1,721,260 research outputs found
Exploring the psychological factors involved in the Ladbroke Grove rail accident
Full text linkTen years after the event and the question as to exactly why a driver passed a signal at danger to cause the Ladbroke Grove rail disaster is still an open one. This paper uses the literature on human error and cognition, combined with critical path analysis, to provide further insight. Five aspects of train operation are drawn out of the known facts surrounding the incident: custom and practice in the use of the Driver's Reminder Appliance, operation and use of the Automatic Warning System, the sequence of signalling information, methods of supplying route information, and speed restrictions. Associated with each are several important human factors issues which, combined, give rise to five potential explanations. Critical path analysis is used to map these explanations onto the known facts of the situation. It is suggested that the proximal cause of the Ladbroke Grove rail crash was a combination of an association–activation error and a mode error (leading the driver to mistakenly assume he had activated the Reminder Appliance) together with a loss-of-activation error (the driver failing to remember that a previous signal was showing caution) and a data-driven-activation error (by associating an in-cab warning to the wrong external source). The findings support the original inquiry recommendations, but also go further into predictive methods of detecting problems at the human/transport system interfac
Feedback and driver situation awareness (SA): A comparison of SA measures and contexts
No full textThe dominant technological trajectory in vehicle design brings with it similarly dominant driver performance issues in regard to vehicle feedback and driver situational awareness (SA). Three experiments are reported in this paper that describe not only the effects on driver SA of manipulations of vehicle feedback but also illuminate issues concerned with SA measurement methods and contexts. The findings suggest that current trends in vehicle design may contribute little towards a driver's SA and, in fact, may actually show a generalized trend towards decreasing it. The efficacy of verbal protocol and probe recall SA measurement techniques is noted in terms of observing this effect. On the other hand, a concerning dissociation occurred with findings from a self-report measure of SA. Drivers appear to show a concerning lack of self-awareness of their SA and, indeed, any shortfall in it. (C) 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.</p
Self explaining roads and situation awareness
No full textThis paper places theories of SA into contact with the issue of Self Explaining Roads. Twelve drivers took part in an on-road study and performed a verbal commentary as they drove around a defined test route. The verbal transcripts were partitioned into six road types, and driver SA was modeled using semantic networks. The content and structure of these networks was analysed and cognitively salient endemic road features were extracted. These were then compared with aspects of driver behaviour. The findings highlight the systemic nature of the driver–vehicle–road interaction, and show that SA is highly contingent on road type. The findings also reveal that motorways/freeways are the most cognitively compatible road type and that incompatibilities grow rapidly as road types become increasingly minor and less overtly ‘designed’. The paper is exploratory in nature but succeeds in innovating a theoretically robust means of examining road environments under naturalistic conditions. It also succeeds in providing numerous insights and hypotheses for a developing program of work
Moving on from 'patient dependency' and 'nursing workload' to managing risk in critical care
No full textThe contribution nurses make to the management of critically ill patients is usually appraised through the use of concepts such as ‘patient dependency’ or ‘nursing workload’. These concepts fail to address the knowledge, skills and experience of nurses and consequently fail to acknowledge the risk presented by critically ill patients. This paper describes the development of a tool that attempts to measure risk and the process of risk management undertaken by nurses who coordinate the shifts and lead the nursing team. The results of this pilot study indicated that the tool was valid, but reliability has not yet been demonstrated. Thus the tool requires further refinement and testing. We chose to publish at this time because we feel the paper offers a new way of examining the contribution of nurses working in critical care
Easy rider meets knight rider: an on-road exploratory study of situation awareness in car drivers and motorcyclists
No full textA comparison of two very different vehicle designs, cars and motorcycles, allows the effect of vehicle feedback on driver/rider Situation Awareness (SA) to be analysed in an ecologically valid on-road setting. The findings justify this comparison and reveal that the structure, quantity and type of SA is different for car drivers compared to motorcyclists. In addition, the differences in the structure of SA are suggestive of some behavioural incompatibility in which certain aspects of SA may be appropriate to car driving but not motorcycling. An analysis of effect sizes within this exploratory study is suggestive of further areas for targeted research
The ironies of vehicle feedback in car design
No full textCar drivers show an acute sensitivity towards vehicle feedback, with most normal drivers able to detect 'the difference in vehicle feel of a medium-size saloon car with and without a fairly heavy passenger in the rear seat' (Joy and Hartley 1953–54). The irony is that this level of sensitivity stands in contrast to the significant changes in vehicle 'feel' accompanying modern trends in automotive design, such as drive-by-wire and increased automation. The aim of this paper is to move the debate from the anecdotal to the scientific level. This is achieved by using the Brunel University driving simulator to replicate some of these trends and changes by presenting (or removing) different forms of non-visual vehicle feedback, and measuring resultant driver situational awareness (SA) using a probe-recall method. The findings confirm that vehicle feedback plays a key role in coupling the driver to the dynamics of their environment (Moray 2004), with the role of auditory feedback particularly prominent. As a contrast, drivers in the study also rated their self-perceived levels of SA and a concerning dissociation occurred between the two sets of results. Despite the large changes in vehicle feedback presented in the simulator, and the measured changes in SA, drivers appeared to have little self-awareness of these changes. Most worryingly, drivers demonstrated little awareness of diminished SA. The issues surrounding vehicle feedback are therefore similar to the classic problems and ironies studied in aviation and automation, and highlight the role that ergonomics can also play within the domain of contemporary vehicle design
An on-road investigation of vehicle feedback and its role in driver cognition: implications for cognitive ergonomics
No full textA proposed feedback model of driving implicates vehicle feedback as an important variable affecting driver cognition. This naturalistic study employs an on-road paradigm to begin investigating the effects of vehicle feedback on drivers. Whilst performing a specially designed concurrent verbal protocol, 12 drivers drove their own cars around a predetermined 14 mile test route. This was designed to elicit the information that drivers were gaining from the environment and the vehicle, and how this information was being put to use. Prerun questionnaire measures featured driving style and locus of control, whereas postrun measures included self-assessment of mental workload and situational awareness. The vehicles were divided into 2 groups contingent upon their mechanical and engineering specifications into high and low vehicle feedback status, anecdotally, driver's cars versus average cars. A content analysis showed key differences in driver cognition contingent upon the vehicles feedback status. High-feedback vehicles are related to better situational awareness for drivers, coupled with lower workload. Drivers of low-feedback cars used their vehicle's instruments more often (despite having less of them), and it appears overall from self-assessment of situational awareness that drivers are not particularly aware of their own levels of Situational Awareness (SA), or indeed, any shortfall in it. These findings all correspond to feedback model predictions, and suggest a fruitful avenue for further simulator-based researc
What's happened to car design? An exploratory study into the effect of 15 years of progress on driver situation awareness
No full textVehicle feedback includes steering feel, engine noise and most other aspects of what the driver can perceive through their normal interaction with the vehicle. Ten car drivers took part in an on-road study to explore the relationship between vehicle feedback and the concept of driver situational awareness (SA). It was shown that drivers of older generation vehicles with higher levels of vehicle feedback have statistically better SA than drivers of modern vehicles. The results are considered important from a primary safety viewpoint as poor SA is reported to be a greater cause of accidents than improper speed or driving technique
Using CWA to Understand and Enhance Infrastructure Resilience
No full textA nation’s critical infrastructure needs to be able to withstand disturbances as they happen, and bounce back afterward. Most nations have the equivalent of a National Risk Register (e.g. Cabinet Office, 2013). In the United Kingdom it presents a range of civil emergencies with a greater than 1 in 20 chance of occurring in the next 5 years, and with the potential to yield impacts ranging from social disruption and economic harm through to widespread illness and fatalities. Flooding is a prime example (p. 10). The ability of daily life to continue in the face of disturbances like this does not depend on a single engineering solution, rather, on the ability of organisations, infrastructures and individuals to anticipate the changing shape of risk before failures and harm occur, then to respond in effective ways when it does. This chapter describes how the latest research on flood vulnerability was put in touch with CWA, specifically the first phase (work domain analysis/abstraction hierarchy [AH]), enabling this wider view to be captured explicitly. Several real towns were modelled and subject to a simulated 1 in 200 year flood event. The method shows how critical functions and processes at higher levels of system abstraction are progressively degraded as individual ‘physical objects’, and at low levels of abstraction, are knocked out. In addition, network metrics are extracted from the AH to enable each town to be characterised in terms of its vulnerability and positioned in a universal ‘vulnerability space’. Solutions for improving resilience vary depending on what region of the space is occupied, and the method can be deployed to determine this for any town in any region of the world
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