Protocolo experimental para observação da interação: um arcabouço para o estudo do comportamento humano.

Abstract

The study of human error generally focuses on the investigation of its causes. Analyzing accident and incident reports has been the path taken by many authors in the context of the human error studies. These reports tend to detail the description of technical aspects related to the error context such as the adopted working practices and performed operations; giving detail descriptions of the system state before and after the error. However, these do not explore the human state or conditions before and after the error occurrence in order to give supporting evidence on how those might have influenced the error occurrence. Aiming to expand the scope of the data available to these studies this thesis proposes a methodological framework and supporting tools to register, collect and analyze the interaction patterns between the operator and the supervisory control systems that might contribute to the understanding of the human behavior, and the potential error causes. The method adopts a multidisciplinary approach in the areas of system usability (ease of use) and work psychology. Central to its application is an Experimental Protocol for Interaction Observation (PEOI) which systematizes the planning, execution and reporting of the observations during the interaction between users and systems. Data collection takes place in scenarios reproduced from the descriptions found in the accident and incident reports in the studied work context. These scenarios should allow the immersion of the operator in the work context, allowing for data gathering on the operator state and behaviour. The protocol was conceived to support the investigation of the relationship between an individual's characteristic, functional status, situation awareness, decision making strategy and performance in a work context. This investigation is supported by a model, the Abstract Simplified Model for Understanding the Human Behaviour (M2CH), also proposed in this research. The protocol has been applied to different working contexts and has produced relevant data for the investigation purposes. The protocol, the human behaviour model and the corresponding results are presented and discussed in this document.