Effects of Automation Type on Human Performance in Proofreading Tasks

Author(s):  
Heejin Jeong ◽  
Jangwoon Park ◽  
Jaehyun Park ◽  
Byung Cheol Lee

Automation is ubiquitous and indispensable in modern working environments. It is adopted and used in not only advanced industrial- and technology-oriented operations, but also ordinary home or office computational functions. In general, automated systems aim to improve overall work efficiency and productivity of labor-intensive tasks by decreasing the risk of errors, and cognitive and physical workloads. The systems offer the support for diverse decision-making processes as well. However, the benefits of automation are not consistently achieved and depend on the types and features of automation (Onnasch, Wickens, Li, & Manzey, 2014; Parasuraman, Sheridan, & Wickens, 2000). Possible negative side effects have been reported. Sometimes, automation may lead to multi-tasking environments, which allows operators to be distractive with several tasks. It ultimately prolongs task completion time and causes to neglect monitoring and follow-up steps of the pre-processing tasks (Endsley, 1996). Furthermore, the operators who excessively depend on automation are easily deteriorated in skill acquisition, which is necessary for the emergency or manual operations. Thus, inconsistent performance in automation is a major issue in successful adoption and trust in automation (Jeong, Park, Park, & Lee, 2017). This paper presents an experimental study that investigates the main features and causes of the inconsistency in task performance in different types of automation. Automated proofreading tasks were used in this study, which is one of the most common types of automation we experience in daily life. Based on the similar algorithm of the auto-correct function in Microsoft Word, a custom-built program of five proofreading tasks, including one non-automated and four automated proofreading tasks, were developed using Visual Studio 2015 C#. In the non-automated task used as a reference for individual difference, participants were asked to manually find a typographical error in a sentence. In the automated tasks, auto-correcting functions are provided in two levels (i.e., low and high) of automation and two statuses (i.e., routine and failure of automation). The type of automation is defined as the combinations of a status and a level. Participants identified typographical errors by only an underlined word at the low-level automation, whereas an underlined word with a possible substituting word was given at the high-level. Additionally, in the routine automation status, a correct substituting word is provided. On the other hand, a grammatically incorrect word is given in the failed automation status. Nineteen participants (11 females and 8 males; age mean = 33.8, standard deviation = 19.1) took part in this study. Results of statistical analyses show a clear advantage in high-routine automation, in terms of both task completion time and accuracy. While task performances of high & routine automation types are quite obvious in both task completion time and accuracy, those in the failed automation types are mixed and indistinguishable. Different levels and statues of failed automation do not much influence task performance. Moreover, task completion time and mental demand are strongly correlated, and the accuracy rate and perceived trust show a strong positive correlation. The approaches and outcomes of the current study can provide some insights into the human-automation interaction systems that support human performance and safety, such as in-vehicle warning systems and automated vehicle controls.

Author(s):  
Heejin Jeong ◽  
Yili Liu

Usability evaluation traditionally relies on costly and time-consuming human-subject experiments, which typically involve developing physical prototypes, designing usability experiment, and recruiting human subjects. To minimize the limitations of human-subject experiments, computational human performance models can be used as an alternative. Human performance models generate digital simulations of human performance and examine the underlying psychological and physiological mechanisms to help understand and predict human performance. A variety of in-vehicle information systems (IVISs) using advanced automotive technologies have been developed to improve driver interactions with the in-vehicle systems. Numerous studies have used human subjects to evaluate in-vehicle human-system interactions; however, there are few modeling studies to estimate and simulate human performance, especially in in-vehicle manual and speech interactions. This paper presents a computational human performance modeling study for a usability test of IVISs using manual and speech interactions. Specifically, the model was aimed to generate digital simulations of human performance for a driver seat adjustment task to decrease the comfort level of a part of driver seat (i.e., the lower lumbar), using three different IVIS controls: direct-manual, indirect-manual, and voice controls. The direct-manual control is an input method to press buttons on the touchscreen display located on the center stack in the vehicle. The indirect-manual control is to press physical buttons mounted on the steering wheel to control a small display in the dashboard-cluster, which requires confirming visual feedback on the cluster display located on the dashboard. The voice control is to say a voice command, “ deflate lower lumbar” through an in-vehicle speaker. The model was developed to estimate task completion time and workload for the driver seat adjustment task, using the Queueing Network cognitive architecture (Liu, Feyen, & Tsimhoni, 2006). Processing times in the model were recorded every 50 msec and used as the estimates of task completion time. The estimated workload was measured by percentage utilization of servers used in the architecture. After the model was developed, the model was evaluated using an empirical data set of thirty-five human subjects from Chen, Tonshal, Rankin, & Feng (2016), in which the task completion times for the driver seat adjustment task using commercial in-vehicle systems (i.e., SYNC with MyFord Touch) were recorded. Driver workload was measured by NASA’s task load index (TLX). The average of the values from the NASA-TLX’s six categories was used to compare to the model’s estimated workload. The model produced results similar to actual human performance (i.e., task completion time, workload). The real-world engineering example presented in this study contributes to the literature of computational human performance modeling research.


1989 ◽  
Vol 33 (3) ◽  
pp. 159-163 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brian C. Hayes ◽  
Ko Kurokawa ◽  
Walter W. Wierwille

This research was undertaken, in part, to determine the magnitudes of performance decrements associated with automotive instrument panel tasks as a function of driver age. Driver eye scanning and dwell time measures and task completion measures were collected while 24 drivers aged 18 to 72 performed a variety of instrument panel tasks as each drove an instrumented vehicle along preselected routes. The results indicated a monotonically increasing relationship between driver age and task completion time and the number of glances to the instrument panel. Mean glance dwell times, either to the roadway or the instrument, were not significantly different among the various age groups. The nature of these differences for the various task categories used in the present study was examined.


2009 ◽  
Vol 50 ◽  
Author(s):  
Beatričė Andziulienė ◽  
Žilvinas Jucys

In order to address ergonomic problems in the process of education, education relevant to the use of ergonomic work tools. The article includes educational process is widely used in a text editor usabilityresults of the study, of the performance experiment. Operating results of the experiment showed that MS Office Word 2007 usability respect ahead of MS Word 2003 and OpenOffice Writer 3.0 applications: task completion time for work in MS Word 2007 editor is 5 percent lower than the same task in MS Word 2003 and 8 percent lower then in Open Office Writer 3.0 editor; navigational errors in learning a task using MS Word 2007 and Word 2003 decreased by 9 times on average, while using OpenOffice Writer 3.0 approximately 3.5-times; task performance accuracy (formatting error) is the best on MS Word 2007, there’s no errors then task is learned. The fact that OpenOffice Writer is a free open source product, this is a relatively well-developed alternative to the commercial Microsoft Office Word.


2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (4) ◽  
pp. 1288
Author(s):  
Byung Cheol Lee ◽  
Jangwoon Park ◽  
Heejin Jeong ◽  
Jaehyun Park

Automation aims to improve the task performance and the safety of human operators. The success of automation can be facilitated with well-designed human–automation interaction (HAI), which includes the consideration of a trade-off between the benefits of reliable automation and the cost of Failed automation. This study evaluated four different types of HAIs in order to validate the automation trade-off, and HAI types were configured by the levels and the statuses of office automation. The levels of automation were determined by information amount (i.e., Low and High), and the statues were decided by automation function (i.e., Routine and Failed). Task performance including task completion time and accuracy and subjective workload of participants were measured in the evaluation of the HAIs. Relatively better task performance (short task completion time and high accuracy) were presented in the High level in Routine automation, while no significant effects of automation level were reported in Failed automation. The subjective workload by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Task Load Index (TLX) showed higher workload in High and Failed automation than Low and Failed automation. The type of sub-functions and the task classification can be estimated as major causes of automation trade-off, and dissimilar results between empirical and subjective measures need to be considered in the design of effective HAI.


2020 ◽  
Vol 103 (4) ◽  
pp. 003685042096288
Author(s):  
Mingyin Jiang ◽  
Dongjie Sun ◽  
Qiang Li ◽  
Daoxiong Wang

Poor usability designed of ventilator user interface can easily lead to human error. In this study, we evaluated the usability design of ventilator maintenance user interface and identified problems related to the usability of user interface that could easily cause human error. Sixteen respiratory therapists participated in this usability study. The usability of the ventilator maintenance user interface was evaluated by participants’ task performance (task completion time, task error rate), physiological workload (eye-fixation duration) and perceived workload (NASA-TLX), and user experience (questionnaire). For task performance, task completion time and task error rate showed significant differences. For task completion time, significant difference was found when conducting ventilator self-test ( p < 0.001), replace the breathing circuit ( p = 0.047), and check battery status ( p = 0.005). For task error rate, the three ventilators showed significant difference ( p = 0.012), and the Serov I showed a significantly higher task error rate than the Boaray 5000D ( p = 0.031). For workload, the Serov I was associated with higher physiological and perceived workloads than other ventilators ( p < 0.05). For user experience, the Boaray 5000D received better scores among the ventilators in terms of ease to maintain, friendly to maintain, and willingness to use ( p < 0.05, respectively). Our study adds available literature for usability evaluation of ventilator maintenance user interface. The results indicate that the maintenance user interface of the Boaray 5000D performed better than the other two tested ventilators. Moreover, the study results also proved that eye-fixation duration can be a reliable tool for evaluating the usability of ventilator user interface.


Processes ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (12) ◽  
pp. 2148
Author(s):  
Zhefan Yu ◽  
Jianping Luo ◽  
Han Zhang ◽  
Eiji Onchi ◽  
Seung Hee Lee

This study aimed to identify the effects of different approaches to a motion control interface (MCI) in tele-operated crane handling tasks. In this study, due to the difficulty of applying the actual equipment to the experiment, we presented a prototype system of a tele-operated overhead handling (TOH) crane. Specifically, we investigated participants’ task performance including the accuracy of task completion during unloading, heart rate variation, workload, and the relationships between these factors when four motion control approaches were used: pointing (P), keyboard (K), orientation (O), hand-free gesture (HG). Experiments were conducted with two groups of participants: 21 university students and 11 crane operators used each of the four control methods. A task condition for handling iron blocks was tested. The efficacy of each motion control approach for task performance was evaluated by a within-subject experiment with a novice group. The expert group was used for comparing the task performance and satisfaction in the prototype system with the novices, evaluating whether the prototype system was reproducible for a real setting in the construction site. The results showed that the task completion time, the weight of physical demand, and the overall scores for workload were significantly impacted by the type of motion control: when HG was used, the task completion time increased. Particularly, using HG had the potential to increase the overall workload score, while physical laboriousness was also potentially increased by HG. Conversely, unloading accuracy, heart rate, and mental demand were not affected by motion control approaches. Generally, the expert group spent more time completing the tasks, but they performed better unloading accuracy than the novices in all methods. Ninety-one percent of the experts gave positive feedback on the reproducibility of the prototype system.


2019 ◽  
Vol 27 (1) ◽  
pp. 68-80 ◽  
Author(s):  
Frank E. Ritter ◽  
Martin K.-C. Yeh ◽  
Yu Yan ◽  
Ka-Chun Siu ◽  
Dmitry Oleynikov

There have been many studies to evaluate the effect of training schedules on retention; however, these usually compare only 2 drastically different schedules, massed and distributed, and they have tended to look at declarative knowledge tasks. This study examined learning on a laparoscopic surgery simulator using a set of procedural or perceptual-motor tasks with some declarative elements. The study used distributed, massed, and 2 hybrid-training schedules that are neither distributed nor massed. To evaluate the training schedules, 23 participants with no previous laparoscopic experience were recruited and randomly assigned to 1 of the 4 training schedules. They performed 3 laparoscopic training tasks in eight 30-minute learning sessions. We compared how task time decreased with each schedule in a between-participants design. We found participants in all groups demonstrated a decrease in task completion time as the number of training sessions increased; however, there were no statistically significant differences in participants’ improvement on task completion time between the 4 different training schedule groups, which suggested that time on task is more important for learning these tasks than the training schedule.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sara Di Bartolomeo ◽  
Aditeya Pandey ◽  
Aristotelis Sigiouan Leventidis ◽  
David Saffo ◽  
Uzma Haque Syeda ◽  
...  

Timelines are commonly represented on a horizontal line, which is not necessarily the most effective way to visualize temporal event sequences. However, few experiments have evaluated how timeline shape influences task performance. We present the design and results of a controlled experiment run on Amazon Mechanical Turk (n=192) in which we evaluate how timeline shape affects task completion time, correctness, and user preference. We tested 12 combinations of 4 shapes --- horizontal line, vertical line, circle, and spiral --- and 3 data types --- recurrent, non-recurrent, and mixed event sequences. We found good evidence that timeline shape meaningfully affects user task completion time but not correctness and that users have a strong shape preference. Building on our results, we present design guidelines for creating effective timeline visualizations based on user task and data types. A free copy of this paper, the evaluation stimuli and data, and code are available at https://osf.io/qr5yu/


2021 ◽  
Vol 104 (3) ◽  
pp. 003685042110361
Author(s):  
Mingyin Jiang ◽  
Xuancheng Tu ◽  
Wanchao Xiao ◽  
Jinhui Tang ◽  
Qiang Li ◽  
...  

Purpose: Poor usability designs of radiotherapy systems can contribute to use errors and adverse events. Therefore, we evaluated the usability of two radiotherapy systems through radiation therapists’ performance, workload, and experience that can inform hospital procurement decision-making about the selection of appropriate radiotherapy system for radiation therapist use. Methods: We performed a comparative usability study for two radiotherapy systems through user testing. Thirty radiation therapists participated in our study, in which four typical operational tasks were performed in two tested radiotherapy systems. User performance was measured by task completion time and completion difficulty level. User workloads were measured by perceived and physiological workload using NASA-TLX questionnaires and eye motion data. User experience was measured by the USE questionnaire. Results: Significantly less task completion time and an easier task completion difficulty level were shown with the Varian Trilogy than with the XHA600E. The study results suggest that higher perceived and physiological workloads were experienced with the XHA600E than with the Varian Trilogy. Radiation therapists reported better user experience with the Varian Trilogy than with the XHA600E. Five paired t-tests regarding user performance, user workload, and user experience between the Varian Trilogy and the XHA600E were performed, showing that the Varian Trilogy radiotherapy system has a better usability design than the XHA600E radiotherapy system. Conclusions: Based on study results, we confirmed that the Varian Trilogy radiotherapy system has a better usability design than the XHA600E radiotherapy system. Furthermore, the study results provide valuable evidence for hospital procurement decision-making regarding the selection of a suitable radiotherapy system for radiation therapists to use.


Author(s):  
Eswara Rao Velamkayala ◽  
Manuel V. Zambrano ◽  
Huiyang Li

The objective of this project is to study the effects of HoloLens™ and companion devices in collaboration. We designed an experiment to test the impact of HoloLens™ in support of collaboration in navigation tasks while the users used Skype™ with and without the video in a university library. Results showed that the HoloLens™ system led to improved performance (smaller number of errors, shorter completion time of one subtask) and lower workload (mental demand, temporal demand, and effort). However, the task completion time of two other subtasks became longer while using HoloLens. In addition, the users gave negative comments on the HoloLens, such as “uncomfortable to wear”, “eyestrain”, “heavy”, “blurred view”, and “inaccurate pointer”.


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