Citation

Reinerman L, Mercado J, Szalma JL, Hancock PA. Ergonomics 2019; ePub(ePub): ePub.

Affiliation

Department of Psychology, University of Central Florida , 4000 Central Florida Boulevard, Suite 301A , Orlando , FL , 32816 , USA.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2019, Informa - Taylor and Francis Group)

DOI

10.1080/00140139.2019.1677946

PMID

31623536

Abstract

We evaluated the performance of three highly practiced participants on three task types that comprised a simulated nuclear power plant control operation. Multiple subjective, physiological, and objective performance measures were collected on these three highly-practiced individuals.

RESULTS indicated ceiling effects in terms of performance accuracy, yet each individual adopted a unique response strategy across the respective sub-tasks. Their maximized accuracy was achieved at the expense of longer response times across differing sub-tasks. The measures which proved diagnostic and predictive of performance capacity were explored. The current conclusion presents us with an invidious problem in that performance and workload associations, insensitivities, and dissociations may be unique to each individual operator, and may well depend also upon the overall task in context. Such findings push our science away from seeking nomothetic assertions and toward individuated concerns. In consequence, the age of the idiographic may well be upon us. Practitioners' Summary: The importance and relevance of nuclear power control is self-evident. Concerns here have centred around the safety of the technology and its operators. Our work informs practitioners in this industry, and in Ergonomics in general, of the response of highly trained individuals in these safety-critical, operational domains. We show that even experts engage in personal and individual strategies, an observation critical to the assessment of this specific workplace, and potentially all others.

Language: en

Keywords

Nuclear Power Plant Control; Objective Performance Measurement; Physiological Reactions; Subjective Response