Human Sensitivity to Variability Information in Detection Decisions

Abstract

Three studies investigated the ability of observers to extract and use reliability information from graphical elements presented on a visual display. The first experiment assessed observers' accuracy in detecting differences in source reliability based on differences in the temporal variability of the sources. Observers' accuracy improved as the sample size and the difference in the underlying source variability increased. The second study investigated observers' efficiency in using the information about source variability to weight individual sources in forming a decision. Observers were able to differentially weight sources based on the underlying source variability. However, observers' adjustments of the weights tended to be less than ideal, particularly when reliable sources were not spatially contiguous and additional aids (e.g., observation periods and highlights) were unavailable to help observers identify differences in source variability. Finally, evidence in the third study indicated that information about differences in source variability reduced uncertainty about the locations of reliable sources but did not help observers to correctly adjust weights to match the ideal. In application, display enhancements (e.g., highlights) aid decision making when only general differences in reliability need to be recognized, but more advanced decision support is recommended when reliability information has to be incorporated into a decision statistic.

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Atchley, P. , & Andersen, G. J. (1995). Discrimination of speed distributions: Sensitivity to statistical properties. Vision Research, 35, 3131–3144.

Berg, B. G. (1989). Analysis of weights in multiple observation tasks. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 86, 1743–1746.

Berg, B. G. (1990). Observer efficiency and weights in a multiple observation task. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 88, 149–158.

Christ, R. E. (1990). Review and analysis of color coding research for visual displays. In M. Venturino (Ed.), Selected readings in human factors (pp. 89–117). Santa Monica, CA: Human Factors and Ergonomics Society.

Donk, M. (1994). The effect of secondary task load on visual sampling behavior. Ergonomics, 37, 1089–1096.

Eriksen, B. A. , & Eriksen, C. W. (1974). Effects of noise letter upon the identification of a target letter in a nonsearch task. Perception and Psychophysics, 16, 143–149.

Green, D. M. , & Swets, J. A. (1966). Signal detection theory. New York: Wiley.

Johnson, E. M. , Cavanagh, R. C. , Spooner, R. L. , & Samet, M. G. (1973). Utilization of reliability measurements in Bayesian inference: Models and human performance. IEEE Transactions on Reliability, 22, 176–163.

Kahneman, D. , & Tversky, A. (1973). On the psychology of prediction. Psychological Review, 80, 237–251.

10.

Lathrop, R. G. (1967). Perceived variability. Journal of Experimental Psychology, 23, 498–502.

11.

Legge, G. E. , Gu, Y. , & Luebker, A. (1989). Efficiency in graphical perception. Perception and Psychophysics, 46, 365–374.

12.

Mariani, E. , & Murthy, S. S. (1997). Control of modern integrated power systems. New York: Springer.

13.

Montgomery, D. A. , & Sorkin, R. D. (1996). Observer sensitivity to source reliability in a multielement visual display. Human Factors, 38, 484–494.

14.

Ohba, R. (1992). Intelligent sensor technology. New York: Wiley.

15.

Parasuraman, R. , Mouloua, M. , Molloy, R. , & Hilburn, B. (1996). Monitoring of automated systems. In R. Parasuraman & M. Mouloua (Eds.), Automation and human performance: Theory and application (pp. 91–115). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.

16.

Pitz, G. F. (1980). The very guide of life: The use of probabilistic information for making decisions. In T.S. Wallsten (Ed.), Cognitive processes in choice and decision behavior (pp. 77–94). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.

17.

Posner, M. I. , Snyder, C. R. R. , & Davidson, B. J. (1980). Attention and the detection of signals. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 109, 160–174.

18.

Shiffrin, R. M. , Diller, D. , & Cohen, A. (1996). Processing visual information in an unattended location. In A. F. Kramer , M. G. H. Coles , & G. D. Logan (Eds.), Converging operations in the study of visual selective attention (pp. 225–245). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.

19.

Van Orden, K. F. , Divita, J. , & Shim, M. J. (1993). Redundant use of luminance and flashing with shape and color as highlighting codes in symbolic displays. Human Factors, 35, 195–204.

20.

Wickens, C. D. , Gordon, S. E. , & Liu, Y. (1998). An introduction to human factors engineering. New York: Addison Wesley Longman.

21.

Yamasaki, H. (1996). What are the intelligent sensors? In S. Middelhoek (Series Ed.) & H. Yamasaki (Vol. Ed.), Handbook of sensors and actuators: Vol. 3. Intelligent sensors (pp.1–17). Amsterdam: Elsevier.