In 1974 an article appeared in Science magazine with the dry-sounding title “Judgment Under Uncertainty: Heuristics and Biases” by a pair of psychologists who were not well known outside their discipline of decision theory. In it Amos Tversky and Daniel Kahneman introduced the world to Prospect Theory, which mapped out how humans actually behave when faced with decisions about gains and losses, in contrast to how economists assumed that people behave. Prospect Theory turned Economics on its head by demonstrating through a series of ingenious experiments that people are much more concerned with losses than they are with gains, and that framing a choice from one perspective or the other will result in decisions that are exactly the opposite of each other, even if the outcomes are monetarily the same. Prospect Theory led cognitive psychology in a new direction that began to uncover other human biases in thinking that are probably not learned but are part of our brain’s wiring.

Thinking fast and slow.

The Spirit Level. Why Equality is Better for Everyone

Driving a vehicle may seem to be a fairly simple task. After some initial training many people are able to handle a car safely. Nevertheless, accidents do occur and the majority of these accidents can be attributed to human failure. At present there are factors that may even lead to increased human failure in traffic. Firstly, owing in part to increased welfare, the number of vehicles on the road is increasing. Increased road intensity leads to higher demands on the human information processing system and an increased likelihood of vehicles colliding. Secondly, people continue to drive well into old age. Elderly people suffer from specific problems in terms of divided attention performance, a task that is more and more required in traffic. One of the causes of these increased demands is the introduction of new technology into the vehicle. It began with a car radio, was followed by car-phones and route guidance systems, and will soon be followed by collision avoidance systems, intelligent cruise controls and so on. All these systems require drivers’ attention to be divided between the system and the primary task of longitudinal and lateral vehicle control. Thirdly, drivers in a diminished state endanger safety on the road. Longer journeys are planned and night time driving increases for economic purposes and/or to avoid congestions. Driver fatigue is currently an important factor in accident causation. But not only lengthy driving affects driver state, a diminished driver state can also be the result of the use of alcohol or (medicinal) sedative drugs. The above-mentioned examples have in common that in all cases driver workload is affected. An increase in traffic density increases the complexity of the driving task. Additional systems in the vehicle add to task complexity. A reduced driver state affects the ability to deal with these demands. How to assess this, i.e. how to assess driver mental workload is the main theme of this thesis. In chapter 1, the theoretical aspects of mental workload are introduced. The difference between task demand, i.e. the external demand, the goals that have to be reached, and (work)load, i.e. the individual reaction to these demands, receive attention in this chapter. Mental workload is defined as a relative concept; it is the ratio of demand to allocated resources. Task difficulty is explicitly separated from task complexity. Task complexity would have been an objective property of the task that is related to demand on computational processes, were it not dependent upon individual goal setting. Task difficulty is very much dependent upon the context and the individual. Applied strategies may affect resource allocation or task complexity and thus difficulty and mental workload.

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The measurement of drivers' mental workload

Design for the Real World: Human Ecology and Social Change

Recent years have seen an increased interest in navigational services for pedestrians. To ensure that these services are successful, it is necessary to understand the information requirements of pedestrians when navigating, and in particular, what information they need and how it is used. A requirements study was undertaken to identify these information requirements within an urban navigation context. Results show that landmarks were by far the most predominant navigation cue, that distance information and street names were infrequently used, and that information is used to enable navigation decisions, but also to enhance the pedestrian’s confidence and trust. The implications for the design of pedestrian navigation aids are highlighted.

Pedestrian navigation aids: information requirements and design implications

In-vehicle navigation systems are an example of ubiquitous computing, where the computing facility is embedded in an everyday object (car) for an everyday task (driving). The maturing navigation systems market of the last 10 years has prompted academic and commercial research into the human?machine interface (HMI) for these systems. A significant body of research now exists in this specialized area and a contribution has been made towards guidelines for interface design. This paper presents an overview of evaluation methods used to date (in terms of context of use, techniques, measures and evaluators) and the pros and cons of the different approaches. It ends with a discussion of how the resulting knowledge can assist in the evaluation of other ubiquitous technologies.

Evaluating the human-machine interface to vehicle navigation systems as an example of ubiquitous computing

The beneficial effects of using landmarks in vehicle navigation systems (improved user confidence and navigation performance) have been well-studied and proven. The study reported here aimed to investigate the effects of adding landmark information to basic pedestrian navigation instructions (i.e. those which included distance to turn and street name only). The study found that the results replicate that for vehicle navigation systems. User confidence was raised to a consistently high level as a result of landmark inclusion and errors were greatly reduced. The results also indicate the types of manoeuvre that should benefit most from the inclusion of landmarks.

The Use of Landmarks in Pedestrian Navigation Instructions and the Effects of Context

This paper presents an empirical comparison of idea generation within the context of reducing the number of single occupancy car journeys to and from a UK university campus. Separate co-design and consultative groups were matched with respect to (1) creativity when problem solving, (2) normal commuting mode and (3) intention to adopt sustainable behaviours. The co-design group generated a significantly greater number of innovative ideas than the consultative group (using an email-based methodology); however, this was due to the greater number of total ideas (rather than the higher proportion of innovative ideas) generated by this group. The co-design group was able to think more systemically about potential solutions and generate proposals that were not either linked to their own commute mode, or aligned with any one specific mode of transport. The findings suggest that co-design offers benefits as a process for idea generation within the sustainable travel context as it promotes idea generation a...

https://tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/15710882.2015.1091894

Tracy Ross

Papers

Pedestrian navigation aids: information requirements and design implications

Evaluating the human-machine interface to vehicle navigation systems as an example of ubiquitous computing

The Use of Landmarks in Pedestrian Navigation Instructions and the Effects of Context

Empirical investigation of the impact of using co-design methods when generating proposals for sustainable travel solutions

Switch the channel: using cultural codes for designing and positioning sustainable products and services for mainstream audiences