Abstract
The operators of nuclear power plants are asked to perform a task that has proven to be particularly difficult: manual control of feedwater during startup. We have initiated a research and development program to address human factors issues related to this task. An analysis of cognitive aspects of the feedwater control task was used to develop a generic part-task simulator. New displays to enhance manual control performance (including a predictor display) were developed with the simulator. The test capability provided by the simulator allowed precise measurement of performance differences associated with these displays in a mixed-fidelity laboratory experiment. The results suggest that the displays reduced the complexity of the task and resulted in improved operator performance.
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