll on the individual, both physiologically and psychologically. These physiological and psychological issues manifest themselves in performance decrements; and could lead to serious errors endangering the mission, spacecraft and crew. The purpose of this paper is to document existing knowledge of the effects of LDSF on performance, habitability, and workload and to identify and assess potential tools designed to address these decrements as well as propose an implementation plan to address the habitability, performance and workload issues

Effects of Warnings on Responsibility Allocation

ABSTRACT Four experiments explored the effects of warnings on people's allocation of responsibility for product safety. Participants read descriptions of accident scenarios in which injuries occurred during the use of products. They then allocated responsibility to the manufacturer, retailer, or consumer (user). Results of two experiments indicated more responsibility was assigned to the consumer and less to the manufacturer when products were accompanied hy a warning (76%-94% to the consumer), compared to a no-warning condition (41%-68%). A third experiment compared responsibility allocations for good versus poor warnings. Consumers were assigned more responsihility (83%) with good warnings than with poor warnings (69%). The fourth experiment again showed warnings played a significant role in the allocations, but injury severity did not. Interactions in all four experiments indicated the role of warnings in responsibility allocations was less for products where the hazards are more obvious. In addition to implications for product safety, the results provide insights into jury decision making regarding the role of warnings in product liability litigation

The effects of morality and facial attractiveness on allocations of responsibility for consumer product safety

This study investigates the effects of perceived morality and facial attractiveness on jurors' allocations of responsibility in a civil litigation context. Confronted with uncertainty, jurors may focus less on the factual evidence presented and more on peripheral cues. It was hypothesized that jurors will attribute more responsibility to a bad individual compared to a good person, and unattractive consumers will be allocated more responsibility for an accident than their attractive counterparts. Results indicate perceived morality significantly influences responsibility allocations. Bad people were given more responsibility than good people. Although unattractive consumers were given more responsibility than attractive consumers the difference was not statistically significant. Finally, allocations to the consumer and manufacturer differed depending upon the products used in each scenario, indicating that responsibility allocations to consumers are related to the type of product. Implications for civil litigation include the awareness that jurors decisions are influenced by the type of product and subjective information about the consumer