General Course Information
HUMAN FACTORS PSYCHOLOGY EXP4250/5256
Tuesdays & Thursdays, 10:00 am to 11:15 am
Building 41, Room 134
Instructor Information
Dr. Steven Kass, Professor
Office Address: Pensacola Campus Bldg 41, Room 230
Telephone Number: (850) 474-2107
Fax Number: (850) 857-6060
Web Site: http://uwf.edu/skass
Email: skass@uwf.edu
Office Hours: TBD
Reading Materials
Required
· Wickens, C. D., Lee, J. D., Liu, Y., &
Becker, S. E. G.(2004). An Introduction to Human Factors Engineering, 2nd Edition.
· Casey, S. (1993/1998). Set Phasers on Stun and Other True Tales of Design, Technology, and Human Error, 1st or 2nd Edition. Santa Barbara, CA: Aegean Publishing Company.
· Additional readings from issues of Ergonomics in Design (included as PDFs). Graduate students may be reponsible for discussing these articles in class.
Recommended
·
· Vicente, K. (2004). The Human Factor: Revolutionizing the Way People Live with
Technology.
· Casey, S. (2006). The Atomic Chef: And Other True Tales of Design, Technology, and Human
Error.
Course Description
This course is recommended for psychology students interested in seeing how the principles of their study apply to work design, or for students of computer science and other disciplines who would like to learn about the human user/operator side of a system. This course is intended as a survey of the field of human factors psychology. Specifically, the principles of psychology from various specialty areas (e.g., cognitive, experimental, industrial/organizational, physiological etc.) will be applied to the study of human performance in work settings. Students will learn how work is designed to capitalize on cognitive and physical capabilities and compensate for limitations of humans. Students will also become familiar with the tools and techniques that human factors psychologists use to study human-machine interaction and work design.
Learning Outcomes
Upon successful completion of this course students will be able to:
Students will never view their own experiences with modern technology in the same way, as they will gain an appreciation for the capabilities and limitations of humans in human-machine systems.
Requirements
Exams: Three in-class exams, each containing 50 multiple-choice
questions covering the assigned readings and lectures.
Design Project: Students will find and photograph,
draw, or describe a system or systems that they believe to have design flaws.
Each student will present the design and describe 5 human factors principles
that have been violated and propose how the design can be improved. The
findings will be provided as hardcopy (PowerPoint is suggested). See this link for grading criteria.
Graduate students will give a 15 minute PowerPoint
presentation to the class about their projects.
Click here for my own personal example of a bad design or visit the Bad Designs Website. Here is an example of a previous student's project.
Case Studies: All students will be required to write one page case studies from the selected readings in the Casey book(s). These readings involve historical accounts of infamous accidents and catastrophes where investigations have shown them to be caused by violations of human factors design principles. Students will describe how violations of human factors design principles (from the related Wickens et al. text book) contributed to these accidents and what could have been done to prevent them (using correct terminology and principles). Case studies must be turned in on the scheduled date; late assignments will not be accepted.
Homework: Periodically, homework will be assigned that will help to demonstrate applications of the course material. Late homework assignments will not be accepted. You may be asked to submit some assignments electronically so that I may share your responses with the class.
Research Paper (EXP5256 grad students
only): Graduate students will write
a paper consisting of no more than 10 pages of text (not including title page,
abstract, references) and at least 12 non-web references (APA
style) addressing an area of interest to them (please submit topic to
instructor for approval before writing the paper). Students will review
literature addressing that area and argue a point.
Course Content
Human factors is a multidisciplinary subject including aspects of psychology, engineering, and computer science. However, this course will focus primarily on how psychological principles and theories affect human performance and the design of the human-machine interface. Course topics include information processing, cognitive workload, sustained attention, signal detection, spatial abilities, virtual environments, safety, warnings, displays and controls, decision making, social factors, and stress. The instructor will draw on real world examples of human factors principles and provide demonstrations of human factors tools used in military and civilian research and design settings.
Method of Evaluation
EXP4250 Undergraduate students will be graded on three exams each worth 25% of your grade (75% total), a design project worth 15%, and homework & case studies worth 10%.
EXP5256 Graduate students will be graded on three
exams each worth 20% of your grade (60% total), a design project (15%) with oral
presentation (5%), homework & case studies worth 10%, and a
research paper worth 10%.
|
Grade |
Average |
|
A |
> 92 |
|
A- |
90 - 92 |
|
B+ |
87- 89 |
|
B |
83 - 86 |
|
B- |
80 - 82 |
|
C+ |
77 - 79 |
|
C |
73 - 76 |
|
C- |
70 - 72 |
|
D+ |
67 - 69 |
|
D |
60 - 66 |
|
F |
< 60 |
Slide Presentations
Each week's lecture will be in the form of a PowerPoint slide presentation. To view and/or print the slides prior to class you will need to have either MicroSoft PowerPoint or the PowerPoint viewer on your computer. To save paper, I recommend you print the slides as handouts 2 or 3 to a page. If you do not have either program, then you may download the viewer from the internet. I strongly encourage you to print out slides ahead of time and take notes as all materials discussed in class (whether or not it appears on a slide) may appear on the exams.
Classroom Rules
No spitting, cell phones, texting, or other inconsiderate behaviors during
class. You are expected to read all assigned materials before the class in
which they are to be discussed. Please
show up to class on-time, everytime.
Assistance: If you have a need for any in-class accommodations, or special test-taking arrangements because of physical and/or perceptual limitations, please contact the instructor or the Psychology Department secretary before class begins or as soon as possible.
Tentative Schedule
|
Date |
Topic |
Read |
Case Study Due |
Read |
|
Jan 7 |
Class Introduction |
|
|
|
| Jan 12 | Introduction to Human Factors | 1 | ||
| Jan 14 | ||||
|
Jan 19 |
3 |
|
||
| Jan 21 | ||||
|
Jan 26 |
4 |
Set Phasers on Stun |
||
| Jan 28 | ||||
|
Feb 2 |
5 |
Never Cry Wolf |
|
|
| Feb 4 | ||||
|
Feb 9 |
|
|
|
|
| Feb 11 | Exam 1 | |||
| Feb 16 | Cognition | 6 | Morphew, Balmer, & Khoury (2001) | |
|
Feb 18 |
|
|
|
|
| Feb 23 | Guest Speaker: Andy Caputi | |||
|
Feb 25 |
7 |
Business in Bhopal |
||
| Mar 2 | ||||
|
Mar 4 |
8 |
|
||
| Mar 9 | Spring Break | |||
| Mar 11 | Spring Break | |||
| Mar 16 | ||||
| Mar 18 | Exam 2 | |||
|
Mar 23 |
13 |
Tigershark! |
||
| Mar 25 | ||||
|
Mar 30 |
14 |
|
||
| Apr 1 | ||||
|
Apr 6 |
|
|
||
| Apr 8 | Grad Papers Due |
|||
| Apr 13 | Selection and Training | 18 | Hamilton & Holmquist (2005) | |
|
Apr 15 |
Social Factors & Assorted Research |
|
|
|
| Apr 20 | Grad Student Presentations All Design Projects Due |
|||
| Apr 22 | Grad Student Presentations | |||
| Apr 29 | Final Exam (8:30 a.m.) |