The HUFAC team
The Human Factors and Applied Cognition (HuFAC) laboratory located at the University of Western Australia, Perth. Our research sits at the intersection of cognitive science and human factors and aims to uncover the cognitive mechanisms that underlie human performance in everyday life and in safety-critical work contexts. We conduct both basic experimental psychology research and research using simulations of air traffic control, submarine track management, piloting and driving. This research is complemented by the delivery of human factors consultancy services within Australian and internationally. Some specific research areas of interest include Prospective Memory, Situational Awareness, Conflict Detection, Interruptions and Automation.
The HuFAC laboratory conducts a series of research projects with support from several key government and industry agencies such as the Australian Research Council (ARC), the Defence Science and Technology Group (DSTG), Department of Airforce (Asian Office of Aerospace Research and Development), and the Neurotrauma Research Program (NRP). Check out some of our research projects below.
Many complex workplace tasks require operators to maintain a tactical picture of the environment in face of multiple task demands. We investigate how best to measure situational awareness of this tactical picture, and whether these measures impact on workload.
Increasingly, complex tasks are being automated in order to increase safety. However, what impact do automated systems have on human operators? Our research investigates the how humans respond to automation (and failures of automation) in terms of workload, situational awareness and overall performance.
In modern work environments, interruptions, distractions and multitasking are commonplace. In safety critical workplace settings, this can have serious safety implications. Through the use of basic and complex simulations, our research aims to understand and prevent situations where error may occur from multitasking.
In our everyday lives we often need to defer intended actions until a later time when conditions for their execution are met, this is called prospective memory. We apply theories and methods from basic cognitive tasks to complex workplace simulations, such as air traffic control, where prospective memory errors can be disasterous.
I conduct theory-driven research to uncover the cognitive mechanisms that underlie human performance in everyday life and in safety-critical work contexts. I conduct both basic experimental psychology research and research using air traffic control, submarine track management, piloting and driving simulations. This research is complemented the delivery of consultancy services within Australian and internationally in the aviation, military, and resource sectors. Some specific research areas of interest include Prospective Memory, Situational Awareness, Conflict Detection, Interruptions and Automation. I am currently serving on the Editorial Boards of Human Factors and the Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied.
I am also available to provide human factors consultancy services to industry. I have had extensive experience providing consultancy services at the both the national and international level, in industries such as aviation (air traffic control, airside safety, piloting), military settings (submarine warfare, army, airforce), and resource sectors (gas and mining). Specific examples include human factors consultancy services delivered to:
My research uses basic psychological principles of cognition and perception to better understand how we interact with complex technological systems, and to help design systems that are safe, productive, and error-free. In the transportation domain, this includes research which applies basic memory, visual attention, and perception principles to reducing unsafe driving behaviours, such as speeding and distraction. In air traffic control, it includes research aimed at improving our understanding of automation design and developing solutions for high degree automated support in this and other similar complex work settings. Other research looks at how best to design technological systems to optimize human operator situation awareness and workload across a range of contemporary settings where humans interact with technology. I am also available to provide human factors consultancy services to industry.
Working in (i) the design, application and limitations of automation within established and developing systems, (ii) individual and team cognition, and team performance within complex socio-technical systems, (iii) operationalising workload, situation awareness, distributed cognition, and performance measures in advanced command and control simulation, and (iv) modelling command and control elements via a systems level network approach.
I joined the HUFAC Team to research individual and team performance in future submarine control rooms. As part of this research, we are developing a new model and measure of team processes using Event Analysis of Systemic Teamwork (EAST). We will also examine how a range of individual differences variables, in addition to workload and situation awareness, drive outcomes and performance. My past research has focused on analysing complex sociotechnical systems using systems human factors and ergonomics (HFE) methods and models, such as EAST, AcciMap, Cognitive Work Analysis, and the Systems-Theoretic Accident Model and Process (STAMP). I combine this expertise with experience in diverse domains and applied experimental research.
I am an Early Career Researcher currently working in the Human Factors and Applied Cognition lab at the University of Western Australia. I have previously studied and worked at the University of Newcastle, and most recently was employed by Hunter New England Health. My primary research interest is how humans make complex decisions under changing workload demands, and how cognitive resources are allocated during these decisions. I am also interested in examining the mental architecture and capacity of various cognitive systems, and also in modelling various aspects of human behaviour through both response times and neurological measures. At HUFAC I hope to extend these investigations to account for team performance in complex, high stress situations to optimise performance and strategic outcomes.
I am a PhD student under the supervision of Shayne Loft, Vanessa Bowden, and Troy Visser. My research seeks to evaluate how automation influences operator performance in complex dynamic control tasks. Specifically, my research aims to examine how best to design automation to maximize performance in submarine track management whilst ensuring that operators maintain appropriate situation awareness to be able to regain manual control of tasks if required. I am broadly interested in automation, situation awareness, and driver safety.
My research focusses on operator perceptions of automation reliability. I achieve this by examining the use of automated decision aids in the context of submarine track management. Fortunately, the resources available within the HFAC lab have allowed for the development of a low fidelity simulation of which I was able to help design and now use to explore my research aims. I am primarily focussed on how perceptions of automation reliability develop over an operators experience with automation, and how this influences their use of automation.
Owen Carter is currently a PhD candidate in human factors psychology being supervised at UWA by Professor Shayne Loft and Associate Professor Troy Visser and externally by Dr Samuel Huf from the Defence Science and Technology Group. His thesis is investigating optimal methods of communication in human-automation teams using the CRUSE submarine simulator at UWA. He has several qualifications including a Professional Doctorate in Occupational Psychology from Murdoch University, a Bachelor of Arts in Classics and Ancient History from UWA, and a Master of Science in Public Health and Spatial Sciences from Curtin University. He has enjoyed a multifarious and highly applied research career working in a wide variety of industries including mining, medicine, nursing, paramedicine, public health, health promotion, policing and defence. His work has encompassed projects ranging from developing online suicide prevention training for GPs, developing eye-tracking metrics for advanced driver training courses for Rio Tinto, formative research and evaluation of social marketing television campaigns (smoking, exercise, fruit and vegetable consumption, sun protection, diabetes, mental health), public health advocacy and legislation, high fidelity simulation-based training for paramedics, firearms training for the WA Police, and data linkage with the Department of Health of WA. He has 36 publications in peer-reviewed scientific journals, has given 35 presentations at national and international conferences, produced 44 technical reports for government, non-government and industry clients, written 2 book chapters, supervised 12 HDR students through to completion, given 49 media interviews on television, radio and press, and has had his work directly cited in government reports and Hansard advocating legislative change. In 2014 he received a ‘Ten of the Best’ award from the National Health and Medical Research Council for innovative work on food labelling. He held a Healthway Tobacco Control Research Fellowship from 2006–2010. In 2015 he was praised by special forces personnel for being an academic but not a ‘knob’.
I am a PhD student under the supervision of Shayne Loft and Vanessa Bowden. My research is interested in the mechanisms underlying how operators of automated systems detect system failures. This research seeks to determine whether operator states, such as workload and fatigue, can predict operator detection of system failures in a simulated Air Traffic Control task. The aim of this work is to facilitate the design of automation that can adapt to operators’ needs in order to improve human-automation team performance in safety-critical dynamic work environments. I am broadly interested in how humans interact with automation in aviation as well as other work environments and defence settings.
I commenced my PhD in 2018 after completing a Diploma of Science in psychology and Honours at UWA. In collaboration with my supervisors A/Prof Troy Visser and A/Prof Shayne Loft, my research examines individual differences in cognitive processes, including multitasking, and asks whether automation systems which are aimed at assisting such cognitive processes may be beneficial. This may lead to a new approach to Human-Automation-Interaction in which the design of automated systems are focused on the strengths and weaknesses of the individual operator to better assist performing tasks.
Stephanie is undertaking a PhD under the supervision of A/Prof Troy Visser and Prof Shayne Loft from UWA and Dr Susannah Whitney and Dr Angela Bender from Defence Science and Technology. The aim of this research is to improve human performance in complex and high risk environments and find solutions to the challenges presented by complex human-machine interactions. Stephanie investigates if situation awareness and job performance can be improved via mobile app based multitasking training, with two separate studies focused on undergraduate students and military personnel. The outcomes of this PhD research are expected to inform policy and training for individuals requiring high situation awareness, such as drivers and military personnel. This may help to improve human performance in a variety of contexts characterised by increasing automation, technological complexity, and cognitive demands. This project is partially funded by the Human Performance Research network (HPRnet), a collaboration between the Australian Army, Defence Science and Technology Group, and seven Australian Universities including UWA.
I am currently an honours student studying psychology and am focusing my thesis on attraction and recruitment in the mining industry. I will be assisting the research team in various ways such as proof reading documents, recruiting participants, helping to run and pilot experiments and doing literature searches.