Impact of Depth of Menu Hierarchy on Performance Effectiveness in a Supervisory Task: Computerized Flexible Manufacturing System

Abstract

The purpose of the study was to examine the effect of different menu structures on the effectiveness of supervisory control in a flexible manufacturing system. The variables evaluated included four hierarchical levels, two sizes of database, two work methods, and four distances between the items in the data structure. The results indicated that both performance time and errors increased as the hierarchical levels of the data structure increased. This implies that the parallel mode of data presentation is more effective than the hierarchical one. Furthermore, information that is scattered around the database should be acquired and considered simultaneously, as searching back and forth through the menu hierarchy decreases the speed and accuracy of performance.

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Bloomfield, J. R. (1975). Theoretical approaches to visual search. In C. G. Drury and J. G. Fox (Eds.), Human reliability in quality control (pp. 19–29) London: Taylor & Francis.

Davis, J. K. , and Klausmeier, H. J. (1970). Cognitive style and concept identification as a function of complexity and training procedures. Journal of Educational Psychology, 61, 423–430.

Dray, S. M. , Ogden, W. G. , and Vestewig, R. E. (1981). Measuring performance with a menu-selection human computer interface. In Proceedings of the Human Factors Society 25th Annual Meeting (pp. 746–748). Santa Monica, CA: Human Factors Society.

Drury, C. G. , and Clement, M. R. (1978). The effect of area, density, and number of background characters on visual search. Human Factors, 20, 597–602.

Educational Testing Service . (1962). Hidden Figures Test- Cf-a. Princeton, NJ: Author.

Eisenhart, C. , Hastay, M. W. , and Wallis, W. A. (Eds.) (1947). Selected techniques of statistical analysis for scientific and industrial research and production and management engineering. New York: McGraw-Hill.

Eysenck, H. J. , and Eysenck, S. B. G. (1968). Eysenck Personality Inventory manual. San Diego, CA: Educational and Industrial Testing Service.

Hwang, S.-L. , Barfield, W. , Chang, T.-C. , and Salvendy, G. (1984). Integration of humans and computers in the operation and control of flexible manufacturing systems. International Journal of Production Research, 27, 841–856.

Hwang, S.-L. , and Salvendy, G. (1984). Human supervisory performance in flexible manufacturing systems. In Proceedings of the Human Factors Society 25th Annual Meeting (pp. 22–26). Santa Monica, CA: Human Factors Society.

10.

Miller, D. P. (1981). Depth/breadth tradeoff in hierarchical computer menus. In Proceedings of the Human Factors Society 25th Annual Meeting. Santa Monica, CA: Human Factors Society.

11.

Morawski, T. , Drury, C. G. : and Karwan, M. H. (1980). Predicting search performance for multiple targets. Human Factors, 22, 707–718.

12.

Pearson, R. G. , and Byars, G. E., Jr. (1956). The development and validation of a checklist for measuring subjective fatigue (Report 56–115). Randolph Field, TX: USAF, School of Aviation Medicine.

13.

Witkin, J. A. , Oltman, P. K. , Raskin, E. , and Karp, S. A. (1971). A manual for the embedded figures tests. Palo Alto, CA: Consulting Psychologists Press.