Seidler, Karen S. | Search NASA

NASA NTRS1992

Distance and organization in multifunction displays

One approach to organizing information in a multifunction display (MFD) is to place related screens of information closer to each other. This study identified three metrics that could be used to operationalize the concept of distance in an MFD. The proposed distance metrics - navigational (the number of choice points lying between two screens), organizational (the hierarchical structure of the data base), and cognitive (the user's perception of relationships among screens) - were empirically examined by using a simulated, hierarchically arranged, menu-driven MFD in an aviation context. Subjects engaged in two tasks that required them to access different target screens from various starting screens in a 290-screen MFD. The tasks differed in the navigational mechanisms subjects were allowed to use to navigate around the MFD and the relationships between the starting and target screens. The results suggest that the three distance metrics are meaningful within the context of a multifunction display.

Seidler, Karen S.↗

NASA NTRS1990

SHAPA: An interactive software tool for protocol analysis applied to aircrew communications and workload

As modern transport environments become increasingly complex, issues such as crew communication, interaction with automation, and workload management have become crucial. Much research is being focused on holistic aspects of social and cognitive behavior, such as the strategies used to handle workload, the flow of information, the scheduling of tasks, the verbal and non-verbal interactions between crew members. Traditional laboratory performance measures no longer sufficiently meet the needs of researchers addressing these issues. However observational techniques are better equipped to capture the type of data needed and to build models of the requisite level of sophistication. Presented here is SHAPA, an interactive software tool for performing both verbal and non-verbal protocol analysis. It has been developed with the idea of affording the researchers the closest possible degree of engagement with protocol data. The researcher can configure SHAPA to encode protocols using any theoretical framework or encoding vocabulary that is desired. SHAPA allows protocol analysis to be performed at any level of analysis, and it supplies a wide variety of tools for data aggregation, manipulation. The output generated by SHAPA can be used alone or in combination with other performance variables to get a rich picture of the influences on sequences of verbal or nonverbal behavior.

James, Jeffrey M.↗