Analytical Methods in Human Factors Research
Academic Unit: ROAS & INTR [Syllabus]
The course will cover a wide range of analytical methods in human factors research and discuss a number of widely used models regarding human’s behaviors, cognitive process and decision making. The students will gain an understanding of the procedures, objectives and limitations of different research methods. The course will include case studies so that students can gain first-hand experience in applying the methods in projects. Through this course, the students will have a brief understanding of the analytical methods used in human factors discipline, basic practices of these techniques, brief understanding of human’s cognitive and visual characteristics, and research trends at the current stage. The course will cover the following topics: Brief descriptions of analytical methods in human factors research; Some basic statistical tools for data analysis; Methods for estimating thresholds of discrimination; Scaling; Knowledge elicitation; Visual behavior analysis; Questionnaire design; Information theory; Signal detection theory; Mental workload and situation awareness and Manual control.
Engineering Psychology and Transportation Applications
Academic Unit: ROAS & INTR [Syllabus]
The course will cover a wide range of engineering psychology topics as well as how the research in these directions can affect policies and regulations in vehicle design and surface transportation. The students will gain an understanding of the characteristics and limitations of human beings from engineering psychology perspectives of view and how the design of traffic control devices, the roadway, the in-vehicle devices, regulations and traffic rules can be affected by the research in these directions. The course will include three modules: Introduction to Engineering Psychology; Engineering Psychology and Human Performance; and Transportation Applications of Engineering Psychology. The lectures will cover contents from both two optional textbook (Human Factors in Traffic Safety (3rd Edition), Edited by Alison Smiley, Lawyers & Judges Publishing Company, Inc. 2016.; Wickens, C.D., Helton, W.S., Hollands, J.G., & Banbury, S. (2021). Engineering Psychology and Human Performance (5th ed.). Routledge.) and the state-of-art research in human factors areas.