NOTICE: The project that is the subject of this report was approved by the Governing Board of the National Research Council, whose members are drawn from the councils of the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering, and the Institute of Medicine. The members of the committee responsible for the report were chosen for their special competences and with regard for appropriate balance.
This report has been reviewed by a group other than the authors according to procedures approved by a Report Review Committee consisting of members of the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering, and the Institute of Medicine.
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The Committee on Human Factors is sponsored jointly by the Air Force Office of Scientific Research, the Army Research Institute for the Behavioral and Social Sciences, the Office of Naval Research, and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.
This work relates to the Department of the Navy contract N00014–81-C-0017 issued by the Office of Naval Research, and no official endorsement should be inferred.
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COMMITTEE ON HUMAN FACTORS
Richard W.Pew (Chair),
Information Sciences Division,
Bolt Beranek & Newman,
Cambridge, Massachusetts
Nancy S.Anderson,
Department of Psychology, University of Maryland
Alphonse Chapanis,
Department of Psychology, Johns Hopkins University
Baruch Fischhoff,
Decision Research, a branch of Perceptronics Inc., Eugene, Oregon
Irwin L.Goldstein,
Department of Psychology, University of Maryland
K.H.Eberhard Kroemer,
Industrial Engineering and Operations Research Department, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University
Herschel W.Leibowitz,
Department of Psychology, Pennsylvania State University
J.C.R.Licklider,
Department of Computer Science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Charles B.Perrow,
Institution for Social and Policy Studies, Yale University
Michael Posner,
Department of Psychology, University of Oregon (resigned April 1982)
Thomas B.Sheridan,
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Jerome E.Singer,
Department of Medical Psychology, Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences
J.E.Keith Smith,
Human Performance Center, University of Michigan (resigned October 1982)
Robert T.Hennessy, Study Director
Karen English, Administrative Secretary
Jeanne Richards, Administrative Secretary
PREFACE
The Committee on Human Factors was established in October 1980 under the joint sponsorship of the Office of Naval Research (ONR), the Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR), and the Army Research Institute for the Behavioral and Social Sciences (ARI) to identify basic research needs of the military services in support of human factors engineering applications and to make recommendations for basic research that will improve the foundations of this discipline. The committee’s first meeting was held in December 1980; in October 1981 the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) joined the sponsors of the committee; and several other government agencies have expressed interest in the committee’s work.
Human factors issues arise in every domain in which humans interact with the products of a technological society. Consequently, the knowledge brought to bear in human factors applications must be drawn from a wide range of scientific and engineering disciplines. Although no small group can be fully representative of all disciplines relevant to human factors, the expertise represented on the committee is quite broad. It includes specialists from the fields of engineering, biomechanics, psychology, cognitive science, and sociology as well as from human factors engineering. While other disciplines may be relevant, it is these that are expected to contribute most substantially to the basic data, theory, and methods needed to improve the scientific basis of human factors.
I wish to thank each member of the committee for their thoughtful contributions to this report. Individual members or small groups of members accepted primary responsibility for authoring each chapter. This authorship is
acknowledged in the note at the beginning of each chapter. All committee members, whether they were authors or not, deliberated, reviewed, and contributed to improvements in the content of each chapter. I am especially grateful to them for their generous contribution of time, both in meetings and outside. Their efforts have contributed greatly to the quality of this report, which is truly a product of the full committee. Special thanks are due to the study director, Robert T.Hennessy, who contributed both technically and administratively to every step in the report’s development. In addition, he has taken the kind of initiatives that made it possible for me to chair the committee with minimum effort and maximum reward.
Martin A.Tolcott and Gerald S.Malecki of the Office of Naval Research, Alfred R.Fregly of the Air Force Office of Scientific Research, Robert M.Sasmor of the Army Research Institute, and Melvin D.Montemerlo of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, representatives of the committee’s sponsors, have also made important contributions. Their support, encouragement, and identification of relevant issues have been most helpful.
I am grateful also to the participants in our workshop on applied methods: Stuart K.Card, David Meister, Donald L.Parks, Erich P.Prien, and John B.Shafer. Their broad understanding of applied methods and their cogent appraisal of the issues and needs in this area formed the basis for Chapter 7 of this report.
Several people were helpful to the committee in specific ways. At Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Kenneth R.Boff organized a series of briefings by personnel from the Air Force Aerospace Medical Research Laboratory and the Air Force Human Resources Laboratory as well as tours of several of their research facilities. During the committee’s visit to the Naval Training Equipment Center, Walter S.Chambers and Stanley C. Collyer arranged for presentations by members of the Human Factors Laboratory and briefed the committee on the research uses of the visual technology research simulator as well as demonstrating this device. I extend my appreciation to these individuals and organizations for their efforts on the committee’s behalf.
Many other individuals also have contributed to the work of the committee and thereby to the contents of this report. A number of human factors professionals provided thoughtful and detailed responses to a survey on research issues. Others served as outside reviewers of particular
chapters. Karen A.English and M.Jeanne Richards have served ably and conscientiously as administrative secretaries over the course of the committee’s history. Christine L.McShane, editor for the Commission on Behavioral and Social Sciences and Education, through skill and perseverance greatly improved the style and clarity of this report. To all these individuals I express my sincere thanks for their significant contributions.
The committee’s work is ongoing. This is the first in what is expected to be a continuing series of reports on issues in human factors research. I invite the reader’s comments and reactions to this and future reports.
Richard W.Pew, Chair
Committee on Human Factors