Evaluation of Ecological Interface Design for Nuclear Process Control: Situation Awareness Effects

Objective: We determine whether an ecological interface display for nuclear power plant operations supports improved situation awareness over traditional and user-centered displays in a realistic environment. Background: Ecological interface design (EID) has not yet been fully evaluated with real operators facing realistic scenarios. Method: Ecological displays were evaluated alongside traditional and user-centered “advanced” displays in a full-scope nuclear power plant simulation. Licensed plant operators used the displays in realistic scenarios that either had procedural support or did not have procedural support. All three displays were evaluated for their ability to support operator situation awareness. Results: A significant three-way interaction effect was observed on two independent measures of situation awareness. For both measures, ecological displays improved situation awareness in scenarios that did not have procedural support, primarily in the detection phases of those scenarios. No other pronounced effects appeared across both measures. Conclusions: The observed improvement was sufficiently large to suggest that EID could improve situation awareness in situations where procedures are unavailable. However, the EID displays did not lead to improved situation awareness in the other conditions of the evaluation, and participants using these displays occasionally underperformed on single measures of situation awareness. This suggests that the approach requires further development, particularly in integrating EID with procedural support. Application: This research has important findings for the ongoing development of the EID approach, the design of industrial operator displays, and design to support situation awareness.

[1]  Penelope M. Sanderson,et al.  Work domain analysis and sensors II: Pasteurizer II case study , 2002, Int. J. Hum. Comput. Stud..

[2]  Catherine M. Burns,et al.  Putting It All Together: Improving Display Integration in Ecological Displays , 2000, Hum. Factors.

[3]  Kim J. Vicente,et al.  Ecological interface design: theoretical foundations , 1992, IEEE Trans. Syst. Man Cybern..

[4]  Roger E. Kirk,et al.  Experimental design: Procedures for the behavioral sciences (3rd ed.). , 1995 .

[5]  Catherine M. Burns,et al.  Ecological Interface Design , 2004 .

[6]  Gyrd Skraaning,et al.  The Operator Performance Assessment System (OPAS) , 1998 .

[7]  Daniel J. Garland,et al.  Situation Awareness Analysis and Measurement , 2009 .

[8]  Nadine B. Sarter,et al.  How in the World Did We Ever Get into That Mode? Mode Error and Awareness in Supervisory Control , 1995, Hum. Factors.

[9]  R. Kirk.  Experimental Design: Procedures for the Behavioral Sciences , 1970 .

[10]  Mica R. Endsley,et al.  Design and Evaluation for Situation Awareness Enhancement , 1988 .

[11]  Mica R. Endsley,et al.  Experimental Analysis and Measurement of Situation Awareness , 1995 .

[12]  Penelope M. Sanderson,et al.  Adapting Situational Awareness Measures for Hydropower Display Evaluations , 2007 .

[13]  Jordanna Kwok.  Ecological Interface Design for Turbine Secondary Systems in a Nuclear Power Plant: Effects on Operator Situation Awareness , 2007 .

[14]  J M Flach,et al.  COGNITIVE ENGINEERING: DESIGNIING FOR SITUATION AWARENESS. IN: COGNITIVE ENGINEERING IN THE AVIATION DOMAIN , 2000 .

[15]  Mica R. Endsley,et al.  Measurement of Situation Awareness in Dynamic Systems , 1995, Hum. Factors.

[16]  Kim J. Vicente,et al.  Integrating Task- and Work Domain-Based Work Analyses in Ecological Interface Design: A Process Control Case Study , 2007, IEEE Transactions on Systems, Man, and Cybernetics - Part A: Systems and Humans.

[17]  Jens Rasmussen,et al.  Skills, rules, and knowledge; signals, signs, and symbols, and other distinctions in human performance models , 1983, IEEE Transactions on Systems, Man, and Cybernetics.

[18]  Mark A. Griffin,et al.  Development of measures of situation awareness, task performance, and contextual performance in Air Traffic Control , 2000 .

[19]  Jens Rasmussen,et al.  The role of hierarchical knowledge representation in decisionmaking and system management , 1985, IEEE Transactions on Systems, Man, and Cybernetics.

[20]  Olaf Oehme,et al.  Visual displays , 2002 .

[21]  Klaus Eyferth,et al.  Securing future ATM-concepts' safety by measuring situation awareness in ATC , 2003 .

[22]  G. A. Jamieson,et al.  Ecological Interface Design for Petrochemical Process Control: An Empirical Assessment , 2007, IEEE Transactions on Systems, Man, and Cybernetics - Part A: Systems and Humans.

[23]  Emilie M. Roth,et al.  Using a Benchmark-Referenced Approach for Validating a Power Plant Control Room: Results of the Baseline Study , 2002 .

[24]  Laura Lin,et al.  Designing a first-of-a-kind group view display for team decision making: A case study. , 2001 .

[25]  David N. Hogg,et al.  Development of a situation awareness measure to evaluate advanced alarm systems in nuclear power plant control rooms , 1995 .

[26]  Kip Smith,et al.  Situation Awareness Is Adaptive, Externally Directed Consciousness , 1995, Hum. Factors.

[27]  Catherine M. Burns,et al.  Using Personal Digital Assistants and Patient Care Algorithms to Improve Access to Cardiac Care Best Practices , 2007, Medinfo.

[28]  D O'Hare,et al.  Situational awareness ability and cognitive skills training in a complex real-world task , 2007, Ergonomics.

[29]  M R Endsley,et al.  Sources of situation awareness errors in aviation. , 1996, Aviation, space, and environmental medicine.

[30]  David C. Howell.  Multiple Comparisons with Repeated Measures , 2002 .

[31]  Mica R. Endsley,et al.  Toward a Theory of Situation Awareness in Dynamic Systems , 1995, Hum. Factors.

[32]  Catherine M. Burns,et al.  Collaboration with Ecological Interface Design , 2004 .

[33]  Kim J. Vicente,et al.  Inducing effective operator control through ecological interface design , 1996, Int. J. Hum. Comput. Stud..

[34]  R. Thouless.  Experimental Psychology , 1939, Nature.

[35]  John M. Flach,et al.  Cognitive Engineering: Designing for Situation Awareness , 2000 .

[36]  John M. Flach,et al.  Situation Awareness: Proceed with Caution , 1995, Hum. Factors.

[37]  E. Salas,et al.  Linking Expertise and Naturalistic Decision Making , 2001 .

[38]  Gyrd Skraaning.  Experimental control versus realism: Methodological solutions for simulator studies in complex operating environments , 2003 .

[39]  G. Santucci,et al.  [Visual displays]. , 1981, L'Annee therapeutique et clinique en ophtalmologie.

[40]  Kim J. Vicente,et al.  Ecological Interface Design: Progress and Challenges , 2002, Hum. Factors.