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DOE OSTI2022

‪A Novel Methodology for Longitudinal Studies of Home Thermal Comfort Perception and Behavior

Human-building interactions significantly influence building energy consumption and affect peak energy demand. For example, heating and cooling contribute 46% of daily peak residential energy demand. Grid-interactive efficient buildings (GEBs) can potentially increase energy-demand flexibility and accelerate the adoption of renewables. However, traditional demand response (DR) programs focused on shedding peak loads disregard the human-building interactions leading to occupant thermal frustration. Specifically, they do not model occupants’ ability to override thermostat controls, nor how indoor environmental conditions and sociocultural factors affect the timing and magnitude of overrides. Studies have found 20% of occupants override thermostat setpoints during DR events longer than 6 hours yet lack detail about the motivation that might guide more successful efforts. Balancing energy-demand flexibility with occupant thermal comfort requires understanding dynamic occupant behavior, the underlying psychophysiological drivers, in the context of homes. This paper presents methods for scalable longitudinal studies of residential occupant behavior dynamics to inform the development of psychophysiological occupant-centric building models. Smart sensors were installed to measure local environmental conditions in 20 homes in two regions of the United States. Just-in-time ecological momentary assessments (EMAs) provided qualitative data on occupant thermal comfort and local environmental conditions not captured in Internet-of-Things (IoT) based studies or existing datasets. Participant interviews provided insight into environmental attitudes, mental models, and the role of economics in comfort and behavior, which in turn may affect thermostat interactions. Based on these data, interventions in the next phase of the study will collect data and monitor occupant behavior during simulated DR events.

Kane, Michael↗

NASA NTRS2017

Using A Model-Based Systems Engineering Approach For Exploration Medical System Development

NASA's Human Research Program's Exploration Medical Capabilities (ExMC) element is defining the medical system needs for exploration class missions. ExMC's Systems Engineering (SE) team will play a critical role in successful design and implementation of the medical system into exploration vehicles. The team's mission is to "Define, develop, validate, and manage the technical system design needed to implement exploration medical capabilities for Mars and test the design in a progression of proving grounds." Development of the medical system is being conducted in parallel with exploration mission architecture and vehicle design development. Successful implementation of the medical system in this environment will require a robust systems engineering approach to enable technical communication across communities to create a common mental model of the emergent engineering and medical systems. Model-Based Systems Engineering (MBSE) improves shared understanding of system needs and constraints between stakeholders and offers a common language for analysis. The ExMC SE team is using MBSE techniques to define operational needs, decompose requirements and architecture, and identify medical capabilities needed to support human exploration. Systems Modeling Language (SysML) is the specific language the SE team is utilizing, within an MBSE approach, to model the medical system functional needs, requirements, and architecture. Modeling methods are being developed through the practice of MBSE within the team, and tools are being selected to support meta-data exchange as integration points to other system models are identified. Use of MBSE is supporting the development of relationships across disciplines and NASA Centers to build trust and enable teamwork, enhance visibility of team goals, foster a culture of unbiased learning and serving, and be responsive to customer needs. The MBSE approach to medical system design offers a paradigm shift toward greater integration between vehicle and the medical system and directly supports the transition of Earth-reliant ISS operations to the Earth-independent operations envisioned for Mars. Here, we describe the methods and approach to building this integrated model.

Hanson, A.↗

NASA NTRS1994

Pilot interaction with cockpit automation 2: An experimental study of pilots' model and awareness of the Flight Management System

Technological developments have made it possible to automate more and more functions on the commercial aviation flight deck and in other dynamic high-consequence domains. This increase in the degrees of freedom in design has shifted questions away from narrow technological feasibility. Many concerned groups, from designers and operators to regulators and researchers, have begun to ask questions about how we should use the possibilities afforded by technology skillfully to support and expand human performance. In this article, we report on an experimental study that addressed these questions by examining pilot interaction with the current generation of flight deck automation. Previous results on pilot-automation interaction derived from pilot surveys, incident reports, and training observations have produced a corpus of features and contexts in which human-machine coordination is likely to break down (e.g., automation surprises). We used these data to design a simulated flight scenario that contained a variety of probes designed to reveal pilots' mental model of one major component of flight deck automation: the Flight Management System (FMS). The events within the scenario were also designed to probe pilots' ability to apply their knowledge and understanding in specific flight contexts and to examine their ability to track the status and behavior of the automated system (mode awareness). Although pilots were able to 'make the system work' in standard situations, the results reveal a variety of latent problems in pilot-FMS interaction that can affect pilot performance in nonnormal time critical situations.

Sarter, Nadine B.↗

NASA NTRS1990

Fault diagnosis

The objective of the research in this area of fault management is to develop and implement a decision aiding concept for diagnosing faults, especially faults which are difficult for pilots to identify, and to develop methods for presenting the diagnosis information to the flight crew in a timely and comprehensible manner. The requirements for the diagnosis concept were identified by interviewing pilots, analyzing actual incident and accident cases, and examining psychology literature on how humans perform diagnosis. The diagnosis decision aiding concept developed based on those requirements takes abnormal sensor readings as input, as identified by a fault monitor. Based on these abnormal sensor readings, the diagnosis concept identifies the cause or source of the fault and all components affected by the fault. This concept was implemented for diagnosis of aircraft propulsion and hydraulic subsystems in a computer program called Draphys (Diagnostic Reasoning About Physical Systems). Draphys is unique in two important ways. First, it uses models of both functional and physical relationships in the subsystems. Using both models enables the diagnostic reasoning to identify the fault propagation as the faulted system continues to operate, and to diagnose physical damage. Draphys also reasons about behavior of the faulted system over time, to eliminate possibilities as more information becomes available, and to update the system status as more components are affected by the fault. The crew interface research is examining display issues associated with presenting diagnosis information to the flight crew. One study examined issues for presenting system status information. One lesson learned from that study was that pilots found fault situations to be more complex if they involved multiple subsystems. Another was pilots could identify the faulted systems more quickly if the system status was presented in pictorial or text format. Another study is currently under way to examine pilot mental models of the aircraft subsystems and their use in diagnosis tasks. Future research plans include piloted simulation evaluation of the diagnosis decision aiding concepts and crew interface issues. Information is given in viewgraph form.

Abbott, Kathy↗

DOE OSTI2020

An Assessment of the Usability of Machine Learning Based Tools for the Security Operations Center

Gartner, a large research and advisory company, anticipates that by 2024 80% of security operation centers (SOCs) will use machine learning (ML) based solutions to enhance their operations. 1 1 https://www.ciodive.com/news/how-data-science-tools-can-lighten-the-load-for-cybersecurity-teams/572209/ In light of such widespread adoption, it is vital for the research community to identify and address usability concerns. This work presents the results of the first in situ usability assessment of ML-based tools. With the support of the US Navy, we leveraged the national cyber range-a large, air-gapped cyber testbed equipped with state-of-the-art network and user emulation capabilities-to study six US Naval SOC analysts' usage of two tools. Our analysis identified several serious usability issues, including multiple violations of established usability heuristics for user interface design. We also discovered that analysts lacked a clear mental model of how these tools generate scores, resulting in mistrust a and/or misuse of the tools themselves. Surprisingly, we found no correlation between analysts' level of education or years of experience and their performance with either tool, suggesting that other factors such as prior background knowledge or personality play a significant role in ML-based tool usage. Our findings demonstrate that ML-based security tool vendors must put a renewed focus on working with analysts, both experienced and inexperienced, to ensure that their systems are usable and useful in real-world security operations settings.

Oesch, T↗

NASA NTRS1977

Interface design in the process industries

Every operator runs his plant in accord with his own mental model of the process. In this sense, one characteristic of an ideal man-machine interface is that it be in harmony with that model. With this theme in mind, the paper first reviews the functions of the process operator and compares them with human operators involved in control situations previously studied outside the industrial environment (pilots, air traffic controllers, helmsmen, etc.). A brief history of the operator interface in the process industry and the traditional methodology employed in its design is then presented. Finally, a much more fundamental approach utilizing a model definition of the human operator's behavior is presented.

Beaverstock, M. C.↗

NASA NTRS1984

Twentieth Annual Conference on Manual Control, Volume 2

Volume II contains thirty two complete manuscripts and five abstracts. The topics covered include the application of event-related brain potential analysis to operational problems, the subjective evaluation of workload, mental models, training, crew interaction analysis, multiple task performance, and the measurement of workload and performance in simulation.

Hart, S. G.↗

NASA NTRS1987

A simulation evaluation of a pilot interface with an automatic terminal approach system

The pilot-machine interface with cockpit automation is a critical factor in achieving the benefits of automation and reducing pilot blunders. To improve this interface, an automatic terminal approach system (ATAS) was conceived that can automatically fly a published instrument approach by using stored instrument approach data to automatically tune airplane radios and control an airplane autopilot and autothrottle. The emphasis in the ATAS concept is a reduction in pilot blunders and work load by improving the pilot-automation interface. A research prototype of an ATAS was developed and installed in the Langley General Aviation Simulator. A piloted simulation study of the ATAS concept showed fewer pilot blunders, but no significant change in work load, when compared with a baseline heading-select autopilot mode. With the baseline autopilot, pilot blunders tended to involve loss of navigational situational awareness or instrument misinterpretation. With the ATAS, pilot blunders tended to involve a lack of awareness of the current ATAS mode state or deficiencies in the pilots' mental model of how the system operated. The ATAS display provided adequate approach status data to maintain situational awareness.

Hinton, David A.↗

NASA NTRS1990

Flight crew aiding for recovery from subsystem failures

Some of the conceptual issues associated with pilot aiding systems are discussed and an implementation of one component of such an aiding system is described. It is essential that the format and content of the information the aiding system presents to the crew be compatible with the crew's mental models of the task. It is proposed that in order to cooperate effectively, both the aiding system and the flight crew should have consistent information processing models, especially at the point of interface. A general information processing strategy, developed by Rasmussen, was selected to serve as the bridge between the human and aiding system's information processes. The development and implementation of a model-based situation assessment and response generation system for commercial transport aircraft are described. The current implementation is a prototype which concentrates on engine and control surface failure situations and consequent flight emergencies. The aiding system, termed Recovery Recommendation System (RECORS), uses a causal model of the relevant subset of the flight domain to simulate the effects of these failures and to generate appropriate responses, given the current aircraft state and the constraints of the current flight phase. Since detailed information about the aircraft state may not always be available, the model represents the domain at varying levels of abstraction and uses the less detailed abstraction levels to make inferences when exact information is not available. The structure of this model is described in detail.

Hudlicka, E.↗

NASA NTRS1991

Individual differences in airline captains' personalities, communication strategies, and crew performance

Aircrew effectiveness in coping with emergencies has been linked to captain's personality profile. The present study analyzed cockpit communication during simulated flight to examine the relation between captains' discourse strategies, personality profiles, and crew performance. Positive Instrumental/Expressive captains and Instrumental-Negative captains used very similar communication strategies and their crews made few errors. Their talk was distinguished by high levels of planning and strategizing, gathering information, predicting/alerting, and explaining, especially during the emergency flight phase. Negative-Expressive captains talked less overall, and engaged in little problem solving talk, even during emergencies. Their crews made many errors. Findings support the theory that high crew performance results when captains use language to build shared mental models for problem situations.

Orasanu, Judith↗

NASA NTRS1993

High level organizing principles for display of systems fault information for commercial flight crews

Advanced fault management aiding concepts for commercial pilots are being developed in a research program at NASA Langley Research Center. One aim of this program is to re-evaluate current design principles for display of fault information to the flight crew: (1) from a cognitive engineering perspective and (2) in light of the availability of new types of information generated by advanced fault management aids. The study described in this paper specifically addresses principles for organizing fault information for display to pilots based on their mental models of fault management.

Rogers, William H.↗

NASA NTRS1998

User Directed Tools for Exploiting Expert Knowledge in an Immersive Segmentation and Visualization Environment

Volumetric data sets have become common in medicine and many sciences through technologies such as computed x-ray tomography (CT), magnetic resonance (MR), positron emission tomography (PET), confocal microscopy and 3D ultrasound. When presented with 2D images humans immediately and unconsciously begin a visual analysis of the scene. The viewer surveys the scene identifying significant landmarks and building an internal mental model of presented information. The identification of features is strongly influenced by the viewers expectations based upon their expert knowledge of what the image should contain. While not a conscious activity, the viewer makes a series of choices about how to interpret the scene. These choices occur in parallel with viewing the scene and effectively change the way the viewer sees the image. It is this interaction of viewing and choice which is the basis of many familiar visual illusions. This is especially important in the interpretation of medical images where it is the expert knowledge of the radiologist which interprets the image. For 3D data sets this interaction of view and choice is frustrated because choices must precede the visualization of the data set. It is not possible to visualize the data set with out making some initial choices which determine how the volume of data is presented to the eye. These choices include, view point orientation, region identification, color and opacity assignments. Further compounding the problem is the fact that these visualization choices are defined in terms of computer graphics as opposed to language of the experts knowledge. The long term goal of this project is to develop an environment where the user can interact with volumetric data sets using tools which promote the utilization of expert knowledge by incorporating visualization and choice into a tight computational loop. The tools will support activities involving the segmentation of structures, construction of surface meshes and local filtering of the data set. To conform to this environment tools should have several key attributes. First, they should be only rely on computations over a local neighborhood of the probe position. Second, they should operate iteratively over time converging towards a limit behavior. Third, they should adapt to user input modifying they operational parameters with time.

Senger, Steven O.↗

NASA NTRS1995

Cross-Cultural Barriers to Effective Communication in Aviation

Recent research on communication and performance in airline flight crews has led to a concept of shared mental models that is associated with effective, efficient team coordination in problem solving and decision making situations. Elements that characterize efficient communication have been identified. This research, however, was based strictly on US crews. More recent studies supported by NASA have identified cultural factors that influence communication among team members who vary in their status and roles. Research is just beginning to identify commonalities and culturally distinct strategies for accomplishing joint tasks. ASRS incident reports have been analyzed to identify language barriers in flight that have safety consequences. Implications of these concepts and findings for multi-cultural command and control will be explored.

Orasanu, Judith↗

NASA NTRS1997

Alternative Perspectives on Risk: Individual Differences in Problem Structuring

Team decision making involves contributions of multiple players toward a common goal. While much has been written about the importance of developing shared mental models in order for teams to work together effectively, little has been done to determine the value of alternative perspectives on problem solving and decision making. Early studies of expertise contrasted experts with novices and noted that the two groups differ in the way they structure problems and in their selection of information as salient. Little attention has been given to differences among experts who differ in their specializations. A series of experiments was conducted to determine: (1) what dimensions of flight-related problem situations pilots judge to be most important when making flight-relevant decisions; and (2) whether pilots in different crew positions differ in the way they interpret problems relating to flight decisions. A sorting task was used to identify underlying dimensions judged as salient to individual pilots. Captains, first officers, and flight engineers from two major carriers participated in the study. Twenty-two flight scenarios were developed based on ASRS reports. Pilots were required to make judgments about how they would respond in each case and to sort the scenarios on the basis of similarity of decision factors. They were also asked to provide a verbal label that described each of their sorted categories. A second study required a different group of pilots (also captains, first officers and flight engineers) to sort on predetermined bases.

Orasanu, Judith↗

NASA NTRS2004

Structure, Intent and Conformance Monitoring in ATC

Infield studies of current Air Traffic Control operations it is found that controllers rely on underlying airspace structure to reduce the complexity of the planning and conformance monitoring tasks. The structure appears to influence the controller's working mental model through abstractions that reduce the apparent cognitive complexity. These structure-based abstractions are useful for the controller's key tasks of planning, implementing, monitoring, and evaluating tactical situations. In addition, the structure-based abstractions appear to be important in the maintenance of Situation Awareness. The process of conformance monitoring is analyzed in more detail and an approach to conformance monitoring which utilizes both the structure-based abstractions and intent is presented.

Reynolds, Tom G.↗

NASA NTRS1998

Some Formal Aspects of Human-Machine Interaction

While automated control systems such as autopilots and medical devices are introduced at a rapid pace, it is widely recognized that user interaction with these machines is problematic (Abbott, Slotte, & Stimson, 1996). One factor commonly cited in the literature is the discrepancy between the machine's behavior and the user's expectations. Design guidelines to reduce this discrepancy focus on two elements: (1) improvement of the "feedback" about what the automation is actually doing, and (2) improvement of the user's "mental model" of the automation (Norman, 1990; Sarter and Woods, 1995). This presentation describes a methodology for investigating these two elements via a formal (Le., mathematical) approach. The method involves two representations: (1) a finite state model of the machine's behavior (2) a finite state model of the user's knowledge and expectations about the machine's behavior. In the analysis phase we compare these two models and identify discrepancies. Such discrepancies can be compensated by augmenting the display and/or the user's model. A taxonomy of these discrepancies will be discussed using examples from automated Eight control systems of modern "glass cockpit" jetliners.

Degani, Asaf↗

NASA NTRS2006

Raised Relief Mars Globe Brings the Red Planet Closer

The Mars Globe 20x is the first digitally produced raised relief globe to be sold at retail establishments. The rises and dips of the Martian landscape have been multiplied by 20 to make the shapes more noticeable to human touch and sight. They make this globe, with its over 1 million elevation points, a visually stunning introduction to the planet. Spectrum 3D used the NASA digital land elevation data to aim lasers that then shaped and defined the master globe s surface. Subsequent copies were then made by creating a master globe mold. The molded copies are hand finished by workers who remove errant edges or lines that may appear on the raw globes and then paint the surfaces. The result is a globe that measures in at 18 inches in diameter, roughly 1:15,729,473 scale of the actual planet. The exaggerated raised relief is like having a 3-D digital microscope for planetary shapes. This makes the landmarks easier to learn and understand, as it provides easy visuals for orientation. People have a natural propensity for understanding 3-D shapes more easily than numbers or words. The 3-D globes appeal to both the kinetic and visual learning aspects of the brain, making it easy for people to readily memorize the landmarks and to make a mental model that they will remember for a long time.

Source record↗

NASA NTRS2002

Computer based human-centered display system

A human centered informational display is disclosed that can be used with vehicles (e.g. aircraft) and in other operational environments where rapid human centered comprehension of an operational environment is required. The informational display integrates all cockpit information into a single display in such a way that the pilot can clearly understand with a glance, his or her spatial orientation, flight performance, engine status and power management issues, radio aids, and the location of other air traffic, runways, weather, and terrain features. With OZ the information is presented as an integrated whole, the pilot instantaneously recognizes flight path deviations, and is instinctively drawn to the corrective maneuvers. Our laboratory studies indicate that OZ transfers to the pilot all of the integrated display information in less than 200 milliseconds. The reacquisition of scan can be accomplished just as quickly. Thus, the time constants for forming a mental model are near instantaneous. The pilot's ability to keep up with rapidly changing and threatening environments is tremendously enhanced. OZ is most easily compatible with aircraft that has flight path information coded electronically. With the correct sensors (which are currently available) OZ can be installed in essentially all current aircraft.

Still, David L.↗