Final Study Guide s1

Aviation Human Factors

Fall 2005

Final Study Guide

General notes and suggestions: Read the chapters and the lecture notes before using the study guide. Try to answer each question thoroughly. Final examination questions will be written based on complete answers to these questions. The final exam will be comprehensive and include material covered before the midterm. Use the midterm study guide in addition to this study guide to study for the final. You should expect to have multiple choice, short answer, and essay questions on the final.

Task Management

1. How can tasks be designed to manage high workloads?
2. How can an individual manage increased workloads?
3. How can crews manage increased workloads?

Control

1. What problems are created by control lags?
2. How do gain, stability, and feedback affect our ability to use controls effectively?
3. What is an adaptive flight control?

Decision-making

1. People use several different strategies for making decisions. These include analytical strategies, rule-based strategies, and associative strategies. Describe how each of these strategies works, their limitations, and when they are most effective.
2. According to the rational model, what are the steps one should use to make decisions?
3. The term “bounded rationality” has been used to describe how people behave when they attempt to make decisions using a rational decision-making approach. What does this term mean? What are examples of the heuristics that people use? How can using these heuristics bias decisions?
4. What is “adaptive decision-making” and why is this useful?
5. How might temperament and personality affect the choice and effectiveness of decision strategies?
6. How might experience and training affect the choice and effectiveness of decision strategies?
7. O’hare discusses several different types of decision makers. What are they? How do these relate to the decision strategies discussed in class?

Crew Resource Management

1. What is “Crew Resource Management” and why is it important?
2. Discuss the differences between crew and individual operations.
3. What is the “Challenge and Response” procedure system and why is it an effective protection against many human errors?

Automation

1. What is adaptive automation? How does it differ from “static automation”?
2. Describe the effects of automation on mental workload.
3. Describe the effects of automation on situational awareness.

Organizational Factors

1. Describe the “groupthink” concept. How can groupthink lead to decision errors?
2. How can isolation and cohesiveness lead to group decision errors?
3. Are there any effective countermeasures for groupthink? What are they?
4. What structural mistakes do problem-solving groups frequently make?
5. What can a group leader do to help a task group be more effective in solving a problem?

Emotion, Physiology, and Cognition

1. What is hypoglycemia and how does it affect cognition?
2. How much of a problem is hypoglycemia?
3. What cognitive functions are the first and most severely affected by hypoglycemia?
4. What is hypoxia and how does it affect cognition?
5. Why is it so difficult to counteract the effects of hypoxia after it occurs?
6. Describe the three stages of hypoxia.
7. At what altitude does the effect of hypoxia become noticeable? What effect would cabin depressurization at (approximately) 20,000 feet have on the pilots?
8. Two pilots are concerned about ongoing labor contract negotiations. One is afraid that he may lose his job. The other is angry at the way management is treating the pilots. How would we expect the effects of this stressor on cognitive functions to differ for the two pilots?
9. What are “primary” and “secondary” appraisals and how might these influence reactions to stress?
10. What is chronic fatigue? What is operational fatigue?
11. How does fatigue affect performance?
12. What are effective countermeasures for fatigue?
13. What is circadian desynchronization and how does it affect cognitive performance?