Humans have cognitive limitations (e.g. limited attentional capacity) but also great capabilities (e.g. ability to divide attention between certain tasks). Human Factors (HF) is a multi-disciplinary subject to study humans’ limitations and capabilities in their work environment; the aim is to enhance human work performance by designing appropriate tools or modifying the environment to address those limitations and capabilities.
This talk has two parts: the first part introduces the history and origin of HF to illustrate how human performance is not always under the direct control of our cognition but is influenced by the environment. The emphasis on understanding the role of environment in determining human behaviour is further illustrated by examples from the psychology and human error literature.
In the second part of the talk, I will describe my current research on auditory displays for patient monitoring. Auditory displays are displays that use sounds to inform clinicians about their patients’ vital signs such as SpO2, heart rate, blood pressure, etc. One type of auditory displays is time-compressed speech, which are sped-up speech phrases. I will describe a few laboratory studies that show the effectiveness of time-compressed speech and discuss its HF implications, and why it might be an alternative to using alarms for patient monitoring.
