Simulation and experimental studies of operators` decision styles and crew composition while using an ecological and traditional user interface for the control room of a nuclear power plant
- Univ. of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA (United States)
A traditional human factors (i.e., microergonomic) approach to complex human-machine systems is only concerned with improving the workstation (user interface) design. This approach, by ignoring the importance of the integration of the user interface with job and organizational design, results in systems which lead, at best, only to sub-optimization and are therefore inherently error- and failure-prone. Such systems, when eventually faced with the concentration of certain fault events, will suffer from this {open_quotes}resident pathogen{close_quotes} and, as such, are doomed to failure. Also, when complex technological systems, such as nuclear power plants, move from routine to non-routine (normal to emergency) operation, the controlling operators need to dynamically match the system`s new requirements. This mandates integrated and harmonious changes in information presentation (display), changes in (job) performance requirements in part because of operators` inevitable involuntary transition to different levels of cognitive control, and reconfigurations of the operators` team (organizational) structure and communication. It is also demonstrated that the skill, rule, and knowledge (SRK) model, developed by Rasmussen, is a high-potential and powerful framework that could be utilized for the proposed integration purpose. The objective of this research was threefold: (1) using the SRK model, to develop an integrated information processing conceptual framework (for integration of workstation, job, and team design); (2) to evaluate the user interface component of this framework -- the ecological display; and (3) to analyze the effect of operators` individual information processing behavior and decision styles on handling plant disturbances, on their performance and preference for traditional and ecological user interfaces.
- Research Organization:
- US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), Washington, DC (United States). Office of Nuclear Regulatory Research
- OSTI ID:
- 54602
- Report Number(s):
- NUREG/CP-0139; CONF-9410216-; ON: TI95001469; TRN: 95:012636
- Resource Relation:
- Conference: 22. water reactor safety information meeting, Bethesda, MD (United States), 24-26 Oct 1994; Other Information: PBD: Oct 1994; Related Information: Is Part Of Transactions of the twenty-second water reactor safety information meeting; PB: 129 p.
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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