ERGONOMIC DESIGN

IE 486

Introduction
Information processing
 WHAT IS ERGONOMICS?

• Ergonomics means
“fitting the job to the worker,” “physically & mentally”

including:
▪ Workstations
▪ Tools
Ergo = Work
▪ Equipment Nomos = Law
▪ Task requirements …

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 ERGONOMIC DEFINITION

• “The scientific discipline concerned with

understanding of interactions among humans and
other elements of a system, and the profession
that applies theory, principles, methods and data to
design in order to optimize human well-being
and overall system performance”

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ERGONOMIC DEFINITION

Cognitive
Ergonomics

Physical
Ergonomics

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MORE EXAMPLES (PHYSICAL
RELATED)

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 EXAMPLE OF HUMAN–MACHINE
SYSTEM (SIMPLIFIED)

Machine
Design
characteristics

Human
Human capability

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 EXAMPLE OF HUMAN–MACHINE
SYSTEM

• The mental processes Physical features

• Visual involved in gaining and skills such
• Auditory knowledge and Anthropometry,
• Tactile comprehension. movement,
• Olfactory • Include thinking, coordination,
(smell) knowing, remembering, manipulation,
• Gustatory judging, and problem- dexterity, race,
(taste) solving strength, and
• Information processing speed

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 EXAMPLE OF HUMAN–MACHINE
SYSTEM

Software
Hardware
• User Needs
• Layout • # of steps to
• Dimensions accomplish tasks
• Colors • Usability
• Similarity • Dialog design
• Physical • Context
requirement • Layout
• Anthropometry • Dimensions
• Knob shape • Auditory signals
…… …..

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 MAJOR OBJECTIVES OF
ERGONOMIC

▪ Systems designed to fit people

▪ Minimize human error
▪ Improve safety and productivity
▪ Reduce training requirements
▪ Reduce personnel requirements
▪ Reduce fatigue and physical stress
▪ Increase ease of use
▪ Increase user acceptance
▪ Increase aesthetic appearance

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 COGNITION

• Each day, we process large amounts of information from

our environment to accomplish various goals and make our
way successfully through the world.

• Human information-processing system is represented by

different stages at which information gets transformed:
1. Sensing events (cues) in the environment
2. Perception of information about the environment
• involves determining the meaning of the sensory signal or event
3. Central processing or transforming that information
4. Responding to that information
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INFORMATION PROCESSING
MODELS

1. Senses gather information

2. Information is perceived by
providing meaning to what
is sensed
3. Sometimes, perception
leads directly to the
selection and execution of
response

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INFORMATION PROCESSING
MODELS

4. Quite often, action is

Delayed → we think about or
manipulate perceived
information in our working
memory.
5. This stage of information
processing involves various
processes such as planning,
understanding, visualizing,
decision making, problem
solving.
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INFORMATION PROCESSING
MODELS

6. Working memory is the

temporary, effort demanding
store

7. One of the activities for

which working memory
is used is to create a more
permanent representation of
the information in the long-
term memory

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INFORMATION PROCESSING
MODELS

8. In all these stages of

information processing
cognitive resources i.e. pool
of attention resources plays
an important role.

9. Role of attention is to
support all aspects of
performance as well as in
dividing attention between
tasks.
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INFORMATION PROCESSING
MODELS

10. Finally the feedback loop

→ our actions often
generated new information
to be sensed and perceived.

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INFORMATION PROCESSING
MODELS

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 INFORMATION PROCESSING
MODELS - EXAMPLE

The task of driving toward an intersection:

• Sensory: the driver approaching the intersection will see the traffic
light, the flow of the environment past the vehicle, and other cars, and
may hear the radio and the conversation of a passenger.
• Perception: only a smaller amount may be actually perceived (e.g.,
perceiving (understanding) that the light has turned yellow)
• Understanding is obtained from past experience (long term memory).
• After Perception;
A. an immediate response could be triggered, chosen or selected from a
broader array of possibilities. Here the driver may choose (response
selection) to depress the accelerator or apply the brake (response
execution).

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 INFORMATION PROCESSING
MODELS - EXAMPLE

• After Perception;
A. an immediate response could be triggered, chosen or selected from a
broader array of possibilities. Here the driver may choose (response
selection) to depress the accelerator or apply the brake (response
execution).
B. The driver may use working memory to temporarily retain the state of
the light (yellow), while scanning the highway and the crossing road ahead
for additional information (e.g., an approaching vehicle or a possible police
car)
• In many (but not all) information processing tasks, an executed response
changes the environment, and creates a new pattern of information to be
sensed (feedback). If the driver applies the accelerator, this will not only
increase the perceived speed of the car, but also may reveal new sensory
information (e.g., a police car is suddenly revealed waiting behind a sign),
which in turn may require a revision of the stop-go response choice.

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 INFORMATION PROCESSING
MODELS - EXAMPLE

• Attention plays two qualitatively different roles:

1. a filter of information that is sensed and perceived, attention selects
certain elements for further processing, but blocks others
o E.g., the driver may focus attention fully on the traffic light, but “tune
out” the conversation of the passenger or fail to see the policeman.
2. a fuel that provides mental resources or energy to the various stages
of information processing. Some stages demand more resources in
some tasks than others.
o For example, peering at the traffic light through a fog will require
more effort for perception than seeing it on a clear, dark night. However,
our supply of attentional resources is limited, and hence the collective
resources required for one task may not allow enough for a concurrent
one, creating a failure in multi-tasking

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 INFORMATION PROCESSING
MODELS

Limitation of the Model:

• The stages don’t always operate in strict sequence
o E.g., as you sit in lecture you may hear an interesting fact from the lecturer
but choose not to take notes on it (no response selection and execution).
but rather to ponder it, rehearse it, and learn it. That is, to use working
memory to commit the information to long term memory, for future use on
an exam.
o A student in a lecture may in parallel rehearse the lecturer’s words (working
memory to LTM) and write them down (execution).
• The major feedback loop at the bottom means there is no fixed “start” and
“end” point to the information processing sequence
o A task might be initiated by an inspiration, thought, or intention to do
something, originating from long term memory, flowing to working memory,
and then to response, with no perceptual input whatsoever.

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INFORMATION PROCESSING -
WORKING MEMORY

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 INFORMATION PROCESSING -
WORKING MEMORY

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 INFORMATION PROCESSING -
WORKING MEMORY

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 INFORMATION PROCESSING -
WORKING MEMORY

How long does information in working memory last if it is not rehearsed?

faster decay is observed when more items are held in working memory

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 INFORMATION PROCESSING -
WORKING MEMORY

• Working memory is the temporary, attention-demanding store that we

use to retain new information (like SMS password) until we use it (dial it)
• Can be used as a kind of a “workbench” of consciousness where we
examine, evaluate, transform, and compare different mental representations.
• It is also used to hold new information until we can give it a more
permanent status in memory; that is, until we encode it into long-term
memory (learning or training).
• Examples:
o Typing text in computer from a paper (we have to hold information in
memory while we switch between paper and screen) --> could cause error.
o to carry out mental arithmetic or a mental simulation of what will happen if
we schedule jobs in one way instead of in another

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 INFORMATION PROCESSING -
WORKING MEMORY

• Working memory is typically defined as having three core

components:
1. The phonological store represents information in linguistic form,
typically as words and sounds
2. The visuo-spatial sketch pad represents information in an analog,
spatial form, often typical of visual images.
3. The central executive, which is used to control working memory
activity, assign attentional resources to the other subsystems and
resist distractions.

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 INFORMATION PROCESSING -
MEMORY

• Memory stages:
1. Encoding, describes the process of putting things into the memory
system
o Encoding into working memory; or
o Transferring information from working memory into long-term
memory (learning or training).

Training refers to explicit and

intentional techniques used by
designers and teachers to maximize
the efficiency of learning. Our
concern will be primarily with
training
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 INFORMATION PROCESSING -
MEMORY

• Memory stages:
1. Encoding, describes the process of putting things into the memory system
2. Storage, the second stage, refers to the way in which information
is held or represented in the two memory systems

• working memory, we
emphasize spatial versus
verbal codes
• long-term memory, we
emphasize declarative and
procedural knowledge,
episodes, and mental models

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 INFORMATION PROCESSING -
MEMORY

• Memory stages:
1. Encoding, describes the process of putting things into the memory system
2. Storage, the second stage, refers to the way in which information is held or
represented in the two memory systems
3. Retrieval, refers to our ability to get things successfully out of
memory
• retrieval failure,
• Sometimes material simply
cannot be retrieved.
• At other times it is retrieved
incorrectly, as when we mix up
the steps in a memorized
procedure.

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 INFORMATION PROCESSING -
WORKING MEMORY

• The working memory is very limited

• The capacity is 7 ±2 independent chunks (George Miller’s 1956) - when full
attention is deployed to rehearsal
• Newer studies → 3 to 5 (Cowan, 2010). (combined → 5 ± 2)
• A chunk can be defined as a set of adjacent stimulus units that are tied
together by associations in the subject’s long-term memory; a valuable
technique for maintaining information in working memory
• Try the N-back test (https://new.cognitivefun.net/task/cogfun-04-n-back-working-memory)
• Unrelated letters: H T E: 3 chunks ; THE: 1 chunk
• Unrelated words: (Cat, school, car, that, city, London, sky) → 7 chunks
• Familiar phrases: If the seven words are combined in a familiar sequence so that
the rules that combine the units are also stored in long-term memory
“London is the largest city in England” → 1 chunk
o although working memory capacity is somewhat reduced for more
complex, higher-order chunks like familiar phrases.
• 314 → 3 Chunks; unless it means pi in your mind (one chunk)
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 INFORMATION PROCESSING -
WORKING MEMORY

• The 7 ±2 ‘limit’ should not be taken too literally

• Tasks that encroach on the limits of five to nine items should be
avoided
• For example, the auditory message “Change heading to 155 and
speed to 240 knots when you reach flight level 180” approaches or
exceeds the limits.
• The number of options to be selected from a computer menu. If all
alternatives must be compared simultaneously with one another to
select the best
• A figure in a different page than related text

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 INFORMATION PROCESSING -
MEMORY

Memory interference and confusion & system design:

(1) Avoid creating codes with large strings of similar-sounding chunks
Ex. an air traffic controller dealing with several aircrafts from a fleet
having similar identification codes (e.g., AI3404, AI3402, AI3401)
-The controller must maintain in working memory the identity of
separate aircraft along some ordered continuum
(2) Use different codes (verbal vs. spatial) for the different sources of
information
• The visual spatial format is the preferred
format for spatial information; for example,
a map for understanding where things are.
• tasks that demand verbal working memory
are more readily served by speech

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 INFORMATION PROCESSING -
COGNITIVE LOAD

• Learning and interacting with the environment in a workplace

is a function of cognitive load.
• Training methods and information presentation are major
factors for knowledge transfer effectiveness.

• COGNITIVE LOAD THEORY asserts that the attention demands,

or mental workload of the learner can be partitioned into
three distinct elements:

extraneous germane Overall WM

Intrinsic CL Free WM
CL CL capacity

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INFORMATION PROCESSING -
COGNITIVE LOAD

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 INFORMATION PROCESSING -
COGNITIVE LOAD

Intrinsic CL
• Associated with the inherent difficulty of subject matter
(mental workload imposed by the task to be learned)
• Somewhat stable/fixed
• Ex. Introductory statistical analysis VS. Advanced statistical analysis
• Learning to fly an aircraft is more complex than learning to drive a
car, because of the number of axes it can move and rotate, and the
complex coupling between axes (e.g., its relational complexity)
• Difficult to manipulate by purposeful design
• Can be influenced by person prior experience

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 INFORMATION PROCESSING -
COGNITIVE LOAD

Germane CL
• Associated with cognitive efforts needed for learners to attain
learning objective/internalize the new knowledge into long-term
memory
• E.x., a learner pilot may be struggling so hard just to keep the plane flying
in a straight line, that she/he cannot even think about and hence learn the
critical relationship between flight axes, and the need for anticipatory
control, that will ultimately support the skill in question.
• In some circumstances during training, it may be better not to try
to perform the task perfectly (maximum resources allocate to
intrinsic load), but to sacrifice performance just a bit, in order to
think about, understand, and rehearse (i.e., learn) the relationships
and strategies necessary to perform the task adequately
• Can be manipulate by purposeful design
• Can be influenced by person prior experience

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 INFORMATION PROCESSING -
COGNITIVE LOAD

Extraneous CL
• Associated with cognitive efforts needed for the learner to search
for/identify information relevant to the task (unrelated to task
difficulty and learning)
• Ex. Layout of the information, font size, colors
• a poor interface, or technical difficulties in a computer-based learning
environment, or the need for the learner to go to a manual and look up
the meaning of acronyms that appear on the screen of the technology
device to be trained, or even distracting the learner with unrelated
information, jokes, or stories …
• Can be manipulated by purposeful design
• Can be influenced by person prior experience
• Imposed by the material but could have been avoided with a better
design

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 INFORMATION PROCESSING -
COGNITIVE LOAD

keep it from
being too
high

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 INFORMATION PROCESSING -
COGNITIVE LOAD

To simplify:
Designer goal →
Maximize space for
understanding

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 INFORMATION PROCESSING -
COGNITIVE LOAD

Bad design Better design

Germane CL

Germane CL
extraneous CL

extraneous CL
Intrinsic CL Intrinsic CL

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 INFORMATION PROCESSING -
COGNITIVE LOAD

Training strategies to minimize cognitive load and

maximize knowledge transfer:
(1)Training support and error prevention: reducing intrinsic load
• Training strategies variously known as, “training wheels”, worked
examples, or “scaffolding”; in which support for the learner guides
the correct skill performance, but is gradually withdrawn, as
learning, progresses (ex. pilot training)
• → the learner does not constantly have to think and decide “what do I
do next, and how do I do it?”
• →support can also avoid the unpleasant and often time-consuming
consequences of making “bad” errors. (how about learning by trial?
What if error recognition and correction is also important?)
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 INFORMATION PROCESSING -
COGNITIVE LOAD

Training strategies to minimize cognitive load and

maximize knowledge transfer:
(2) Task simplification: reducing intrinsic load
• Start by simplified task and gradually increase difficulty.
(3) Part task training: reducing intrinsic load
• The intrinsic load of a complex multipart task can be reduced by
dividing it into parts and training each part individually before re-
integrating them.
(4) Active learning (vs. passive learning): increasing germane load
• E.g., learning a navigational route, when actually driving (or flying) the
route and making active choices about turns, than when being a passive
passenger; using simulators or virtual reality technologies.
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INFORMATION PROCESSING -
COGNITIVE LOAD

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 INFORMATION PROCESSING -
COGNITIVE LOAD

Training strategies to minimize cognitive load and

maximize knowledge transfer:
(5) Multimedia instruction: decreasing extraneous load
• Some combination of speech, text, pictures or animation/video (VR).
• With multimedia redundancy, material is better retained (and more likely
to be retrieved)
• Can be used to
a. Modality combinations (e.g., visual-auditory)
b. Highlighting, the most critical and important details of instructions
c. Filtering irrelevant material (e.g., interesting animation to attract
attention)

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 INFORMATION PROCESSING -
COGNITIVE LOAD

Multimedia collision warning:

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 INFORMATION PROCESSING -
COGNITIVE LOAD

Augmented reality in assembly training

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 INFORMATION PROCESSING -
COGNITIVE LOAD

Augmented reality in assembly training

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INFORMATION PROCESSING -
COGNITIVE LOAD

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INFORMATION PROCESSING -
COGNITIVE LOAD

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 INFORMATION PROCESSING -
COGNITIVE LOAD

Or a list of written instructions?

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 INFORMATION PROCESSING -
COGNITIVE LOAD

Examples of decreasing extraneous CL?

• Avoid unrelated noise
• Ex. People talking while you’re reading
• Extreme whether in working area
• Advertisements in a web page
• Unorganized controllers in a control panel
• …..

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INFORMATION PROCESSING -
COGNITIVE LOAD

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