Psychology Commons^™

A Statistical Test For The Capacity Coefficient, Joseph W. Houpt, James T. Townsend

Psychology Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

General Recognition Theory Extended To Include Response Times: Predictions For A Class Of Parallel Systems, Joseph W. Houpt, James T. Townsend, Noah H. Silbert

Psychology Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

From Deep Space 9 To The Gamma Quadrant!, James T. Townsend, Joseph W. Houpt

Psychology Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Theoretical And Empirical Guidance For A Chunk Valuation Mechanism In Act-R, Ion Juvina, Alessandro Oltamari, Christian Lebiere

Psychology Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

An Extension Of Sic Predictions To The Wiener Coactive Model, Joseph W. Houpt, James T. Townsend

Psychology Faculty Publications

The survivor interaction contrasts (SIC) is a powerful measure for distinguishing among candidate models of human information processing. One class of models to which SIC analysis can apply are the coactive, or channel summation, models of human information processing. In general, parametric forms of coactive models assume that responses are made based on the first passage time across a fixed threshold of a sum of stochastic processes. Previous work has shown that the SIC for a coactive model based on the sum of Poisson processes has a distinctive down--up--down form, with an early negative region that is smaller than the …

A New Perspective On Visual Word Processing Efficiency, Joseph W. Houpt, James T. Townsend

Psychology Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Nice Guys Finish Fast And Bad Guys Finish Last: Facilitatory Vs. Inhibitory Interaction In Parallel Systems, Ami Eidels, Joseph W. Houpt, Nicholas Altieri, Lei Pei, James T. Townsend

Psychology Faculty Publications

Systems Factorial Technology is a powerful framework for investigating the fundamental properties of human information processing such as architecture (i.e., serial or parallel processing) and capacity (how processing efficiency is affected by increased workload). The Survivor Interaction Contrast (SIC) and the Capacity Coefficient are effective measures in determining these underlying properties, based on response-time data. Each of the different architectures, under the assumption of independent processing, predicts a specific form of the SIC along with some range of capacity. In this study, we explored SIC predictions of discrete-state (Markov process) and continuous-state (Linear Dynamic) models that allow for certain types …

Intergroup Prisoner’S Dilemma With Intragroup Power Dynamics, Ion Juvina, Christian Lebiere, Jolie M. Martin, Cleotilde Gonzalez

Psychology Faculty Publications

The Intergroup Prisoner’s Dilemma with Intragroup Power Dynamics (IPD^2) is a new game paradigm for studying human behavior in conflict situations. IPD^2 adds the concept of intragroup power to an intergroup version of the standard Repeated Prisoner’s Dilemma game. We conducted a laboratory study in which individual human participants played the game against computer strategies of various complexities. The results show that participants tend to cooperate more when they have greater power status within their groups. IPD^2 yields increasing levels of mutual cooperation and decreasing levels of mutual defection, in contrast to a variant of Intergroup Prisoner’s Dilemma without intragroup …

The Statistical Properties Of The Survivor Interaction Contrast, Joseph W. Houpt, James T. Townsend

Psychology Faculty Publications

The Survivor Interaction Contrast (SIC) is a powerful tool for assessing the architecture and stopping rule of a model of mental processes. Despite its demonstrated utility, the methodology has lacked a method for statistical testing until now. In this paper we briefly describe the SIC then develop some basic statistical properties of the measure. These developments lead to a statistical test for rejecting certain classes of models based on the SIC. We verify these tests using simulated data, then demonstrate their use on data from a simple cognitive task.

A New Perspective On Visual Word Processing Efficiency, Joseph W. Houpt, James T. Townsend

Psychology Faculty Publications

As a fundamental part of our daily lives, visual word processing has received much attention in the psychological literature. Despite the well established perceptual advantages of word and pseudoword context using accuracy, a comparable effect using response times has been elusive. Some researchers continue to question whether the advantage due to word context is perceptual. We use the capacity coefficient, a well established, response time based measure of efficiency to provide evidence of word processing as a particularly efficient perceptual process to complement those results from the accuracy domain.

Stimulus Type, Level Of Categorization, And Spatial-Frequencies Utilization: Implications For Perceptual Categorization Hierarchies, Assaf Harel, Shlomo Bentin

Psychology Faculty Publications

The type of visual information needed for categorizing faces and nonface objects was investigated by manipulating spatial frequency scales available in the image during a category verification task addressing basic and subordinate levels. Spatial filtering had opposite effects on faces and airplanes that were modulated by categorization level. The absence of low frequencies impaired the categorization of faces similarly at both levels, whereas the absence of high frequencies was inconsequential throughout. In contrast, basic-level categorization of airplanes was equally impaired by the absence of either low or high frequencies, whereas at the subordinate level, the absence of high frequencies had …

Creating Safety In The Testing Process In Primary Care Offices, Nancy C. Elder, Timothy R. Mcewen, John M. Flach, Jennie J. Gallimore

Psychology Faculty Publications

Background: The testing process in primary care is complex, and it varies from one office to another. We sought to understand how family medicine offices create safety in this process.

Methods: Using observations, interviews, and surveys, we collected data at four family medicine offices. We searched the interview and observation notes for stories of safety, error prevention, and recovery and coded them to a model of resilient engineering properties, work system components, and testing process steps.

Results: We found only six examples of practices that were systematically creating safety in the testing process via organizational resilience. The most common resilience …

Is It A European Car Or A Japanese Car? An Erp Study Of Diagnostic Information Use In Visual Expertise, Assaf Harel, Shlomo Bentin

Psychology Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Ions-Vip: A Cognitive Model For Navigating The Web Via Screen Readers, Ion Juvina

Psychology Faculty Publications

This paper presents a cognitive perspective on the problem of using the Internet via screen readers. An empirical study shows similarities and dissimilarities between using the Internet via screen readers and via the standard graphical screen. In particular, spatial cognition is an important determinant of web task performance even in the absence of any visual cues. Backtracking behavior has a higher cost and impacts performance in a more negative way when using the Internet via screen readers as compared to the standard use. Selective reading can be used as an addition to the existing functionality of screen readers but more …

Sead And The Ucav: A Preliminary Cognitive Systems Analysis, John M. Flach, Robert Eggleston, Gilbert G. Kuperman, Cynthia O. Dominguez

Psychology Faculty Publications

This report is the first step of a program with three explicit goals: (1) to illustrate and test the framework of Cognitive Systems Engineering (CSE) for use in military systems analysis and design; (2) to generate a database that will be useful for designers and managers working on the development of UCAVs for use in the SEAD mission; and (3) to develop interfaces for UCAVs. These goals are tightly coupled in that the usefulness of the database and the ability to develop effective interfaces and user-aiding concepts will be the true test of the CSE framework. The report is most …

Victory By Design: War, Information, And Cognitive Systems Engineering, John M. Flach, Gilbert G. Kuperman

Psychology Faculty Publications

This report discusses the new field of cognitive systems engineering (CSE) and explores the applicability of the CSE paradigm to the domain of information warfare (IW). CSE's goal is the application and design integration of information technology (including both human and automated information processing systems) to facilitate work. CSE defines work as effort to move through a problem space to achieve specific objectives. Information warfare represents a work domain where the effective management of information must incorporate the effective utilization of rapid advances in technology (e.g., sensors, communications, and display devices). The report examines IW and Basic Air Force Doctrine …

Perception And Control Of Locomotion, John M. Flach

Psychology Faculty Publications

Over the past four years we have been studying problems of control and coordination with funds from AFOSR. Work over the first three years has been reviewed in the final report for the original AFOSR award (Flach, 1996). This report reviews work for the last year of the ASSERT grant. This work has focused on perception and control of low altitude flight. Experimental work from two synthetic task environments is described in this report. The first environment involved descent to low altitude. The key independent variables were speed of forward motion and optical texture (dot, grid, splay, depression). Results showed …

Situation Awareness: In Search Of Meaning, John M. Flach

Psychology Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

A Cognitively-Oriented Approach To Task Analysis And Test Development, David A. Dubois, Valerie L. Shalin, Keith R. Levi, Walter C. Borman

Psychology Faculty Publications

Clear descriptions of job expertise are required to support applications and improvements in personnel training and job performance. This report describes a practical approach to task analysis that integrates the issues, content, and methods of cognitive science and personnel psychology. Cognitively oriented task analysis employs a breadth, then depth, strategy for identifying job expertise. Starting with a task-by-knowledge framework, job expertise is successively elaborated using interviews, expert ratings, and protocol analyses. The application of task analysis results to the development of written performance measures is described to illustrate the contributions of this approach to measurement validity. Task analysis results show …

Perception/Action: An Holistic Approach Ii, John M. Flach

Psychology Faculty Publications

This final report reviews three years of research focused on the coordination of perception and action. Human performance has been evaluated within the framework of a closed-loop system where perception and action are intimately coupled. Four problems have been studied: the control of locomotion, dynamic occlusion, depth perception, and minimally invasive surgery. Studies of the control of locomotion have shown that for control of altitude there was an interaction between the flow structure (splay or depression angle) and the event dynamic (hover or forward flight). Results showed that in hover conditions, depression angle specifies altitude changes most reliably; but in …

Perception/Action: An Holistic Approach, John M. Flach

Psychology Faculty Publications

A general systems approach is taken to studying the emergent properties of the human perception/action system. Two task domains, the control of locomotion and the recognition of objects, are used to study human performance. The locomotion task involves the control of altitude. Experiments are described that will manipulate the type of texture, the speed of forward motion, and altitude. A general hypothesis is presented that performance in the altitude control task is a function of the signal-to-noise ratio within the flow field--where signal refers to optical activity resulting from change of altitude and noise refers to optical activity resulting from …

Control With An Eye For Perception: Precursors To An Active Psychophysics, John M. Flach

Psychology Faculty Publications

The perception-action cycle is viewed within the context of research in manual control. A portrait of a perception-action system is derived from the primitives of control theory in order to evaluate the promise of this perspective for what Warren and McMfllan (1984) have termed "Active Psychophysics." That is, a study of human performance that does justice to the intimate coupling between perception and action.

Taskillan: A Validation Test Bed For Complex Performance Models, Christopher D. Wickens, John M. Flach, Arthur Kramer, Kelly Harwood, Gavan Lintern

Psychology Faculty Publications

In order to assess the validity of models of human learning and performance to real world aviation system design, a complex computer-based helicopter flight simulation was designed. This multi-task simulation, hosted on an IRIS visual graphics display system linked to an IBM AT, is described. Its relevance for the validity models of concurrent task interaction, of training, and of navigation and spatial cognition is discussed.

Performance Evaluation Of A Kinesthetic-Tactual Display, Richard J. Jagacinski, John M. Flach, Richard D. Gilson, R. Scott Dunn

Psychology Faculty Publications

Simulator studies demonstrated the feasibility of using kinesthetic-tactual (KT) displays for providing collective and cyclic command information, and suggested that KT displays may increase pilot workload capability. A dual-axis laboratory tracking task suggested that beyond reduction in visual scanning, there may be additional sensory or cognitive benefits to the use of multiple sensory modalities. Single-axis laboratory tracking tasks revealed performance with a quickened KT display to be equivalent to performance with a quickened visual display for a low frequency sum-of-sinewaves input. In contrast, an unquickened KT display was inferior to an unquickened visual display. Full scale simulator studies and/or inflight …