The Role of Attention in Information Processing Implications for the Design of Displays

Abstract

A principal goal in human factors engineering (HFE) is to develop a theoretical and empirical basis for matching the attentional mechanisms of the human operator with the appropriate information portrayed by the visual display. Since a display serves as an interface between the human operator and a dynamic system, its structure and composition are critical to the operator's performance. A display compatible with the human operator's attention mechanisms will improve performance by allowing faster, more accurate information processing, and will minimize mental work load. The system designer has to predict which attention mechanism an operator will use in a specific task situation. A very effective human-system interface will result if the designer succeeds in matching the displayed information with the appropriate attention mechanism. Selective attention; Attention theories; Display design; Event-related potentials; Auditory-evoked potentials.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Dec 01, 1989
Accession Number
ADA219252

Entities

People

  • Lynn C. Oatman

Organizations

  • Human Engineering Laboratory

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Biomedical

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Applied Psychology
  • Brain
  • Cognition
  • Engineering
  • Human Factors Engineering
  • Human Systems Integration
  • Human-Machine Interaction
  • Human-Machine Systems
  • Information Processing
  • Neurology
  • Neurosciences
  • Parallel Computing
  • Parallel Processing
  • Psychology
  • Psychophysiology
  • Systems Engineering
  • Task Performance And Analysis

Readers

  • Human-Computer Interaction (HCI).
  • Systems Analysis and Design
  • Team-Based Human-Centered Cognitive Task Decision Making and Information Performance.