Human Factors Minute

By Human Factors CastScience Social Sciences Technology Education

Human Factors Minute episodes

June 20Virtual Fit Multivariate Anthropometric Tool
...and now for another Human Factors Minute!
The Virtual Fit Multivariate Anthropometric Tool was developed by HFES in collaboration with Penn State University to make multivariate accommodation estimates for North American users.
The tool works by calculating the percent of the population that would be able to be accommodated by a specific design, and it also allows specification based on gender proportion. It uses a multivariate analysis approach, which is based on the idea that designs can fail to fit users in multiple ways. A product may be designed too short for one person, or too narrow, but this failure to fit in both situations may not always be shared by the same person.

Designs may use multiple anthropometric measures. For example, a chair can be measured in several ways such as seat depth, seat width, and seat height. This tool allows designers and ergonomists to check their measurements for the highest percent accommodation that they intend.

When considering a real world use case of a standing workstation desk, the tool can be used by entering the dimensions for the product into The Virtual Fit spreadsheet. First, the estimated gender proportion of users is populated into the tool. Then, when the height of the surface desk is entered into the tool, the designer or ergonomist will be given a percent of the population that will be appropriately accommodated by this dimension.

You can use the Virtual Fit Tool for free via the Penn State website (https://www.openlab.psu.edu/tools/vft/).
This has been another Human Factors Minute!
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2 min
June 10HFETAG - Personnel
Did you know the The Department of Defense Human Factors Engineering Technical Advisory Group is composed of 19 sub Technical Advisory Groups?
One of those is the Personnel SubTAG.
The Personnel SubTAG addresses methods and technologies for selecting personnel for military occupations requiring complex human machine interactions as well as the screening of military personnel and the prediction of performance of personnel in military occupations. With an increasingly complex nature and high value of land , sea , air , and spaceborne military systems, there is a demand that highly capable soldiers, sailors, and airmen be tasked with their operation and care.
Among the list of topics of interest, are methods and technologies for quantitative assessment of individual differences for purposes of improving screening and prediction systems, performance based standards for screening of applicants to technical training and transition programs, defining performance criteria and methodologies for assessing performance in training and operational settings, and predicting performance in training and operation of complex systems.
To find out more about the The Department of Defense Human Factors Engineering Technical Advisory Group, and its sub Technical Advisory Groups, visit the HFE TAG website (https://rt.cto.mil/ddre-rt/dd-rtl/hfetag/).
Be sure to check out our main show at our official website: https://www.humanfactorscast.media
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Resources:
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2 min
May 31System Safety Society
Founded in 1964, the International System Safety Society is a non-profit organization that promotes, supports, and informs the legion of professionals who address safety and risk concerns throughout various industries. The organization connects system safety professionals from around the world, through local chapters.
In a world in which acquiring new and innovative products is just a click away, it is easy to forget that there is an entire sector of our workforce dedicated to ensuring every consumer-facing product is rendered safe for use. The System Safety Society serves as guardians to the safety of these products and services.
These “Guardians of Safety” focus their efforts on improving systems, products, and services, through research-based safety solutions.
To learn more about the International System Safety Society and this year’s conference, please visit their website at system-safety.org.
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Resources:
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2 min
May 20Heart Rate Monitoring
Heart rate monitoring is often used to gather real-time data from a user’s physiological response while they are performing tasks on a product or system. This is an important biometric & neuro-measurement tool because it senses unconscious changes in a user’s stress, workload, and drowsiness. Since mental processing like emotional reactions and decision-making happen unconsciously, it offers more insight to how a user’s body is responding to a given situation.
In user studies, if a participant is having trouble completing a task, they might become more emotionally aroused and stressed. Even if they verbally express that they aren’t having much difficulty, heart rate monitoring can provide insight into the actual physiological response during various tasks.
There are a few main methods of gathering data from heart rate monitoring: A PPG, or photoplethysmogram, has an optical sensor which measures discoloration of a user’s skin as blood runs through capillaries and arteries with each heartbeat. The most common PPGs are usually fingertip sensors or wrist bracelets and they are low-cost, not very intrusive, and easy to set up. However, they have more “noise” and “waveform morphology” variation than the other method, electrocardiogram.
Both ECG and EKG reference an electrocardiogram, which directly measures the heart’s electrical activation. It creates different waveform data than a PPG, but it’s the most accurate for real-time heart monitoring. A wearable EKG chest monitor is the most accurate way outside of a hospital setting to gather a user’s heart rate data. The downside to these devices is that they’re typically expensive and more intrusive than a PPG.
Be sure to check out our main show at our official website: https://www.humanfactorscast.media
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Resources:
Music by Kevin McLeod: https://incompetech.com/music/royalty-free/

Mentioned in this episode:
Support us on Patreon for access to the full library of Human Factors Minute
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2 min
May 10The Diffusion Model
The diffusion model is a psychological model of how we process a single-stage decision when there is a simple choice between two options. This is beneficial both in human decision making as it allows for a conclusion to potentially be reached earlier than in complex decision making.
One of the key distinctions of diffusion models is that they are dynamic - able to describe the evolution of a person’s preferences over time. When discussed in terms of cognition, diffusion modeling is the mathematical representation of decision field theory, an approach to human decision making, which aims to describe how people make decisions rather than prescribe what decisions people should or ought to make.
Cognitive scientists have been using this model to measure performance in tasks ranging from sensory detection and perceptual discrimination to memory recognition and categorization. In neuroscience, these models have demonstrated an ability to account for behavioral decision making for which traditional models used in economics and psychology cannot. Successful implementation of diffusion models in cognition and neuroscience, demonstrate that they may be a key in providing a bridge between neural models of sensory-motor tasks and behavioral models of complex-cognitive tasks.
Be sure to check out our main show at our official website: https://www.humanfactorscast.media
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Resources:
Music by Kevin McLeod: https://incompetech.com/music/royalty-free/

Mentioned in this episode:
Support us on Patreon for access to the full library of Human Factors Minute
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2 min
April 30HFETAG - Standardization
Did you know the The Department of Defense Human Factors Engineering Technical Advisory Group is composed of 19 sub Technical Advisory Groups?
One of those is the Human Factors Standardization (HFS) SubTAG.
This SubTAG aims to identify programs and initiatives that are needed within the Department of Defense, specifically within Human Factors Standardization Area of Consideration (HFAC), other government lead standardization activities, and offices of primary record.
The group's goal is also to provide advisory support to ensure successful coordinated efforts in implementing planned Human Factors Standardization. Avoiding duplication among DoD standardization is a critical function of this group as duplicated standards may lead to conflicting guidance. Lastly, this group aims to maximize and enhance the exchange of standardization information between the DoD human factors community and other government, non-government standards bodies, and other technical societies and industry groups.
Much of this group's work includes identifying problems and opportunities on standardization activities, suggesting proposed actions to address the problems and exploiting opportunities for government-industry cooperation in resolving them. They also work to identifiy effective and efficient means of using standards in acquisition programs.
To find out more about the The Department of Defense Human Factors Engineering Technical Advisory Group, and its sub Technical Advisory Groups, visit the HFE TAG website (https://rt.cto.mil/ddre-rt/dd-rtl/hfetag/).
Be sure to check out our main show at our official website: https://www.humanfactorscast.media
Support us on these platforms to get access to the entire Human Factors Minute library:
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Resources:
Music by Kevin McLeod: https://incompetech.com/music/royalty-free/

Mentioned in this episode:
Support us on Patreon for access to the full library of Human Factors Minute
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2 min
April 20OSHA Standard 1910
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration protects millions of workers through a labor code of federal regulations. OSHA 1910 ensures the adoption and extension of legal standards, creating general workplace safety requirements that apply to all industries.
OSHA 1910 establishes compliance duties, air contaminant provisions, rules for walking and working surfaces, hazardous materials, personal protective equipment, first aid, emergency planning, and fire protection. Combined, these measures can increase workplace safety with dramatic effect.
Since its implementation, OSHA has reduced workplace injuries and deaths by 50%. Human factors and ergonomics are at the heart of these life saving safety regulations. For instance they play a key role in a company’s policies, programs, and procedures, along with the physical design of the workplace environments. Additionally, Human Factors plays an important part in establishing training programs for worker competency and skill. Ergonomics can also contribute to the processes and procedures used to evaluate work practices that may cause long-term harm to a worker’s body.
To discover more ways that human factors and ergonomics shape occupational safety policy, go to www.osha.gov.
Be sure to check out our main show at our official website: https://www.humanfactorscast.media
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Resources:
Music by Kevin McLeod: https://incompetech.com/music/royalty-free/

Mentioned in this episode:
Support us on Patreon for access to the full library of Human Factors Minute
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2 min
April 10 Scalar Expectancy Theory
...and now for another Human Factors Minute!
Scalar Expectancy Theory, or SET, is an important model of animal timing behavior credited to John Gibbon in the late 1900s. The idea of SET is that animals have an internal clock and particular memory and decision-making processes, which explains why their behavior can be temporally controlled using fixed-interval reinforcement. The scalar part of SET comes from how animals compare the current time (held in their working memory) to the expected time (held in their reference memory). When the ratio is small enough, the animal performs the behavior. When the ratio is big enough, the animal stops doing the behavior. This ratio allows for the observation that animal timing accuracy is relative to the size of the interval being timed.
Although Gibbon’s theory was intended to apply only to animals, John Wearden claimed that SET could also be applied to humans. However, human behavior has much more variability than animal behavior does, mostly due to our attentional allocation, so this application is somewhat debated.
While SET was one of the first models of timing, it is not the only one: there are many alternative models of timing, some based on SET and some completely different. When using SET, it is important to keep in mind that it might not work for all durations, and some psychologists argue that it is inconsistent when it comes to explaining the location of temporal indifference point in temporal bisection procedure.
This has been another Human Factors Minute!
Be sure to check out our main show at our official website: https://www.humanfactorscast.media
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Resources:
Music by Kevin McLeod: https://incompetech.com/music/royalty-free/
Mentioned in this episode:
Support us on Patreon for access to the full library of Human Factors Minute
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2 min
March 31 Industrial Environmental Association Conference
...and now for another Human Factors Minute!
The Industrial Environmental Association-or the IEA. is a non-profit that serves manufacturing companies in Southern California. The Association advocates on behalf of industry to promote responsible environmental legislation and to facilitate environmental compliance for companies through training and educational opportunities. As a result, Its members are recognized as experts in environmental health and safety.
The IEA holds a conference of the same name annually, that brings together industry professionals and legislative leaders to provide environmental compliance guidance as well as regulatory and legislative updates. The conference includes nearly thirty educational sessions covering the topics of air, water quality, health and safety, hazardous materials, and sustainability. Of note, the IEA launched an Environmental Health and Safety Bootcamp that aims to provide additional training while connecting participants to experts in their field. General conference program attendance can be used for continuing education credit and certification maintenance. Environmental activists pursuing an undergraduate or graduate degree interested in attending the conference can apply for scholarships.
For more information please visit conference.ieaca.org.
This has been another Human Factors Minute!
Be sure to check out our main show at our official website: https://www.humanfactorscast.media

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Resources:
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Mentioned in this episode:
Support us on Patreon for access to the full library of Human Factors Minute
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2 min
March 20 HFETAG - Modeling and Simulation
...and now for another Human Factors Minute!
Did you know the The Department of Defense Human Factors Engineering Technical Advisory Group is composed of 19 sub Technical Advisory Groups?
One of those is the Modeling and Simulation SubTAG
The Modeling and Simulation SubTAG's mission’s is to provide a method for improving awareness of human factors modeling and simulation in government personnel.
"Modeling and Simulation" topics include validated information on individual, small and large group human performance and behavior. Mthods for the verification, validation, and accreditation of human models and simulations. And endeavors in the development of human modeling and simulation in response to the needs of the Analysis, Training, Acquisition, Testing, and Experimentation Communities
The ultimate goal is to apply these findings from modeling and simulation topics to programs for constructive and virtual modeling and simulation
To find out more about the The Department of Defense Human Factors Engineering Technical Advisory Group, and its sub Technical Advisory Groups, visit the HFE TAG website (https://rt.cto.mil/ddre-rt/dd-rtl/hfetag/).
This has been another Human Factors Minute!
Be sure to check out our main show at our official website: https://www.humanfactorscast.media
Support us on these platforms to get access to the entire Human Factors Minute library:
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Resources:
Music by Kevin McLeod: https://incompetech.com/music/royalty-free/
Mentioned in this episode:
Support us on Patreon for access to the full library of Human Factors Minute
https://www.patreon.com/humanfactorscast
2 min

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Step into the world of Human Factors and UX with the Human Factors Minute podcast! Each episode is like a mini-crash course in all things related to the field, packed with valuable insights and…

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