Dr. Beth Crandall of Applied Research Associates conducted a pilot to assess how operators utilized key cues in decision making. Interviews were held with seven alkylation operators producing inconclusive results. While they used visualization to troubleshoot the system, no consistent patter of cues could be identified. A lack of experience was thought to be one of the causal factors for the results.
Determine if Critical Decision Method can identify critical cues used by expert operators to diagnose problems before alarm actuation.
Can a small set of cues be identified that expert operators key on to make critical decisions?
Research on human performance in the medical domain has shown the experts develop cues that enable them to diagnose patients even before the problems can be detect via lab tests. If such cues can be found in process control, they could form the basis for displays and training.
PowerPoint presentation on results.