Psychology 2990A/B Lecture Notes - Lecture 3: Sig Sauer P226, Psych, Rtfm

• School: Western University
• Department: Psychology
• Course: Psychology 2990A/B
• Professor: Doug Hazelwood

Document Summary

Prologue: names and definition: other common names for the field, human factors, human factors engineering, human engineering, ergonomics. Engineering psychology: definition (p226): the science of, designing machines for human use and, determining appropriate behaviours for the efficient operation of machines. Two goals that led to development of the field: fitting the machine to the user, fitting the user to the machine. Part 1: historical development: design the machine and ignore the user. E. g. , ww2: design of army tanks (p235, too much noise, poor visibility, seating positions caused back and neck injuries. More damage to operators than enemy: altitude display in airplanes: too complex (took 7 s to read; misread. 12% of time: design the machine and then fit user to the machine. Two approaches: select people who fit the machine. E. g. , if strength required, select strong users if intelligence required, select intelligent users problem: not always possible to find people who fit the machine.