A Taxonomy and Database for Capturing Human Reliability and Human Performance Data

Abstract

This paper introduces a taxonomy and accompanying database designed to bridge previous efforts at human reliability analysis (HRA) and human factors design. Previous HRA database efforts have focused primarily on incident analyses related to the safe operation of nuclear power plants. Previous human factors design standards have largely omitted a thorough investigation of the root causes of human error and their prevention through optimal design. The taxonomy introduced in this paper redresses these shortcomings in three ways: (1) It targets a domain outside the traditional realm of nuclear power plant operations. Specifically, it focuses on information that would be informative to human performance in extreme environments. (2) The taxonomy includes specific fields for incorporating completed HRAs, incident reports, and psychological research using human subjects or simulation. (3) The information captured through the taxonomy is applicable to both HRA and system design. The information format incorporates quantitative information appropriate to HRA such as human error probabilities and qualitative information appropriate to system design such as overall “lessons learned.”