Recent disasters have focused attention on performance problems due to the use of alcohol and controlled substances in the workplace. Environmental stressors such as thermal extremes, mixed gases, noise, motion, and vibration also have adverse effects on human performance and operator efficiency. However, the lack of a standardized, sensitive, human performance assessment battery has probably delayed the systematic study of the deleterious effects of various toxic chemicals and drugs at home and in the workplace. The collective goal of the research reported here is the development of a menu of tests embedded in a coherent package of hardware and software that may be useful in repeated-measures studies of a broad range of agents that can degrade human performance. A menu of 40 tests from the Automated Performance Test System (APTS) is described, and the series of interlocking studies supporting its development is reviewed. The APTS tests, which run on several versions of laptop portables and desktop personal computers, have been shown to be stable, reliable, and factorially rich, and to have predictive validities with holistic measures of intelligence and simulator performances. In addition, sensitivity studies have been conducted in which performance changes due to stressors, agents, and treatments were demonstrated. We believe that tests like those described here have prospective use as an adjunct to urine testing for the screening for performance loss of individuals who are granted access to workplaces and stations that impact public safety.

Simulator sickness occurs in a large number of Army, Navy, and Marine Corps simulators, and is most prevalent in moving-base, rotary-wing devices which employ cathode ray tube (CRT) video displays as opposed to fixed-wing, dome-display trainers with no motion base. Based on data from a factor analysis of over 1000 Navy and Marine Corps pilot simulation exposures, a new scoring procedure was applied to two helicopter simulators with similar rates of simulator sickness incidence. Based on the factor analytic scoring key, the two simulators showed slightly different sickness profiles. Preliminary work was begun to record the visual scene by video frame-by-frame decomposition and automated scoring algorithms were developed. The findings are discussed from the standpoints of (1) recommendations for future design and use of simulators, and (2) the metric advantages and other merits of the “field experiment” methodology to address human factors problems with simulator sickness.

The Automated Portable Test (APT) System is a notebook-sized, computer-based, humanperformance and subjective-status assessment system. It is now being used in a wide range of environmental studies (e.g., simulator aftereffects, flight tests, drug effects, and hypoxia). Three questionnaires and 15 performance tests have been implemented, and the adaptation of 30 more tests is underway or is planned. The APT System is easily transportable, is inexpensive, and has the breadth of expansion options required for field and laboratory applications. The APT System is a powerful and expandable tool for human assessment in remote and unusual environments.The Automated Portable Test (APT) System has been developed as a tool for the assessment of human performance and subjective status. At present, it is being used in investigations of the effects of flight-simulator exposure on pilots and hypoxia effects on soldiers and in a variety of university studies. In the simulator study, for example, pre-and posttests are being administered in an effort to assess the magnitude and duration of simulator aftereffects on subjective and performance responses. Development of the APT System is based upon the concepts and empirical findings of the Performance Evaluation Tests for Environmental Research (PETER) Program

M a r t i n G . Smith', M i c h e l e h r a u s e ' , R o b e r t S. Kejnedy 1 Alvah C . B i t t n e r , J r . and Mary M. Harbeson 'Essex C o r p o r a t i o n , O r l a n d o , F l o r i d a 'Naval Biodynamics L a b o r a t o r y , New O r l e a n s , L o u i s i a n a ABSTRACT M i c r o p r o c e s s o r s i n t h e form of p e r s o n a l c o m p u t e r s and home game s y s t e m s a r e now w i d e l y a v a i l a b l e a t a f f o r d a b l e p r i c e s . R e s e a r c h e r s a r e r a p i d l y a c q u i r i n g s y s t e m s f o r t h e c o l l e c t i o n and a n a l y s i s of d a t a and r e c o r d i n g of r e s u l t s . However, t h e u s e of t h e s e d e v i c e s p a r a l l e l s t h e i m p l e m e n t a t i o n o f t h e e a r l y a p p a r at u s -b a s e d t e s t s which began t h e i r development d u r i n g World War 11. A 1 though i n c r e a s e d s p e e d i n t e s t a d m i n i s t r a t i o n was g a i n e d , t h e m e c h a n i z a t i o n of t r a d i t i o n a l t e s t s , a t times, r e s u l t e d i n a l t e r a t i o n of t h e b e h a v i o r a l f a c t o r s s t u d i e d , a s w e l l a s d i f f i c u l t i e s w i t h equipment r e l i a b i l i t y . P i t f a l l s t o be a v o i d e d w h e n c o n s i d e r i n g a t e s t f o r m i c r o p r o c e s s o r m e c h a n i z a t i o n i n c l u d e : ( a ) equipment f a c t o r s , ( b ) q u a n t i t a t i v e i s s u e s , and ( c ) t h e i r i n t e r a c t i o n s . T h i s r e p o r t o u t 1 i n e s t h e p r o c e d u r e s one s h o u l d f o l l o w when i m p l e m e n t i n g a m i c r o p r o c e s s o r b a s e d p e r f o r m a n c e t e s t b a t t e r y .

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