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The Cry-Wolf Phenomenon And Its Effect On Alarm Responses, James P. Bliss

Retrospective Theses and Dissertations

Responses to alarms are assumed important. Yet failure to respond to alarms is recognized, although is not well understood or quantified. Conditions that might induce a failure to respond include alarm unreliability (i.e., numerous false alarms, the "cry-wolf" effect), high primary task demand, or low criticality of the alarm itself. The goals of this research were to substantiate the existence of the cry-wolf effect, quantifying its effect on operator performance, and to examine the relation between the cry-wolf effect and alarm criticality. One hundred thirty-eight UCF students alternatively performed two primary tasks, chosen from the Automated Performance Test System. Subjects …