Title

Human Probability Matching Behaviour In Response To Alarms Of Varying Reliability

Keywords

Alarm; Attention; Habituation; Motor skills; Psychomotor performance

Abstract

The goals of this research were to substantiate the existence of the cry-wolf effect for alarm responses, quantifying its effect on operator performance. A total of 138 undergraduate students performed two blocks of a cognitively demanding psychomotor primary task; at the same time, they were presented with alarms of varying reliabilities (25, 50 and 75% true alarms) and urgencies (green, yellow and red visual alarms presented concurrently with low-, medium- and high-urgency auditory civilian aircraft cockpit alarms). Alarm response frequencies were observed and analysed, and-tests and repeated-measures MANOVAs were used to assess the effects of increasing alarm reliability on alarm response frequencies, speed and accuracy. The results indicate that most subjects (about 90%) do not respond 10 all alarms but match their response rates to the expected probability of true alarms (probability matching). About 10% of the subjects responded in the extreme, utilizing an all-or-none strategy. Implications of these results for alarm design instruction and further research are discussed. © 1995 Taylor and Francis Group, LLC.

Publication Date

1-1-1995

Publication Title

Ergonomics

Volume

38

Issue

11

Number of Pages

2300-2312

Document Type

Article

Personal Identifier

scopus

DOI Link

https://doi.org/10.1080/00140139508925269

Socpus ID

0028808155 (Scopus)

Source API URL

https://api.elsevier.com/content/abstract/scopus_id/0028808155

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