We build a system dynamics model based on a conceptual model originally proposed by safety scientist Jens Rasmussen to explore the dynamics of a safety system subject to pressures for performance improvement. Rasmussen described forces that generate a drift in the boundary of acceptable performance that can push the organization towards “flirting with the margin” and thus operate at very high risk

A correction to this paper has been published: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10111-021-00680-1

A correction to this paper has been published: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10111-021-00678-9

Workload has long been considered as one of the important factors for personal functions and malfunctions, particularly in complex systems. Undertaking operations in workstations of such systems usually entails complex tasks and poor cognitive performance of their operators may contribute to human error and critical subsequent consequences. Although many studies have investigated the effects of workload

A correction to this paper has been published: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10111-021-00676-x

The advent of Industry 4.0 where humans and intelligent machines coexist, allows machines to assist humans on production lines. During such processes, humans work with other humans and/or machines to produce the required products, forming human-related collaborations. Therefore, Industry 4.0 goes beyond a digital ecosystem by being considered as a System of Information Systems which matches heterogeneous

Graceful extensibility has been recently introduced and can be defined as the ability of a system to extend its capacity to adapt when surprise events challenge its boundaries. It provides basic rules that govern adaptive systems. Railway transportation systems can be considered cyber-physical systems that comprise interacting digital, analog, physical, and human components engineered for safe and

As social media use continues to increase, consumers are beginning to experience social media fatigue leading to concern among marketers about the efficacy of the channel. This research examines social media fatigue through a stressor–strain–outcome model to better understand how consumers cope with this phenomenon and how it impacts adoption behaviors. Data were collected from 452 valid WeChat users

Recent advances in autonomous vehicles promise to revolutionize the transportation system. This perspective has led to new research on a number of open questions, such as how the self-driving system should behave in unavoidable crash situations. Our study aims to contribute to this investigation. In most ongoing research, this question is presented as a moral dilemma, drawing on established research

This work focuses on the analysis of pilots’ performance during manual flight operations in different stages of training and their influence on gaze strategy. The secure and safe operation of air traffic is highly dependent on the individual performances of the pilots. Before becoming a pilot, he/she has to acquire a broad set of skills by training to pass all the necessary qualification and licensing

This paper addresses the engineering of the ethical behaviors of autonomous industrial cyber-physical human systems in the context of Industry 4.0. An ethical controller is proposed to be embedded into these autonomous systems, to enable their successful integration in the society and its norms. This proposed controller that integrates machine ethics is realized through three main strategies that utilize

Advanced driving assistance systems (ADAS) are now numerous, each relieving drivers of their responsibility for the control of different aspects of the driving task. Notably, adaptive cruise control (ACC) for longitudinal control, or lane departure prevention (LDP) and lane centring control (LCC) for lateral control, two variations of the lane-keeping assistance (LKA) system. Drivers must familiarise

This paper presents a field workshop organised by the Healthcare Improvement Scotland (HIS) focusing on the evaluation of the formalised AcciMap approach by patient safety practitioners of the National Health Service (NHS). Participants who were experienced in incident analysis relating to patient safety and risk management across different NHS boards but had no prior knowledge using the AcciMap approach

Previous research has demonstrated performance inefficiencies among perfectionists, which may be mitigated via the adoption of ‘good enough’ heuristic-based information acquisition strategies; particularly in complex tasks. This study investigated whether training perfectionists to use reduced-processing strategies during decision-making could reduce their checking and maximising tendencies, improve

The work on the factory floor is gradually changing to resemble knowledge work due to highly automated manufacturing machines. In the increasingly automated work environment, the machine operator’s task is to keep the production running and to solve possible problems quickly. This work is expected to become more autonomous, which raises the importance of supporting the workers’ well-being. An important

This paper aims to develop a concept of incentive gamification for organizations in the digital era. Incentive gamification is an incentive-based policy using the game pattern. This policy aims to improve performance of employee who works in the marketing department of such e-commerce as an online marketer. This study involves 104 female employees. Data were collected using questionnaire and analysed

This special issue contributes to the achievement of challenges related to human factors and automation dedicated to future railway systems. It includes transverse research topics by considering several emerging trends as the design of learning systems, of grades of automation, of cooperative system, or of analysis approaches about feedback of experience. To do so, contributions are detailed in different

One objective of Industry 4.0 is to reach a better system performance as well as to have a better consideration of humans. This would be done by benefiting from knowledge and experience of humans, and balancing in a reactive way some complex or complicated tasks with intelligent systems. Several studies already dealt with such an objective, but few are done at a methodological level, which forbids

Subjective Evidence-Based Ethnography (SEBE) is a family of methods developed in digital ethnography for investigation in social science based on subjective audio–video recordings using first-person perspective. Recordings are used for self-confrontation (collect subjective experience, discussion of findings and final interpretation). Several studies applying SEBE methods mentioned “introspection”

The objective of this paper is to cast users of railway level crossings as flexible and adaptive decision-makers, and to apply a cognitive systems engineering approach to discover new behaviour-based insights for improving safety. Collisions between trains and road vehicles at railway level crossings/grade crossings remain a global issue. It is still far from apparent why drivers undertake some of

Ship collisions caused by navigation officer error significantly threaten the safety of marine navigation. An increased fear of collision for navigation officers in a close-quarters situation (CQS) may lead to failure to perform the prescribed collision-avoidance measures. This study measured the perceived collision risk (PCR) for 30 coast guard navigation officers according to their heart-rate variability

In China, F-type-5 m intersections are not uncommon. One approach of these intersections usually includes a driveway closely followed by an intersecting street, and the driveway and the intersecting street are parallel and approximately 5 m apart. Nowadays, drivers often rely on the navigation systems for directions. However, it is found that the navigation systems sometimes mislead or confuse drivers

Traffic congestion and accidents are more likely to occur on gently undulating roads called sags, because drivers are less likely to recognize a change in velocity. Therefore, to induce appropriate judgement and operation, we have proposed to bias the perception of velocity by tactile stimulation. Our previous study showed that the frequency of vibrotactile stimulation based on an engine is related

There is evidence that drivers’ behaviour adapts after using different advanced driving assistance systems. For instance, drivers’ headway during car-following reduces after using adaptive cruise control. However, little is known about whether, and how, drivers’ behaviour will change if they experience automated car-following, and how this is affected by engagement in non-driving-related tasks (NDRT)

New technologies are ever evolving and have the power to change human work for the better or the worse depending on the implementation. For human–robot interaction (HRI), it is decisive how humans and robots will share tasks and who will be in charge for decisions on task allocation. The aim of this online experiment was to examine the influence of different decision agents on the perception of a task

Effects of stressors on cognitive task performance have primarily been studied in isolation, and little is known about the combined effects of two or more stressors. This study examined how a metabolic stressor (skipping breakfast) and a sensory stressor (noise) affect cognitive task performance in isolation and combined. In addition to performance, we collected physiological and subjective data to

This research aims to develop a public traffic safety awareness questionnaire and explore the factors influencing public traffic safety awareness in China. A questionnaire survey was conducted with 5200 people in Jiaozuo, China, to assess their public traffic safety awareness. Based on 5029 effective samples, the developed public traffic safety awareness scale passed the reliability and validity tests

Previous research has shown that co-location of operators dependent on each other for task-relevant information can relieve the previously identified bottleneck of information between the Sonar Control (SOC) and Operations Officer (OPSO) in submarine sound and control rooms. This research aimed to examine the impact of a novel inwards facing circular configuration on communications and tasks within

The autonomous driving technology is rapidly developed for commercial use, aiming at the conditional driving automation or the third level of driving automation (LoDA 3). One of the most critical challenges for the achievement is the smooth authority transfer from the system to human drivers in an emergency. However, it is still on the way to find out fundamental solutions. The difficulty is closely

Isolated caregivers in remote environments frequently request medical advice or decision support from distant experts. Among the multiple difficulties arising from this configuration, exchanging timely and pertinent information under pressure between the two parties poses a considerable challenge. Cognitive Work Analysis and notably the Turing Machine Task Analysis (TMTA) method that enables task processing

Resilience is a topic widely discussed in the system safety community yet with various conceptualizations which have not been fully converged in principle. Characterization of resilience of socio-technical systems is then left open to be interpreted by alternative means. As one of the means, coordinated control theory (CCT) can explain a mechanism that enables the systems to achieve adaptations constantly

Self-driving vehicles are currently being developed in major industries for mass public deployment. Their benefits are attractive, and there is interest in having them on the streets as quickly as possible. Delegating responsibility to the cars has far-reaching impacts. As accidents will be unavoidable, the self-driving car will be asked to make life and death decisions that will impact human lives

Forklift drivers in in-house logistics are at a high risk of occupational injuries. This study piloted a video-based learning game for forklift drivers, designed to increase their safety awareness in their highly dynamic operating environment. The game consisted of video clips filmed from the driver’s perspective. Each video clip was stopped and masked at a point where a safety-relevant item or hazard

The evaluation of groupware has a long history; several researchers have investigated this research area and made attempts to develop evaluation methods. This paper aims to make a contribution to this research topic by introducing a groupware evaluation method called Team Usability Testing. The goal of this method is to evaluate the usability of real-time distributed groupware. The Team Usability Test

Team communication is considered a key factor for team performance. Importantly, voicing concerns and suggestions regarding work-related topics—also termed speaking up—represents an essential part of team communication. Particularly in action teams in high-reliability organizations such as healthcare, military, or aviation, voice is crucial for error prevention. Although research on voice has become

Bus driving is a complex and cognitively challenging task that places high demands on bus drivers’ working memory. Increasing use of “In-Vehicle Information Systems” leads to driver distraction and is a contributing factor to many road accidents globally, and with systems for tickets, navigation, and timetables, bus drivers are more exposed to this additional workload than other actors in the traffic

Industrial production is still widely sustained by human operators. However, the design of human–machine interaction often does not foster the motivation to learn more about their machine or system. This may decrease operators’ ability to flexibly adjust their decision making and problem-solving skills to the current production context. Motivation to learn could be attained by a motivating socio-technical

Nautical traffic management in The Netherlands is shifting from local traffic control to corridor traffic management. Current traffic management systems do not sufficiently support operators in perceptual and cognitive process to interpret and understand the large amounts of information needed for corridor traffic management. Newly developed user interface concepts aim to overcome deficiencies of current

Cognitive load plays an important role during learning and working, as it has been linked to well-functioning cognitive processes, performance, burnout and depression. Nonetheless, attempts to assess cognitive load in real-time by means of physiological data have been proven difficult, and interpreting these data remains challenging. The aim of this study is to examine whether and how well experienced

Primary school children are likely to participate in traffic as pedestrian road users. Due to their immature levels of physical and cognitive development, it is difficult for children to make safe decisions while crossing roads. The aim of this study was to analyse the behaviour characteristics and visual attention distribution of children in primary school as they cross roads. In total, 10 children

Ambient Displays, a sub-class of ubiquitous computing, aim to present non-critical information using peripheral visualisation with minimal distraction. The utility of Ambient Displays relies on providing useful, well-designed information in a way that does not increase the users cognitive load. Assessing the cognitive load of an Ambient Display is thus an important part of the development process.

Workplaces in the oil and gas (O&G) industry have evolved to become part of the modern complex sociotechnical system that characterises onshore and offshore facilities today. The intense interactions between workers, systems, equipment and processes have made companies in this sector more productive. However, significant and complex risks have also emerged. Managing them requires a methodology capable

This paper presents a cognitive task analysis to derive models of decision-making for rail maintenance processes. Maintenance processes are vital for safe and continuous availability of rail assets and services. These processes are increasingly embracing the ‘Intelligent Infrastructure’ paradigm, which uses automated analysis to predict asset state and potential failure. Understanding the cognitive

This paper addresses how to describe critical episodes of interaction between human operators and autonomous, automated, and manual control systems. The first part of the paper poses three questions: (1) what levels of cognitive control are important to include in a descriptive framework for joint human-autonomy in process control; (2) how should one describe temporal developments in joint socio-technical

To be successful, automated vehicles (AVs) need to be able to manoeuvre in mixed traffic in a way that will be accepted by road users, and maximises traffic safety and efficiency. A likely prerequisite for this success is for AVs to be able to communicate effectively with other road users in a complex traffic environment. The current study, conducted as part of the European project interACT, investigates

Humans still play a key role in air traffic control but their performances limit the capacity of the airspace and are responsible for delays. At the tactical level, even though air traffic controllers (ATCO) are trained for years, their performances are limited. In this article, we first isolated the tactical horizontal deconfliction task and explained its mathematical complexity. We observed through

Development of wearable mental workload (MWL) measures thrives, especially as leveraged by Industry 4.0. When employees object to wearing such gauges; however, research efforts might end up redundant. Based on self-determination and communication theories, this study assumed that employees’ acceptability of wearable MWL-monitoring is shaped by framing characteristics in corporate communication. Specifically

Accurate understanding of traffic signs is integral to driving safety. Questionnaires and behavior tests are usually used to measure sign comprehension. However, biometric indicators have also been developed to measure sign comprehension. This study investigated neural indicators underlying traffic sign understanding by measuring event-related potentials (ERPs). A stimulus 1–stimulus 2 paradigm was

Previous research has identified cognitive and situational factors as causes of risky driving; however, little is known about what roles cognitive and situational factors have on a specific risky driving behavior. In this study, two simulated drives were conducted to examine the impact of cognitive factors, reflected as working memory capacity and response inhibition capacity, and situational factor

This study examines the performance of cognitive work—as constrained by physical, policy and resource-related factors—in the near-simultaneous design and execution of disaster response operations. The demands of the situation described here—the removal of debris from a high-value barrier island in the US state of New York after Hurricane Sandy (2012)—lay at the far boundaries of the responding organizations’

Technological advancement brings opportunities for enhanced information, support, and functionality within the flight deck. Whilst this has many benefits to the pilot and the overall safety of the aircraft, the practical integration of new technologies needs to be carefully considered throughout the entirety of the design process. The application of Human Factors methods must ensure that new technologies

With encounters between trucks and cyclists still being a major safety issue and physical as well as technological improvements far from ubiquitous implementation, training truck drivers in anticipatory driving to improve their interaction with cyclists may be a way forward. After a baseline drive in an urban environment, truck drivers inexperienced with urban driving received a dedicated training

The aim of this study is to explore whether aspects of the physical work environment cause employee cyberloafing, which is defined as employee misuse of the company’s Internet connection for personal purposes. Drawing on conservation of resources theory, the paper proposes that perceived crowding arises as a result of scarce physical space resources, which lead employees to engage in cyberloafing through

With the introduction of advanced driving assistance systems managing longitudinal and lateral control, conditional automated driving is seemingly in near future of series vehicles. While take-over behavior in the passenger car context has been investigated intensively in recent years, publications on semi-trucks with professional drivers are sparse. The effects influencing expert drivers during take-overs

The subway context is a risky environment. Hundreds of individual incidents occur every year in this environment, entailing a safety issue for subway companies and safety organisations. This review deals with individual incidents at the platform–train–tracks interface (PT2I) with a particular focus on accidents and precursor analysis and on preventive measures. 42 articles ranging from 1984 to 2018

This study investigated the relationships among specific technostress inhibitors (literacy facilitation, technical support provision, and involvement facilitation) and creators (techno-overload, techno-complexity, techno-insecurity, and techno-uncertainty) and their impacts on university teachers’ work performance in higher education. Data from 312 university teachers were analyzed through partial

Because of the complex topography in mountainous areas, road traffic risk factors like sharp turns, continuous long downhills, multi-tunnel sections and dangerous roadside environment are very common. The objective of this study was to analyze how accurately do the drivers perceive hazardous degrees of the above four mountainous highway traffic risk factors by making a comparison between subjective

Our ultimate purpose is to train individuals, in virtual environments, to handle critical situations. One of these critical situations is dilemmas. They refer to situations that lead to negative consequences whichever is the choice made by the protagonist. In critical contexts, it is crucial to know how to handle this kind of situations to prevent disastrous consequences from happening. Thus, people

This paper describes the results of an exploratory study on the analysis of on-train-data-recorder (OTDR) data. The results are discussed in terms of their applicability in competence management and human factors research. Data were downloaded for 20 journeys at the same time of day, over the same route during 1 month. The data were matched to the drivers rostered to work that route to compare differences

Resilience engineering provides concepts and methods for assessing the ability of socio-technical systems to adjust their functioning before, during, or after changes or disturbances. As such, this field of study has great potential to contribute to software engineering—particularly for the requirements specification for information systems—that deals with variability, unpredictability, and adaptation