Cognitive Ergonomics

Dr. Manish Kumar Asthana

Introduction to Cognitive Ergonomics-II

Hello everyone. Today in the series of lecture of cognitive ergonomics, we are going to have
lecture 2, Introduction to Cognitive Ergonomics. As we studied in the previous lecture what
cognitive ergonomics means and as it is comprised of two words cognitive plus ergonomics,
we take this lecture forward and understand in detail some of its application and its impact. So
cognitive ergonomics not only is providing an insight to us about the organizational setting,
cooperative work, user interface design, how the user is interacting with different interfaces in
the modern era, modeling of the users and the systems. Recently we have seen technological
problem has emerged out immensely. So different solutions are required.

Learning about a system and its design has created its own challenges. The design of
automation itself is providing its own challenge. So cognitive ergonomic can provide us and
may help us not only in the reduction of negative situations but also can promote the
performance, efficiency, safety and user satisfaction. So, as we discussed in the previous
lecture identification of the negative situation, what those negative situation are and how one
is defining the problem and the consequences as a result of this problem.

There are several ways in which the problem can be defined and one can avoid and reduce its
impact. So, we need to study and investigate in cognitive ergonomics how the mind works.
So let us take an example. In this cartoon what you see, an aviation example where a plane is
crashed. The plane which you are seeing here is crashed.

There could be several failures towards it. One such failure could be a human error; another
failure could be an automation. Now the plane dates back to World War II and there were
several plane crashes during that time here. As we took the example in our first lecture about
the landing gear and flying gear. The proximity of these two buttons were resulting into the
plane crashes and very soon the ergonomist figured out this is the failure in the system itself.

The moment they rectified this problem the plane crashes decreased. But in the field of
aviation there are n number of challenges which a pilot faces and then the coordination with
the air traffic controller. In addition to that the skill and abilities of the pilot is also involved
here. What we see here on this cartoon that the human cause of aviation failure or the error in
aviation is inversely proportional to its technical causes. As the human error increases technical
difficulties and challenges are little less in nature.

So, these two parameters are inversely proportional to each other and as you can see on your
graph the y axis shows the number of accidents. Increase in number of accidents are due to
human error. But this is from 1903 till present period. Now modern technology, modern
automation all these things providing an aid to reduce human error but if still these things are
happening, these incidents are happening then it is important for us to understand the reason
behind it. And that is what human factor is trying to investigate.

And in this vast domain of human factor there are different sub-disciplines such as physical
ergonomic, psychological ergonomic, cognitive ergonomic etc. We are more concerned in this
lecture series about the human cognition and its role in ergonomics. So, if we move further
you can see on your screen this is a chart which reflects about the bio circadian cycle of an
individual. And on top of this chart, you can see there are several incidents which occurred at
different time frame. On the y axis you can see the change in an hour roughly it is about 24
hours changes.

And on your x axis there is a time window. So, what you see here most of these accidents
which are piling up is in happening during the midnight particularly and roughly around 1 am
to 3 am. The increase in human error is happening during the shifting hours also when the
people are shifting and that is why in the modern world, we have a three-shift working routine
8-8 hours of work shift. People start working from 8 o clock to 2, then 2 to 10 and then 10 to
6 again. This is how the cycle works and it clearly reflects that if the human errors are there if
there is a compromise with the performance, efficiency, safety, satisfaction then bio circadian
cycle also plays a major role in it.

How one can reduce such errors? May be controlling and channelling the work shifts. So,
the contributor to human error can be a stress, physical stress, psychological stress, cognitive
stress. Someone is involved in solving a tedious and complicated mathematical problem.
Someone is involved in writing a poetry. Someone is involved in completing and meeting its
deadline for filing a report.

All these things can lead towards stress. Another factor is the boredom when a person is too
much working and engaged in a task but did not find a time for pleasure or enjoyment or
socializing then it leads towards the boredom. Sometimes the work itself can facilitate the
boardroom. Sometimes monotonous actions also leads towards boredom. So, this is another
contributor to human error.
 People do not find excitement in their own work. As a result, the chances of error is high.
Substance abuse is another contributor in human error. Recent studies have highlighted that a
substance abuse can not only affect your performance and efficiency but it may lead into severe
incidents and accidents. And that is why at workplace setting such substance abuses have been
strictly prohibited and under guidelines or rules and regulation these are forbidden at the
workplace setting.

Another contributor is disturbing the biological clock which is the bio circadian cycle as I was
telling you in the previous slide that how our circuit cycle get altered and this alteration in bio
circadian cycle result into human error. Some people have tendency to work at night. Some
people have tendency to work early morning. Some people have tendency to work late
afternoon. But we have our biological limitation.

At night time we have to sleep and during the day time we have to work. Our body, our
biological mechanism also requires some resting. But when this irregularity or imbalance
happens in our biological cycle then human error occurs. Then another contributor is the
fallibility of the groups. Different groups, different organizations, different people are there.

We try to adjust ourselves but failure to be part of it, failure to be accepted result into it. It
should be noted here that there are many more human, there are many more contributors are
there which leads towards human error. For details for other human error contributors, we may
be addressing it in coming lectures. But here these are the five major contributors towards
human error. Now when we talk about a cycle of human factor what we see here is that there
are two systems which are being involved here.

One is the human and one is the system. Now 40, 50 years ago the system people were calling
it as a machine, so human machine system. Now today the system which we are highly using
it is the computer. So human computer system can also be seen. System can be any body
through which we are interacting to.

The interaction with the system results into an output which we measure it as a performance,
in the form of a performance. Now when the interaction happens, this interaction is supposed
to identify the problem, what the problem are. The problem could be, n number of problems
could be there. It is important for us to classify the problem. It is important for us to categorize
the problem.

In a cycle of human factor the first stage is the identification of problem. There should not be
any limitation to the identification of problem. One should be identifying the problem in a
detailed way. One could end up with one problem, another could end up with 100 problems.
There is no harm in the number of problems.
 More number of problems we identify, the better the approach is going to be to solve the
existing problem. Now second stage is to find the solution related to the problems. And in
some cases, the individual may find some solution, few solutions or none solutions. But it is
always suggested in the human factor to approach the problem in a very basic form, to provide
a solution in a very basic form. The moment we have identified the problem, we have found
half solution.

So once the solution is we started to document and start compiling it, then the stage comes
the solution, the best optimal solution to implement. Now the optimal solution can be a tricky
question. So, at the time, at this time let us now address the optimal solution but at least what
we can address is finding a solution and finding any solution towards this specific problem, let
us implement it. What may happen that the design may work and this redesigning with the
new solution may help us to solve the problem. Now that is when we talk about the design, an
equipment may be involved, a hardware, the task can be involved which could be related to a
software in the case of human computer interaction, the environment in which we are working,
the context, the selection of the task itself, what kind of task and response we are selecting to
and the training associated with it.

More number of training is there, better way to solve a problem, existing problem. Less
number of training is there, it may have its own challenges. Once the solution has been
implemented and the changes are being seen in the redesign, then it feeds back again to the
human system. Now humans parallel to that trying to analyse different other techniques. What
has not been explored in this human system is the interaction between the two.

Humans when we talk about human beings, then it can be splitted into two parts, one is the
brain and another is the body. Brain and body coordination in the human beings directly and
indirectly influences the human-machine interaction or human-system interaction. This
discipline where the amalgamation of brain and human, brain and body is happening has been
less explored in the human factor discipline. Understanding such coordination between the
brain and body to address the interaction system is something which is required at the current
era. Now this may provide us an insight, the limitations, the challenges, the advantages of
human beings in human factor.

Now there are n number of parameters and variables also playing role. When at one hand
classical ergonomics were only looking at the quality of working, it increased and it raised
several concerns that if human factor is only and only about the quality of working, if that is
the case then human beings, the workers, the employees may face several challenges and it
ultimately affects the work. Nobody is going to work in an organization where he or she is not
being appreciated. Nobody is going to work in an organization for 30-40 years without being
appreciated. So, and it has been seen and it has been reported also the quality of work decreases
over period of time.
 If an employee, an older employee who stays in an organization more than 30 years, his
efficiency, his performance, his quality of work seems to be less than those employees who
have been associated to the organization in the initial years, let us say 10 years. This cross-
examination, this cross-referencing between these two groups can itself highlight the necessity,
the role of human cognition at workplace setting. So, when classical ergonomics was only
talking about the quality of working, there were many unaddressed issues were there. Now,
cognitive ergonomics was trying to address is not only to look at the quality of work, but also
at the outcome, the outcome as a result of a person and a person who is doing a cognition and
a cognition which is being done through various skills and abilities. And this cognition is a
part of everyday life.

So, what we understand with this cartoon at least one thing is that when at one hand classical
ergonomics was talking only about the quality of work, cognitive ergonomic is trying to address
the importance and relevance of human cognition. More importantly, how the cognition is
going to alter the performance and efficiency of an individual. Now, this cartoon what you see
on your screen, at the center you see the engineering psychology, on your left-hand side
cognitive engineering and on your right-hand side ergonomics and at the bottom human factor.
Around this you see several sub-disciplines. What does it highlight? It highlights the
significance, relevance of the discipline cognitive in engineering, the role of human factor, the
role of human beings and various parameters and variables associated with human beings here.

So, on one hand you see the biological psychology is there, whose emphasis is upon to
understand the biological processes in the underlying human behavior. Experimental
psychology to study and do experiments in a controlled environment to understand the
underlying root cause of a human behavior. Similarly, social psychology, personality
psychology, industrial psychology, industrial engineering. Alone, what you see on this screen,
alone one discipline cannot address the question of human factor ergonomics. So, a multi-
disciplinary approach, a multi-discipline are being involved here and this discipline of
cognitive ergonomics clearly indicates that it requires an interdisciplinary approach.

The domain where it is being heavily used is aeronautical engineering, computer science,
nuclear power plant, information transportation system, etc. and etc. In recent years, in-depth
understanding we are having it about the human cognition and the role of human cognition in
at workplace setting and in human factors. Now, what can we aim and what cognitive
ergonomics is aiming to address is to understand how work is affecting the mind, how work is
modulating, changing the mental processes, to what extent it shapes your mind, to what extent
it provides you an easiness to change yourself and adjust according to the environment.
Similarly, the mind, your own skills, abilities, your thought processes affects the work, the
work which you are doing.
 The way a lecturer drives a car will be very distinct than a driver driving a car. The thought
processes of an individual with a specific discipline and expertise, his or her approach will be
distinct from the other person. This inter-individual differences has been well documented in
the discipline of ergonomics and also in cognition research. But what is more important for us
to understand that how the work and the mind influencing each other and how the interaction
between these two influences the performance, efficiency, safety and the satisfaction of the
user. What kind of information is required to make a decision? What kind of information is
necessary to make a decision? When an individual is having large amount of time, then his or
her decision making can reach to a 100% accuracy.

However, when the individual is having time stress, limited time, then the decision making
not only need to be accurate, but also has to be quick. Such a skill not everybody is born with.
But over period of time with regular practice and more experiences one overcomes the
challenges. The individual learn what kind of information required to be processed quickly
and what kind of information required to be processed late. Also early and late selection of
this information plays a crucial role in the preferential list.

How an individual make a priority of his own work, which we have been doing it since our
childhood. Then another factor which cognitive ergonomics is aiming at is the cognitive task
analysis. Now we know the analysis of the task, any task, the task like getting a glass of water
from a water cooler or from a fridge or cooking or baking a chapati. It requires certain analysis
to it. Task analysis initially was addressing mostly about the behavioral task analysis, the
behavior of an individual.

However what it was not addressing is the skill and abilities which an individual possess.
This skill and abilities is playing a crucial role in task analysis. Hence in recent years cognitive
task analysis seems to be highly relevant because it provides an in-depth understanding not
only in the collection of the data, identification of the knowledge, applying the knowledge,
analyzing and verification of the dataset and formatting the dataset. So, in recent years people
have started paying more attention towards the cognitive task analysis. In some domains, in
some ergonomics discipline, people are even studying this as forensic task analysis.

Different people have different approaches, but in this course our main concern will be
cognitive task analysis. Then cognitive ergonomics also addresses a very simple problem, how
to present the information. In front of you I am presenting you the information in a textual
form. In some cases I will be presenting you information in a graphical form. The presentation
of information need to be textual, graphical, verbal, non-verbal that a person, an individual has
to decide it, which is more effective.

Under certain circumstances verbal is enough and under certain circumstances non-verbal is
enough. Then allocation of functions and mental workload, what kind of functions we are
allocating and the type of mental workload we are facing. Mental processes itself is an
ambiguous and complex in nature. So, the workload related to mental processes will obviously
be ambiguous and complex in nature. Cognitive ergonomics can help us in providing deeper
insight about the nature of the workload and its own classification and division.

Now the seventh point is the decision aids. When somebody has to make a decision, how he
can get an aid? For instance, crossing a road, the individual requires some aid. Cognitive
ergonomics can not only provide you the perceptual information, memory information, but also
understanding the need of mental processes. such decision aids can be textual, graphical or
could have any other sensory data information, then cognitive ergonomics can also help us in
designing the cognitive system, the cognitive machines. The machines which can do their own
task, the machines which can execute the stages and n number of stages of processes by
themselves, which involve least human interaction, which involves least human interferences
and provide us the result with 100 percent accuracy. And finally, the usability design and
evaluation, the designs which user can use it with easiness.

And also, it can help us in understanding the shortcomings of the design as well. Finally, it
can also reflect upon the inter-individual differences, the national level in context and the
cultural effects, how different culture are playing role and impacting the ergonomics. All these
things we will be addressing it in coming lectures about the skills and abilities. Taking a little
forward and discussing about how cognitive ergonomics is aiming and trying to address the
problem.

So, one such thing is the how the work affects the mind. The work is stressful, it changes the
way you think, the way you process information. Reaching the deadline for some individual
is common, but for some individual it may lead towards anxiety disorder. Balancing the
demand of work and life, a personal and professional life is a challenging task. So, such effects
we have to also see that if the work is affecting the mind is for short duration, it is okay because
a short duration effect can be overcome.

But a long-term effect may lead towards clinical disorder. And not only leads towards the
clinical disorder, but it may impact the person's or individual life in a tremendous way. It may
lead towards sleeping disorder, nervousness, anxiety disorder, etcetera. In a long-term effect,
it may also promote the human error. Example what we see in relation to thinking, reasoning,
understanding, diagnosis, memory, heuristics, etcetera. Such places we have seen when the
workplace stress affects your mind in a robust way.

The short-term effects can be overcome with some help, with some aid. However, the long-
term effect requires a radical solution. Now, when we see the application of cognitive
ergonomics, we see that there are three planes to cognitive ergonomic.
 First plane is human itself. The word cognition is there. Without human being, there cannot
be a cognition. Without human beings, there cannot be ergonomics as well. So, the first wall
of support is human characteristics. What human characteristics we are referring here? The
human characteristics which we are referring here is the human cognition, his cognitive
abilities. Then the human interaction with the machine or a system, we require a technological
context, what you see on the another wall.

And then ultimately, the human interacting within technology, he needs a context. So, that is
an organizational context. It could be a classroom, it could be a office, it could be a nuclear
lab, it could be a biosciences and bioengineering lab, it could be a cockpit of a plane. And
when all the three things come together, then it leads towards the human action.

So, this is how the cognitive ergonomics is interacting. And in this cartoon, one thing it is
very important for us to understand, there is no superiority effect of any one contributing factor.
All factors are superior in nature and all factors are inferior in nature. The contribution by each
of these factors are the deciding factors in cognitive ergonomics. It helps us in designing, it
helps us in designing and the tools and the usage of the tools. The tools which you can find it
in your garden, the tools which you can find it in your kitchen, the tools which you can find it
in your labs.

How to design these tools and how to make use of these tools in such a way that humans may
have an advantage. It may help and promote the performance; it may help and promote the
safety and it may help and promote the user satisfaction. Cognitive ergonomics not only help
in designing the workplace setting, but also uplifting the workplace situation, the employee’s
expectation, the employees need. And more importantly, it is also highlighting the reliability
of human cognition.

200 passengers in an aeroplane rely on the cognition of the pilot. A pilot relies on the
cognition of the machine when he sets the system on autopilot. 300 passengers in a train rely
on the cognition of the driver. Driver, train driver relies on the cognition of the automated
system. So cognitive ergonomics is trying to unfold these layers of human cognition and trying
to highlight the reliability of human cognition. In coming lecture series, we are also going to
understand what different type of cognition we are paying more attention to.

Human cognition, reliability of human cognition can be seen as two different ways.
Reliability of basic human cognition and reliability of high-level cognition. Basic level
cognition, what do we mean with that? Attention, perception, memory. High level of
cognition, reasoning, problem solving, decision making, etc. When a human interacts with the
system as you can see on your cartoon, taking an example of from the aviation, when a plane
is flying, then the pilot in the air, the traffic controller on the ground, they need coordination.
 They both are interacting with their own machine system and their both systems are
interacting with themselves. The stake of 200 lives is in the hand of two important people, a
traffic controller and the pilot. Now what do you see? The control panel is there. Pilot should
be aware of it, how to use it, how to land the plane, how to fly the airplane, what is the altitude
at which he has to keep the plane, when he has to descend, when he has to reach the ground,
when he has to accelerate up in the sky.

The different stimuli are there which pilot has to encounter. Some could be visual in nature,
some could be auditory, some could be tactile and some could be olfactory as well. Along with
that, the coordination between the pilot, air traffic controller along with other pilots and other
traffic controllers is a teamwork. Even a slightest of error, a slight delay in information
processing, a slight delay in information exchange may result into a severe accident. Then
there are certain company policies, communication is there, noise, weather, is it a clean
weather, is it a daytime or nighttime.

As I showed you in previous slide, the period of 1 p.m., 1 a.m. to 3 a.m. in the morning where
more number of human errors are happening. The pilots are flying planes during that period
as well. Are they stressed? Are they relaxed? Are they fully aware? Do they have any
physiological, psychological or cognitive or motor problem? Are those problem visible? Are
those problem hidden? All these things matter. And that is why the pilots, the traffic controllers
from time to time they undergo into a refresher course where they are exposed again and again
to their skills and to enhance their capabilities and abilities.

What we see here is the interaction of so many, so many factors are there. You can see simple
aviation, taking off a plane. You all might have experienced your relative or even you might
have taken a plane. And if you see this cartoon, you may understand it is such a complex task
and requires a team work to work together in a harmony. If there will not be a harmony, then
it might result into human error.

Now what we see here, a person, personal and external factors are there. Intrinsic, some
factors could be indirect, some factors could be direct. Extrinsic factors are there,
organisational setting, where the pilot or the person is working, local working conditions, is he
being provided with resources, is he being provided with support and then the defenses, barriers
and safeguards. How he can safeguard himself? What kind of coping mechanism he needs to
solve his personal matters or to solve his professional matters? So, these factors are also a
contributing factor in an individual.

A pilot who is flying, the staff who is assisting the passengers and the passengers itself. So,
what we see here that in an aviation where a pilot is flying a plane along with 200 plus
passengers, there he has to be in a sound mind. Now what I would like to share with you here,
there are two pictures which I would like to show you. First picture is on your screen, picture
A and in this picture what do you see is a metallic frame seems to be a small window, but what
does it reflect, what does it represent? Or another picture on your screen which is quite obvious,
a door. What do you see here is a blue color door. If I ask you what is the problem in these
two images, then the answer should be simple and easy.

But for some it is difficult to identify the problem. I have seen this image a number of times
and I have used it. So, it is easy for me to highlight the problem. But what you see on your
screen, one side picture A is a petrol tank, petrol or diesel tank of a car. And the second image
is a door, a simple door of a conference hall, a simple door of your house, a simple door of a
marriage hall probably. What is the problem in these two? In the first image that the petrol
tank or the diesel tank in a car, we do not know which side we have to press.

The arrow is indicating that if you press this side, then it will open. However, if arrow is not
shown on your screen, then it becomes little difficult for you to identify where on which side
the petrol tank will open. Even not only this which side it will be opening, but is it a petrol car
or a diesel car? So, if you see in your neighborhood, you will find some people put a sticker,
a visual representation, a sticker with a letter P on it or a sticker with a letter D on it. D
represents diesel, P represents petrol. And now, the educated or uneducated person, whosoever
is there at the gas station can see this symbol and identify if it is a petrol car or a diesel car.
The educated and uneducated person, the uneducated person for instance, does not have to
know the letter itself, he can just see a representation, the letter P and understand that it is a
petrol car because the representation of P with off petrol starts with P, horizontal line and
semicircle.

There is an image, what do we see is the see through window is missing. Another challenge
to which side is it going to open? So, somebody who is coming from the other end and
somebody walking from this end may collide in an accident can occur. These are such simple
designs which we see every now and then in our society. With these designs, can you say that
your world is very well designed? No, the world is poorly designed as said by many researchers
and many designers. And we are making an attempt to understand such challenges and how to
address these challenges. So, let to conclude lecture 2, few things we have to note down here,
the application of cognitive ergonomics, the aim of cognitive ergonomics.

How much do we understand its contribution in the discipline of ergonomics, the role of
human cognition and how the bio-circadian cycle leads towards the human error and how the
teamwork influences the human efficiency performance, how in the aviation industry or in any
other industry the significance and role of cognition is there. Thank you.