The Sandia National Laboratories Human Factors team designed and executed an experiment to quantify the differences between 2D and 3D reference materials with respect to task performance and cognitive workload. A between-subjects design was used where 27 participants were randomly assigned either 2D or 3D reference material condition (14 and 13 participants, respectively). The experimental tasks required participants to interpret, locate, and report dimensions on their assigned reference material. Performance was measured by accuracy of task completion and time-to-complete. After all experimental tasks were completed, cognitive workload data were collected. Response times were longer in the 3D condition vice the 2D. However, no differences were found between conditions with respect to response accuracy and cognitive workload, which may indicate no negative cognitive impacts concerning the sole use of 3D reference materials in the work-place. This paper concludes with possible future efforts to address the limitations of this experiment and to explore the mechanisms behind the findings of this work.
Dynamic modeling and simulation will be used to provide an understanding of the interactions between various complex systems. This dynamic model is based on an enterprise architecture framework whereby complex, dynamic and non-linear interactions, particularly those involving the human, can be understood and analyzed. Our modeling approach will include a synthesis of top-down and bottom-up strategies. The top-down portion will analyze high-level, mandated guidance and trace its tenants down to individually identifiable activities at the worker-level. We will then model these activities through the provision of a discrete event task model emphasizing research-based human performance and cognitive workload principles (bottom-up). These principles are based on accepted theories of the interaction between cognitive workload and human error. Synthesizing these two approaches will demonstrate both the impact and effect of high-level mandated activities and aid analysts in their understanding of how, why and when these impacts help or possibly hinder humans at the worker level. Benefits of using this model, namely the ability to predict “what if” scenarios in real time will be discussed. The model will be tested across multiple domains to demonstrate the potential modeling approach and its application in future hazard analyses.
Today’s international nuclear safeguards inspectors have access to an increasing volume of supplemental information about the facilities under their purview, including commercial satellite imagery, nuclear trade data, open source information, and results from previous safeguards activities. In addition to completing traditional in-field safeguards activities, inspectors are now responsible for being able to act upon this growing corpus of supplemental safeguards-relevant data and for maintaining situational awareness of unusual activities taking place in their environment. However, cognitive science research suggests that maintaining too much information can be detrimental to a user’s understanding, and externalizing information (for example, to a mobile device) to reduce cognitive burden can decrease cognitive function related to memory, navigation, and attention. Given this dichotomy, how can international nuclear safeguards inspectors better synthesize information to enhance situational awareness, decision making, and performance in the field? This paper examines literature from the fields of cognitive science and human factors in the areas of wayfinding, situational awareness, equipment and technical assistance, and knowledge transfer, and describes the implications for the provision of, and interaction with, safeguards-relevant information for international nuclear safeguards inspectors working in the field.
In many settings, multi-tasking and interruption are commonplace. Multi-tasking has been a popular subject of recent research, but a multitasking paradigm normally allows the subject some control over the timing of the task switch. In this paper we focus on interruptions—situations in which the subject has no control over the timing of task switches. We consider three types of task: verbal (reading comprehension), visual search, and monitoring/situation awareness. Using interruptions from 30 s to 2 min in duration, we found a significant effect in each case, but with different effect sizes. For the situation awareness task, we experimented with interruptions of varying duration and found a non-linear relation between the duration of the interruption and its after-effect on performance, which may correspond to a task-dependent interruption threshold, which is lower for more dynamic tasks.