Experimental Studies and Mathematical Models of Human Problem Solving Performance in Fault Diagnosis Tasks

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Human Detection and Diagnosis of System Failures

Part of the book series: NATO Conference Series ((HF,volume 15))

Abstract

One of the reasons often given for employing humans in systems is their supposed abilities to react appropriately and flexibly in failure situations (Johnson, Rouse, and Rouse, 1980). On the other hand, we seem to hear increasingly about incidents of “human error”. The apparent inconsistency of these two observations can cause one to wonder what role the human should actually play. This question has led us to pursue a series of investigations of human problem solving performance in fault diagnosis tasks. Using three different fault diagnosis scenarios, we have studied several hundred subjects, mostly maintenance trainees, who have solved many thousands of problems. The results of these studies have led to the development of three mathematical models of problem solving behavior. The three tasks, results of the eight experiments, and the three models will be reviewed in this paper.

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References

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© 1981 Plenum Press, New York

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Rouse, W.B. (1981). Experimental Studies and Mathematical Models of Human Problem Solving Performance in Fault Diagnosis Tasks. In: Rasmussen, J., Rouse, W.B. (eds) Human Detection and Diagnosis of System Failures. NATO Conference Series, vol 15. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4615-9230-3_14

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4615-9230-3_14

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Boston, MA

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-4615-9232-7

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4615-9230-3

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