Standards are not blueprints for products (at least as far as consumer products are concerned), so they do not replace the need for experienced designer(s) with the technical education, experience, and creativity to specify functional capabilities, materials, form, size, tolerances, appearance, and user interfaces. They may impose constraints on designers, but only as much as is necessary for the good of consumers—typically to ensure appropriate performance in relation to factors such as safety, usability, and inclusivity.

This paper describes the Human Error Identification (HEI) Technique called the Human Error Template (HET). HET has been developed specifically for the aerospace industry in response to Certification Specification (CS) 25.1302. In particular, it is intended as an aid for the early identification of design-induced errors, and as a formal method to demonstrate the inclusion of human factors issues in the design and certification process of aircraft flight-decks, including supplemental type certification. The template-based approach was chosen because it appeared to be quick to learn and easy to use. HET uses a hierarchical task analysis as its starting point. A checklist of twelve (12) external error modes is used to determine which might lead to credible errors for each task step. For each credible error a description is given and the outcome described. If the likelihood of the error and the consequences are both high then that task step is rated as a ‘Fail’. The error mode taxonomy developed comprises: fail to execute a task, task execution incomplete, in the wrong direction, wrong task executed, task repeated, on the wrong interface element, too early, too late, too much, too little, misread information, and other. HET was then compared to SHERPA, HAZOP and HEIST. Thirty seven (37) analysts were employed in this study based on a landing scenario. HET showed significantly better Sensitivity Index scores than any of the other methods, and the greatest number of correct error predictions (hits). The results from the HET validation study demonstrate that HET meets all the criteria set. It is easy to learn, the error taxonomy has been specifically designed for flight-deck tasks, it is auditable, and it has been proved to be both reliable and valid. HET is recommended for use in the design, evaluation and certification of aircraft flight-decks.

Visuo–spatial ability has been defined as the mechanism that allows individuals to keep track of their changing spatial relationships as they move through their environment (Farrell and Robertson, 2000). In many species, moderate to large differences in visuo–spatial ability have been reported between genders, with superior visuo–spatial ability being reported in males of all species investigated to date (Masters and Sanders, 1993). There is an acknowledged preference among trainers and owners toward male horses in several disciplines of equitation. While this preference for male horses may be partially explained by physical differences, visuo–spatial ability is important in many aspects of equitation. The objective of this study was to determine if visuo–spatial ability differed between male and female horses.Visuo–spatial ability was investigated in a sample of 62 horses (males* = 34 and females = 28) at two equestrian centres using a novel test and test apparatus. The apparatus and test procedures required the horses to use elements of spatial awareness and the ability to differentiate elements of distance and depth perception to complete a series of six tests.

Horses and their owners participate in an increasingly diverse range of equestrian pursuits including such activities as racing, show-jumping, endurance riding, carriage driving, dressage, hunting, pony club games, polo and leisure trekking. The majority of owners and riders within the disciplines of equitation appear to have a general preference toward using male horses as the chosen competition animal. Although not exclusively so, stallions and geldings are quite often physically bigger and stronger than fillies and mares and may enjoy some athletic advantage as a result. However, it is known from studies involving humans and small laboratory animals (mice and rats) that some gender differences in cognitive function may also affect performance where tasks involve 3-dimensional objects and elements of depth perception (Morris, Garrud, Rawlins, and O’ Keefe, 1982). The horse has laterally placed eyes (Budiansky, 1997 and Figure 1) and therefore a stereoscopic (binocular) visual field of approximately 65-70°.

There is evidence of superior visuo-spatial ability in males compared to females in most species investigated to-date. However, no known studies have addressed this issue in the equine. Equine visuo-spatial ability was investigated using a novel test apparatus with a sample of 62 horses (males=34 and females=28) during a series of six tests, where the horses were required to access a food source. The test apparatus consisted of a series of four adjacent stalls, each of which had a feed bin and a moveable barrier. The test apparatus was designed such that the breastplate barriers controlled and limited access by the horses to feed bins in all but one stall during each test. Male horses performed such that there were significant differences (P<0.05) in the ability of the subjects to complete all six tests in a mean time of 30s or less per test. There were significant differences in mean completion times for male subjects between test 1 and test 2 (P<0.05), test 1 and test 3 (P<0.001), test 1 and test 4 (P<0.05) and test 1 and test 5 (P<0.05). There were no significant differences in mean completion times between any of the six tests for female subjects. Males had a lower mean total number of errors during all tests. Male horses also successfully completed significantly more tests than females (P<0.05). These results provide the first behavioural demonstration of superior visuo-spatial ability in male horses, similar to that reported in other species.

On the World Wide Web, participants could choose between an English, Italian and German version of a verbal recognition self-assessment test. Addresses for the test were: http://www.csn.ul.ie/similar tofab and http://www.cyberspace.org/similar tofabrizio. More than 800 participants completed the experiment on the web within one month. The main aim of this study is to investigate the feasibility of a cognitive experiment on the World Wide Web. The first 43 complete trials were analysed. Subsequently the experiment was conducted with seven male and five female students under personal supervision at University of Limerick. No significant differences between performing with or without supervision were found.

This paper describes ergonomic issues raised during a project to provide a replacement real-time bus route control system to a large public transport company. Task and system analyses highlighted several deficiencies in the original system architecture, the human-machine interfaces and the general approach to system management. The eventual live prototype replaced the existing original system for a trial evaluation period of several weeks. During this period a number of studies was conducted with the system users in order to measure any improvements the new system, with its ergonomic features, produced over the old. Importantly, the results confirmed that (a) general responsiveness and service quality were improved, and (b) users were more comfortable with the new design. We conclude with a number of caveats which we believe will be useful to any group addressing technology impact in a large organisation.

In recent years there has been an increase in the number of intellectually disabled people working in sheltered employment. However. there has been no work done on the allocation of functions for these people in the work environment. The study in this paper outlines the initial study of a project, which must develop a computerised welding system for operators with intellectual disabilities. An MS Windows95(C) based application that controlled a disc attached to a stepper motor was programmed. The study investigated the subjects' control the properties of the stepper motor and disc. It was found that the subjects dropped out of the experiments due to motor control problems and frustration with the computer. Of the fifteen subjects only three were able to complete all the tasks involved in the experiment.

Abstract: In order to study whether sheep lung could be used as a suitable oxygenator for human blood, the left lungs of two groups of five sheep were used in an “isolated perfused working lung model system.” A desaturator was inserted in the circuit and the lung was ventilated with ambient air. The lung was perfused in group 1 with heparinated autologous sheep blood and in group 2 with washed human erythrocytes suspended in buffered gelatin. Blood oxygenation as well as hemodynamics and airway parameters followed similar time course in both groups.