Noise Effects on Human Performance Szalma, James L; Hancock, Peter A
Psychological bulletin,
07/2011, Volume:
137, Issue:
4
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
Noise is a pervasive and influential source of stress. Whether through the acute effects of impulse noise or the chronic influence of prolonged exposure, the challenge of noise confronts many who ...must accomplish vital performance duties in its presence. Although noise has diffuse effects, which are shared in common with many other chronic forms of stress, it also exerts its own specific influences on various forms of cognitive and motor response. We present a quantitative evaluation of these influences so that their harmful effects can be mitigated, their beneficial effects exploited, and any residual effects incorporated and synthesized into selection, training, and design strategies to facilitate human performance capacities. Predictions of single and joint moderator effects were made on the basis of major theories of noise and performance, specifically those explanations based on arousal, masking, or cognitive-resource mechanisms. These predictions were tested through moderator analyses of effects as a function of task type, performance measure, noise type and schedule, and the intensity and duration of exposure. Observed outcome effects (797 effect sizes derived from 242 studies) varied as a function of each of these moderators. Collective findings identified continuous versus intermittent noise, noise type, and type of task as the major distinguishing characteristics that moderated response. Mixed evidence was obtained for the traditional arousal and masking explanations for noise effects. The overall pattern of findings was most consistent with the maximal adaptability theory, a mental-resource-based explanation of stress and performance variation.
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Objective:
Motivation is a driving force in human–technology interaction. This paper represents an effort to (a) describe a theoretical model of motivation in human technology interaction, (b) ...provide design principles and guidelines based on this theory, and (c) describe a sequence of steps for the evaluation of motivational factors in human–technology interaction.
Background:
Motivation theory has been relatively neglected in human factors/ergonomics (HF/E). In both research and practice, the (implicit) assumption has been that the operator is already motivated or that motivation is an organizational concern and beyond the purview of HF/E. However, technology can induce task-related boredom (e.g., automation) that can be stressful and also increase system vulnerability to performance failures.
Method:
A theoretical model of motivation in human–technology interaction is proposed, based on extension of the self-determination theory of motivation to HF/E. This model provides the basis for both future research and for development of practical recommendations for design.
Results:
General principles and guidelines for motivational design are described as well as a sequence of steps for the design process.
Conclusion:
Human motivation is an important concern for HF/E research and practice. Procedures in the design of both simple and complex technologies can, and should, include the evaluation of motivational characteristics of the task, interface, or system. In addition, researchers should investigate these factors in specific human–technology domains.
Application:
The theory, principles, and guidelines described here can be incorporated into existing techniques for task analysis and for interface and system design.
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Objective:
We used meta-analysis to assess research concerning human trust in automation to understand the foundation upon which future autonomous systems can be built.
Background:
Trust is ...increasingly important in the growing need for synergistic human–machine teaming. Thus, we expand on our previous meta-analytic foundation in the field of human–robot interaction to include all of automation interaction.
Method:
We used meta-analysis to assess trust in automation. Thirty studies provided 164 pairwise effect sizes, and 16 studies provided 63 correlational effect sizes.
Results:
The overall effect size of all factors on trust development was ḡ = +0.48, and the correlational effect was
r
¯
= +0.34, each of which represented medium effects. Moderator effects were observed for the human-related (ḡ = +0.49;
r
¯
= +0.16) and automation-related (ḡ = +0.53;
r
¯
= +0.41) factors. Moderator effects specific to environmental factors proved insufficient in number to calculate at this time.
Conclusion:
Findings provide a quantitative representation of factors influencing the development of trust in automation as well as identify additional areas of needed empirical research.
Application:
This work has important implications to the enhancement of current and future human–automation interaction, especially in high-risk or extreme performance environments.
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Objective
The objectives of this meta-analysis are to explore the presently available empirical findings on the antecedents of trust in robots and use this information to expand upon a previous ...meta-analytic review of the area.
Background
Human–robot interaction (HRI) represents an increasingly important dimension of our everyday existence. Currently, the most important element of these interactions is proposed to be whether the human trusts the robot or not. We have identified three overarching categories that exert effects on the expression of trust. These consist of factors associated with (a) the human, (b) the robot, and (c) the context in which any specific HRI event occurs.
Method
The current body of literature was examined and all qualifying articles pertaining to trust in robots were included in the meta-analysis. A previous meta-analysis on HRI trust was used as the basis for this extended, updated, and evolving analysis.
Results
Multiple additional factors, which have now been demonstrated to significantly influence trust, were identified. The present results, expressed as points of difference and points of commonality between the current and previous analyses, are identified, explained, and cast in the setting of the emerging wave of HRI.
Conclusion
The present meta-analysis expands upon previous work and validates the overarching categories of trust antecedent (human-related, robot-related, and contextual), as well as identifying the significant individual precursors to trust within each category. A new and updated model of these complex interactions is offered.
Application
The identified trust factors can be used in order to promote appropriate levels of trust in robots.
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Vigilance is the ability of an observer to maintain attention for extended periods of time; however, performance tends to decline with time on watch, a pattern referred to as the vigilance decrement. ...Previous research has focused on factors that attenuate the decrement; however, one factor rarely studied is the effect of social facilitation. The purpose for the present investigation was to determine how different types of social presence affected the performance, workload and stress of vigilance. It was hypothesised that the presence of a supervisory figure would increase overall performance, but may occur at the cost of increased workload and stress. Results indicated that the per cent of false alarm and response times decreased in the presence of a supervisory figure. Using social facilitation in vigilance tasks may thus have positive, as well as, negative effects depending on the dependent measure of interest and the role of the observer.
Practitioner Summary: Social facilitation has rarely been examined in the context of vigilance, even though it may improve performance. Vigilance task performance was examined under social presence. The results of the present study indicated that false alarms and response times decreased in the social presence of a supervisory figure, thus improving performance.
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BFBNIB, GIS, IJS, KISLJ, NUK, PNG, UL, UM, UPUK
In forty years, human existence will be radically transformed by advances in information technology, including Artificial Intelligence, robots capable of social agency, and other autonomous physical ...and virtual systems. Future personality research must assess, understand, and apply individual differences in adaptation to these novel challenges. This review article discusses directions for future personality research. Cross-cultural research provides a model, in that both universal traits and those specific to future society are needed. Evolution of major “etic” trait models of today will maintain their relevance. There is also scope for defining a range of new “emic” dimensions for constructs such as trust in autonomy, mental models for robots, anthropomorphism of technology, and preferences for communication with machines. A more revolutionary perspective is that availability of big data on the individual will revive idiographic perspectives. Both nomothetic and idiographic accounts of personality may support applications such as design of intelligent systems and products that adapt to the individual.
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GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UILJ, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK, ZAGLJ, ZRSKP
Trust exerts an impact on essentially all forms of social relationships. It affects individuals in deciding whether and how they will or will not interact with other people. Equally, trust also ...influences the stance of entire nations in their mutual dealings. In consequence, understanding the factors that influence the decision to trust, or not to trust, is crucial to the full spectrum of social dealings. Here, we report the most comprehensive extant meta-analysis of experimental findings relating to such human-to-human trust. Our analysis provides a quantitative evaluation of the factors that influence interpersonal trust, the initial propensity to trust, as well as an assessment of the general trusting of others. Over 2,000 relevant studies were initially identified for potential inclusion in the meta-analysis. Of these, (
= 338) passed all screening criteria and provided therefrom a total of (
= 2,185) effect sizes for analysis. The identified dependent variables were trustworthiness, propensity to trust, general trust, and the trust that supervisors and subordinates express in each other. Correlational results demonstrated that a large range of trustor, trustee, and shared, contextual factors impact each of trustworthiness, the propensity to trust, and trust within working relationships. The emphasis in the present work on contextual factors being one of several trust dimensions herein originated. Experimental results established that the reputation of the trustee and the shared closeness of trustor and trustee were the most predictive factors of trustworthiness outcome. From these collective findings, we propose an elaborated, overarching descriptive theory of trust in which special note is taken of the theory's application to the growing human need to trust in non-human entities. The latter include diverse forms of automation, robots, artificially intelligent entities, as well as specific implementations such as driverless vehicles to name but a few. Future directions as to the momentary dynamics of trust development, its sustenance and its dissipation are also evaluated.
Electronic Performance Monitoring, or EPM, has been described as the use of electronic systems to monitor and evaluate performance. Research on the effects of EPM has indicated that electronic ...monitoring may improve employee productivity and performance. However, most of the prior research has utilized computer-based electronic presence to examine the effects of EPM on short-duration, clerical-based tasks. Relatively little is known about how EPM can affect longer-duration sustained attention tasks, like vigilance. The present study was comprised of two experiments that sought to examine the effects of EPM on sustained attention and to provide further evidence that video-based monitoring can be an effective form of EPM. A total of 197 participants (106 in experiment one and 91 in experiment two) completed a 24-minute cognitive-based vigilance task. The results indicated that not only could EPM improve sustained attention, but also that video-based electronic presence was an effective implementation of EPM. However, the results also indicated that the most robust performance effects were associated with employing two forms of video-based electronic presence simultaneously rather than individually. Theoretical implications and practical applications are further discussed.
•EPM has been used in numerous organizations to monitor and evaluate employees.•This article describes two studies that examine the effects of EPM on vigilance.•The results demonstrated that EPM could improve detection performance in vigilance.•This implies that electronic presence can facilitate sustained attention.•Future work should replicate these results in organizational contexts.
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GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UILJ, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK, ZAGLJ, ZRSKP
Objective: Quantify the effect of thermal stressors on human performance. Background: Most reviews of the effect of environmental stressors on human performance are qualitative. A quantitative review ...provides a stronger aid in advancing theory and practice. Method: Meta-analytic methods were applied to the available literature on thermal stressors and performance. A total of 291 references were collected. Forty-nine publications met the selection criteria, providing 528 effect sizes for analysis. Results: Analyses confirmed a substantial negative effect on performance associated with thermal stressors. The overall effect size for heat was comparable to that for cold. Cognitive performance was least affected by thermal stressors, whereas both psychomotor and perceptual task performance were degraded to a greater degree. Other variables were identified that moderated thermal effects. Conclusion: Results confirmed the importance of task type, exposure duration, and stressor intensity as key variables impacting how thermal conditions affect performance. Results were consistent with the theory that stress forces the individual to allocate attentional resources to appraise and cope with the threat, which reduces the capacity to process task-relevant information. This represents a maladaptive extension of the narrowing strategy, which acts to maintain stable levels of response when stress is first encountered. Application: These quantitative estimates can be used to design thermal tolerance limits for different task types. Although results indicate the necessity for further research on a variety of potentially influential factors such as acclimatization, the current summary provides effect size estimates that should be useful in respect to protecting individuals exposed to adverse thermal conditions.
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This study
examined the relationship of operator personality (Five Factor Model) and
characteristics of the task and of adaptive automation (reliability and
adaptiveness-whether the automation was ...well-matched to changes in task
demand) to operator performance, workload, stress, and coping. This represents
the first investigation of how the Five Factors relate to human response to
automation. One-hundred-sixty-one college students experienced either 75% or 95%
reliable automation provided with task loads of either two or four displays to
be monitored. The task required threat detection in a simulated uninhabited
ground vehicle (UGV) task. Task demand exerted the strongest influence on
outcome variables. Automation characteristics did not directly impact workload
or stress, but effects did emerge in the context of trait-task interactions that
varied as a function of the dimension of workload and stress. The pattern of
relationships of traits to dependent variables was generally moderated by at
least one task factor. Neuroticism was related to poorer performance in some
conditions, and all five traits were associated with at least one measure of
workload and stress. Neuroticism generally predicted increased workload and
stress and the other traits predicted decreased levels of these states. However,
in the case of the relation of Extraversion and Agreeableness to Worry,
Frustration, and avoidant coping, the direction of effects varied across task
conditions. The results support incorporation of individual differences into
automation design by identifying the relevant person characteristics and using
the information to determine what functions to automate and the form and level
of automation.
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