A Sketchbook History of Human Factors

Abstract

The following paper is an attempt to capture the circumstances, conepts, and events that led to the formulation of Human Factors. Born in the wake of the second world war, it was implimented to help people cope with the complex “war machines” of the day. Human Factors served as a meeting ground for several discliplines, that were all bound together in single endeavor to improve the effectiveness, effieciency and safety of human in systems. Since the war's close, the field has been expanded to include many non-military applications. Despite its new found diversity, it continues to employ the same guiding principle of incorporating psychological and physiological characteristics of people into interface designs. It is this phenomena which distinguishes Human Factors as a unique paradigm with its own antecedental roots and disciplinary matrix. Furthermore, its proliferation in recent years denotes a science that has transcended a revolutionary stage of development to a normal one in a Kuhnian perspective. It is contended that a recognition of these factors would facilitate a novice's understanding of the field, recognition of where the discipline presently is and where it is headed.

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References

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Chapanis

Garner

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The book is the first definitive text covering the field. It is a compilation of all the research that was conducted during the course of the second world war to improve the effectiveness of men operating military systems.

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The article covers the evolution of human factors since the second world war and calls for refinement and continued research in systems design. It picks out the limitations that existed in the present store of knowledge and what might be done to improve it.

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First annual review chapter discussing engineering psychology and its application.

Gilbreth

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10.

Howell

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11.

Provides a wide array of readings in Engineering Psychology that hit upon its various research interests. It is a little dated for a current perspective, but it provides some of the background material that led to current research efforts.

12.

Human Factors. 1(1), 1958 This journal is intended to publish articles “which increase and diffuse the knowledge of man in relation to machine and environmental factors in all their ramifications, pure and applied.” It is published by the Human factors Society and its articles are intended to appeal to an interdisciplinary audience.

13.

Jenkins

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14.

The author updates Munsterberg's earlier work and sets up a new framework to discuss the field. He differentiates between psychotechnology which includes those issues which have been experimentally tested and statistically verified, from the arts of practice which includes those findings that one accrues over years of experience.

15.

Lachman

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16.

Contains information on the contributions made by human engineering to the development of cognitive psychology.

17.

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(1957). Human Factors in Engineering and Design. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill Book Co.

18.

Comprehensive introductry text that updates the earlier Chapanis et al. work.

19.

Morgan

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20.

First complete and indepth handbook presenting all of the data collected on human characteristics, capabilities, and limitations.

21.

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22.

The first comprehensive text covering the application of psychology in industrial settings.

23.

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24.

More recent coverage of the basic concepts in human factors, provides background knowledge on human factors development in Europe.

25.

Taylor

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26.

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27.

Seminal article discussing the basic premises behind what was than applied experimental psychology.

28.

Van Cott Kinkade (1972). Human Engineering Guide to Equipment Design. Washington, DC: US Government Printing Office.

29.

Update of Magonetal's Handbook.