Human Factors Research and Nuclear Safety (1988) / Chapter Skim
Currently Skimming:
4. Human-System Interface Design
4. Human-System Interface Design
Pages 46-57
The Chapter Skim interface presents what we've algorithmically identified as the most significant single chunk of text within every page in the chapter.
Select key terms on the right to highlight them within pages of the chapter.
From page 46... ...
A successful research program on human-system interaction should help reduce the probability of human error due to poor design of human-computer interfaces, decision aids, and automation. It should also support the further upgrading of control room design begun with the control room design reviews.
|
From page 47... ...
Although this research is generally applicable to nuclear power plants, it is not a higher-priority need because factors affecting legibility and accessibility are generally well-known and practical guidance is available (e.g., NUREG/CR-4617, 1987e; NUREG/CR-4227, 1985e)
|
From page 48... ...
. In many cases in the history of human-machine systems (especially nuclear power)
|
From page 49... ...
It is important that the nuclear industry foster and track progress in this area; otherwise this research may be driven by other applications that are not general~zable to the nuclear power plant context. Most deSigD guidelines for display are oriented toward dialog applications, such as text editing or data base retrieval, and not to real-time graphic display of data.
|
From page 50... ...
Second, new opportunities will exist for aiding and automation afforded by new technologies, such as the opportunities for decision aiding and automation afforded by artificial intelligence techniques and expert systems. Research Recommendations Innovations are currently under development in several areas that will challenge the NRC's and the industry's ability to deal with issues surrounding new computer-based support shy tems.
|
From page 51... ...
Several new kinds of computer-based alarm systems or alarm system supplements have been designed, and several utilities have expressed interest in alarm system upgrades. Several projects are ongoing to develop support systems based on artificial intelligence for nuclear power plant personnel.
|
From page 52... ...
Some examples of the unintended and unforeseen negative consequences that have followed from purely technologically driven deployment of new automation capabilities are summarized below: Shifts from manual to supervisory control in process control in which productivity actually fell from previous levels when there was a failure to support the new supervisory control demancis (British Steel Corporation, 1976~; Automation-related disasters in aviation (e.g., Wiener, 1985a) ; The shift in power plant control rooms from tile annunciator alarm systems to computer-based alarm systems that eventually failed and forced a return to the older technology, because strategies to meet the cognitive demands of fault management that were implicitly supported by
|
From page 53... ...
; Shifts from paper-based procedures to computerized procedures that have also failed due to disorientation problems, because of the failure to anticipate the cognitive implications of technological changes for human problem-solving (Elm and Woods, 1985~. Automation may make significant improvement possible, but it is not always beneficial.
|
From page 54... ...
Such a concept has profound implications for the course of future automation and decision support in nuclear power plants. Numerous attempts have been made in recent years to improve plant operating procedures, particularly emergency operating procedures (EOPs)
|
From page 55... ...
Research should concentrate on the validation and assessment of such systems, leaving their developments to industry. Meeting this research challenge is one example in which access for researchers to nuclear power plant facilities and personnel ~ critical.
|
From page 56... ...
A typical current estimate of the best human performance in computer programming is 3 programming errors per 1,000 lines of code; this is comparable to error rates in many other human tasks. While many of the errors in software development may not be critical, this error estimate suggests that for the software-intensive systems of the future, which can be expected to contain hundreds of thousands of lines of code, software errors will be a major problem unless the rate of programming errors is reduced.
|
From page 57... ...
57 Some requirements and guidelines for incorporating human factors concerns into software development can be developed quickly. However, other requirements and guidelines cannot be developed without further advances being made in software psychology.
|
Key Terms
This material may be derived from roughly machine-read images, and so is provided only to facilitate research.
More
information on Chapter Skim is available.