Human performance characteristics in manual control tasks, and techniques for data analysis and systems simulatio

Howe, R. M.

Pew, R. W.

English

NASA Technical Reports Server

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1 
The University of Michigan 0 Office of'ReseCLrch Administration 
Ann Arbor, Michigan 
06343- 6-P 
N 0
I ITHRUI 
N66-14290 
(ACCESSION NUMBE 1 2
0 
> / November 5 ,  1965 - (CODE1 
GPO PRICE S 
IKASA CR OR l-CATEGORY1 84 2 i 
TMX OR AD NUMBER1 
CFSTI PRICE(S) S 
m 
Nat iona l  Aeronautics and Space Administration Microfiche (M F) - 39 
Office of Grants and Research Contracts 
Code S C  
Office of Space Sciences and Applications 
Washington, D o  C. 20546 
Letter Progress  Report of Work under Contract NASr-54(06) f o r  Subjec t :  6 
LHard copy (HC) 
e Period 1 June 1965 t o  31 August 1965 
Gentlemen: 
This  s t a t u s  r e p o r t  covers work during t h e  per iod  from 1 June 
1965 t o  31 August 1965 under Contract NASr-54(06), Man-Machine Per for -  
mance Measurements. 
budgeted funds f o r  t h e  f k r s t  and secdnd yeai? haveybeen expended. 
By t h e  end of t h i s  per iod  approximately 47% of t h e  
Work is cont inuing on conduct and a n a l y s i s  of  experimental  
s t u d i e s  of  human performance c h a r a c t e r i s t i c s  i n  manual c o n t r o l  t a s k s  
and development of  fac i l i t i es  and techniques f o r  manual c o n t r o l  systems 
s imula t ion  and f o r  a n a l y s i s  of  human performance d a t a ,  
1, EXPERIMENTAL STUDIES 
Operator Performance Three-State Relay Control  Systems 
A second experiment (65-4) fol lowing upon an earlier s tudy 
(65-1) which examined t h e  d i s t r i b u t i o n  of response times fol lowing 
pu l se  responses  with and without d i sp lay  blanking has  been completed, 
The r a t i o n a l e f o r  using t h e  d i s t r i b u t i o n  of pauses  fol lowing b r i e f  
pu l se  responses  as a measure of  feedback process ing  t i m e  i n  a th ree -  
state r e l a y  c o n t r o l  system as employed i n  Experiment 65-1 is descr ibed  
i n  t h e  progress  r e p o r t  dated June 1 0 ,  1965 covering work during t h e  
pe r iod  from 1 December 1964 t o  2 8  February 1965, 
o p e r a t o r  makes a s h o r t ,  preprogrammed pulse  response,  then it is pro- 
posed t h a t  he must use t h e  t ime following t h i s  pu l se  t o  eva lua te  t h e  
e f f e c t i v e n e s s  of t h e  response j u s t  made, I n  Experiment 65-1 t h e  r o l e  
o f  v i s u a l  information i n  determining t h e  d i s t r i b u t i o n  of  response 
t imes  fol lowing pu l ses  was explored by b r i e f l y  withholding v i s u a l  
in format ion ,  t h a t  is ,  blanking t h e  d isp lay  f o r  a b r i e f  per iod  of time 
fo l lowing  each pulse ,  
t h i s  d i s t r i b u t i o n  of responses  was sys t ema t i ca l ly  delayed by an amount 
corresponding t o  the  dehxy of  t h e  v i sua l  information.  For t h r e e  o t h e r  
s u b j e c t s  performance of '  t h e  t a s k  was s u f f i c i e n t l y  good t h a t  f e w  pu l se s  
occurred  and reliable d a t a  on these d i s t r i b u t i o n s  could no t  be obtained,  
In  b r i e f ,  i f  an 
It was found t h a t ,  f o r  one of t h e  f o u r  s u b j e c t s ,  
https://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp?R=19660005001 2020-03-16T21:23:35+00:00Z
-2- 
I n  Experiment 65-4 f u r t h e r  examination of t h i s  d i s p l a y  blank- 
i n g  methodology has  been explored, I t  was hypothesized t h a t  t h e  time 
necessary  t o  process  v i s u a l  feedback ought t o  be in f luenced  by t h e  
e x t e n t  o f  s i g n a l  p r e d i c t a b i l i t y  o r  coherence i n  t h e  stream of  s i g n a l s  
being eva lua ted ,  To test  t h i s  idea  t h e  d i s p l a y  b lanking  technique 
was again employed under two condi t ions,  
e x a c t  r e p l i c a t i o n  of s e v e r a l  of t h e  prev ious  d i s p l a y  blanking condi t ions  
bu t  employed fou r  subjects who had n o t  prev ious ly  p r a c t i c e d  t h e  r e l ay -  
c o n t r o l  t a sk .  The second condi t ion w a s  i d e n t i c a l  t o  t h e  first except  
t h a t  whenever t h e  d i s p l a y  was blanked a random increment i n  t a r g e t  
p o s i t i o n  was in t roduced ,  Thus, af ter  blanking,  t h e  t a r g e t  reappeared 
i n  a pos i t i on  which was e s s e n t i a l l y  un re l a t ed  t o  t h e  cond i t ions  p r i o r  
t o  blanking,  bu t  with t h e  o r i g i n a l  ve loc i ty .  
confirmed t h e  ear l ier  f i n d i n g  of a r e l a t i o n s h i p  between t h e  du ra t ion  o f  
d i sp l ay  blanking and t h e  d i s t r i b u t i o n  o f  response times fol lowing pu l ses  
and blanking. However, t h e  manipulation reducing s i g n a l  p r e d i c t a b i l i t y  
waz shown t o  have l i t t l e  effect  on t h e s e  response-time d i s t r i b u t i o n s ,  
I t  appeared t h a t  t h e  d i sp lay  blanking ope ra t ion  i tself  reduces t h e  
s i g n a l  p r e d i c t a b i l i t y  t o  t h e  ex ten t  t h a t  f u r t h e r  a t t empt s  t o  manipulate 
p r e d i c t a b i l i t y  do no t  f u r t h e r  lengthen t h e  processing time, 
The first cond i t ion  was an 
The d a t a  a n a l y s i s  has  
Ope rat o r  Performance With -Pred ic t ab le  Input  S igna l s  
Data a n a l y s i s  and compilation are cont inuing  i n  Experiment 
65-2, t h e  paramet r ic  s tudy  o f  sine-wave t racking .  
o f  t h i s  s tudy  t o  da t e  are given below: 
The major f i n d i n g s  
1, After long per iods  of p r a c t i c e  t r a c k i n g  s i n e  waves 
with no e x t e r n a l  system dynamics (32 hours)  performance wi th  
a compensatory d i s p l a y  approaches q u i t e  c l o s e l y  t h a t  produced 
by a p u r s u i t  d i sp l ay ,  
"successive o rgan iza t ion  of percept ion" model o f  t r a c k i n g  
performance proposed by McRuer and Krendel. 
This f i n d i n g  t ends  t o  confirm t h e  
2. By t h e  end o f  extended p r a c t i c e  t h e  effect o f  vary- 
i ng  t h e  s p r i n g  cons tan t  i n  a r e l a t i v e l y  undamped c o n t r o l l e r  
can be r e f l e c t e d  i n  t h e  d ispropor t iona te  improvement i n  t h e  
i n t e g r a t e d  e r r o r  performance a t  inpu t  f r equenc ie s  be l ieved  
t o  correspond t o  t h e  resonance of t h e  arm - c o n t r o l l e r  combi- 
na t ion .  
3, For sine-wave input  f r equenc ie s  of  .5 cps o r  below 
power s p e c t r a l  a n a l y s i s  of t h e  v e l o c i t y  e r r o r  s i g n a l  r e v e a l s  
a broad peak of  power centered a t  1.25 cps  and uncor re l a t ed  
wi th  t h e  inpu t  s i g n a l  frequency, This  broad peak of  s i g n a l  
power appears  e a r l y  i n  t r a i n i n g  and remains e s s e n t i a l l y  
unchanged throughout long per iods of  p r a c t i c e ,  
4, A t  f requencies  higher t han  1 ,5  cps,  t h e  o p e r a t o r ' s  
capac i ty  f o r  genera t ing  a s ine  wave and a t tempt ing  t o  
synchronize it with the  input  s i g n a l  i n  amplitude and phase 
is  r e f l e c t e d  i n  a r e l a t i v e l y  narrow band of  power centered  
on t h e  inpu t  frequency. 
-3- 
For t h e  power s p e c t r a l  a n a l y s i s  o f  t h e  
an analog computer was u t i l i z e d ,  The d a t a  were rLt 
v e r t e d  t o  punched ca rds  and normal iza t ion ,  s o r t i n g  
pre l iminary  d a t a  p l o t s  were obta ined  from t h e  Unive 
IBM 7090 system, In  t h e  i n t e r e s t  of improved a n a l y s i  
. 
i n  o r d e r  t o  explore  f u r t h e r  t h e  r o l e  of v i s u a l  i n p u t s  i n  
c r e a t i n g  t h e  broad peak of power uncorre la ted  wi th  t h e  i n p u t  s i g n a l  
r epor t ed  i n  item 3 ,  a second sine-wave t r ack ing  s tudy  (65-5) has been 
i n i t i a t e d ,  
a t a r g e t  which p resen t s  t h e  input  s i g n a l  p o s i t i o n  as a func t ion  o f  
time and a cu r so r  which desc r ibes  t h e  p o s i t i o n  o f  t h e  system output  as 
a func t ion  o f  time, 
information about t h e  instantaneous p o s i t i o n  o f  t h e  inpu t  s i g n a l  was 
provided, 
i npu t  s i g n a l  represented  by f i x e d  v e r t i c a l  l i n e s  on t h e  face of  t h e  
CRT, He was given information about i npu t  s i g n a l  f requency by a 
sequence o f  c l i c k s  a l t e r n a t i n g  between t h e  two ears i n  such a way t h a t  
a c l i c k  occurred whenever t h e  input  s i g n a l  had reached t h e  correspond- 
ing  amplitude peak, 
genera t ing  s i n e  waves was presented but  no information was given which 
would permit  him t o  t r a c k  t h e  input  s i g n a l  po in t  f o r  p o i n t  i n  time, It 
is  of  i n t e r e s t  t o  compare performance i n  t h i s  d i s p l a y  mode wi th  pe r fo r -  
mance i n  t h e  equ iva len t  p u r s u i t  and compensatory t a s k s  explored i n  
Experiment 65-2, 
be as e f f e c t i v e  as complete v i s u a l  information,  
i n t e r e s t  t o  examine t h e  effect of t h i s  d i s p l a y  mode on e r r o r - v e l o c i t y  
power s p e c t r a  t o  determine whether t h e  broad peak i n  power uncorre la ted  
wi th  t h e  inpu t  s i g n a l  can be a t t r i b u t e d  t o  t h e  oppor tuni ty  t o  t r a c k  
p o i n t  f o r  p o i n t  i n  time, 
In  a p u r s u i t  t r ack ing  t a s k  t h e  ope ra to r  i s  provided with 
In t h i s  s tudy only  the  cursor  was d isp layed .  No 
Ins t ead ,  t h e  s u b j e c t  was shown t h e  amplitude l i m i t s  o f  t h e  
In  t h i s  way a l l  of  t h e  requi red  information f o r  
A t  high inpu t  f r equenc ie s  t h i s  d i s p l a y  technique may 
Fur ther  it i s  o f  
Experimental t e s t i n g  has  begun f o r  t h i s  s tudy,  
Experiment 65-2 
manually, con- 
.ging, and 
of  MichiganPs 
eed,  e f f i c i e n c y  
Data c o l l e c t i o n  has  been completed i n  t h e  s tudy  descr ibed  i n  
t h e  June 10 ,  1965 p rogres s  r e p o r t  which examines t h e  a b i l i t y  t o  learn 
t o  reproduce a precisely.-specif ied movement p a t t e r n  (Experiment 65-31,, 
Data a n a l y s i s  i s  underway. 
2, DEVELOPMENT OF DATA ANALYSIS AND SIMULATION TECHNIQUES 
Rel-ay-Control Experiment-Programin& System 
The appara tus  used f o r  t h e  two- and t h r e e - s t a t e  r e l a y  c o n t r o l  
t a s k s  has  been redesigned and r e b u i l t  t o  improve f l e x i b i l i t y  and reli- 
a b i l i t y  
-4- 
P r e d i c t  i v e  Display Development 
A new t a s k  has  been i n i t i a t e d  on t h e  development and t e s t i n g  
of  analog mechanizations o f  p r e d i c t i v e  d i s p l a y  conceptso In t h e  i n i t i a l  
s t a g e s  t h i s  work w i l l  focus on t h e  development of  appropr i a t e  mechaniza- 
t i o n s  of fast-time modeling and d i s p l a y  systems which meet t h e  d e s i r e d  
accuracy requirements within the  c o n s t r a i n t s  of  analog systems, It i s  
a n t i c i p a t e d  t h a t  t h i s  w i l l  l e a d  t o  t h e  implementation of  a s p e c i f i c  
d i s p l a y  concept and then  provide t h e  oppor tuni ty  f o r  human performance 
eva lua t ion  of  some r e l a t i v e l y  bas i c  p r e d i c t i v e  d i s p l a y  v a r i a b l e s  such as 
p r e d i c t i o n  span, frequency o f  up-dating and fast-time s imula t ion  f i d e l i t y  
requirements  e 
Simulat ion Mechanization 
During t h i s  r e p o r t i n g  pe r iod  L, E ,  Fogarty jo ined  t h e  p r o j e c t  
on a half- t ime basis..  
o f  importance f o r  t h e  development o f  improved s imula t ion  technology, 
i nc lud ing  t h e  computer implementation of  f l i g h t  mechanics equat ions ,  
D r .  Fogarty w i l l  be concerned mainly wi th  problems 
Work has  been s t a r t e d  on two important s imula t ion  problems: 
1, Computer methods of genera t ing  a r b i t a r y  func t ions  o f  
s e v e r a l  va r i ab le s ,  
2, An improved method of so lv ing  t h e  o r b i t a l  f l i g h t  
equat ions ,  
The first s u b j e c t  i s  of g r e a t  importance f o r  s imula t ing  t h e  
motion o f  v e h i c l e s  i n  t h e  atmosphere, Aerodynamic c o e f f i c i e n t s  commonly 
are func t ions  o f  Mach number and veh ic l e  a t t i t u d e ,  These func t ions  must 
be s t o r e d  i n  t h e  s imula to r  computer, and f r equen t ly  use up a l a r g e  
p o r t i o n  o f  t h e  computer capac i ty ,  
means o f  reducing r equ i r ed  s torage  capac i ty  by a s u b s t a n t i a l  amountd 
S e r i e s  expansion methods o f f e r  a 
A r e p o r t  on the  subjec t  of  func t ion  genera t ion  was presented  
a t  she  Midwestern Simulation Council Meeting on September 27,  1965, A 
paper  i s  i n  p repa ra t ion ,  
An i n v e s t i g a t i o n  of an improved method of  so lv ing  o r b i t a l  
f l i g h t  equat ions  is underway. This  work i s  aimed a t  extending t h e  method 
r epor t ed  by Fogarty and Howe at t h e  Liege Conference on Con u t a t i o n  i n  
Aeronaut ics  i n  1963, 
s t r a i n i n g  computer s o l u t i o n  of the o r b i t a l  f l i g h t  equa t ions  t o  agree with 
I t  is  hoped t h a t  a method can be dev i se  --%-=-- f o r  con- 
t h e  method of v a r i a t i o n  of parameterso 
s u b s t a n t i a l  ga in  i n  comput;:irion e f f i c i e n c y  over  CowellO s o r  Enckess 
methods should be r e a l i z e d ,  The l a t t e r  two methods are widely used-for 
example, Encke*s method is used i n  t h e  on boardApoll0 Guidance Computer, 
If t h i s  can be accomplished, a 
3, RELATED ACTIVITIES 
In  J u l y  Drs, Fogarty,  Howe, and Pew v i s i t e d  Mr5 Winblade i n  
Washington t o  d i scuss  p l ans  f o r  program expansion and i n  August Mr, 
Winblade v i s i t e d  p r o j e c t  f a c i l i t i e s  i n  Ann Arbor, 
D r -  r’ew represented  t h e  p r o j e c t  a t  a one day symposiun; 
sponsored by NASA E l e c t r o n i c s  Research Center,  Cambridge, Massachusetts 
on August 27, 1965, 
Personnel  
During t h i s  r e p o r t i n g  p e r i o d  t h e  fol lowing personnel  have 
charged time t o  t h e  s u b j e c t  c o n t r a c t ,  
R, M- Howe 
L, E,  Fogarty 
R, W, Pew 
J. Duffendack 
J, F r a i t  
R, Gilson 
J, Herzog 
Lo Kipl inger  
R, Rapley 
M. Rash 
M, Robb 
R, Zauel 
Frac t ion  o f  -
c 1 0  
50 
c 75 
1000 
1 ,oo  
1 , o o  
1 , o o  
1 - 0 0  
e 5 0  
0 1 0  
50  
25 
Time  -
Mr, John Warner i s  p a r t i c i p a t i n g  i n  t h e  work of t h e  program 
w i t h  NASA fe l lowship  suppor t ,  
S i n c e r e l y  yours ,  
Robert M, Howe 
Information and Control  
Department of Aerospace 
Engineering Program 
Engineering 
Richard W, Pew 
Human Performance Center 
Department of Psychology 
Co-Principal I n v e s t i g a t o r s  
RWP/mr 


Development of on-line man-machine system performance measurement and display techniques Letter progress report, Jun. 1 - Aug. 31, 1965

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