Scheduling theory is proposed as a normative model for strategic behavior when operators are confronted by several tasks, all of which should be completed within a fixed time span, and when they are free to choose the order in which the tasks should be done. Three experiments are described to investigate the effect of knowing the correct scheduling rule on the efficiency of performance, subjective workload, and choice of strategy under different conditions of time pressure. The most potent effects are from time pressure. The reasons for the weak effect of knowing the rules are discussed, and implications for strategic behavior, displays, and decision aids are indicated.

Relative to bar displays, object displays have repeatedly elicited superior performance for tasks involving information integration. This has been attributed to the emergent feature that is present in such displays; however, the attentional strategy used by the subjects may also playa role. Most previous research has had subjects perform the information integration task much more frequently than the separable tasks. Therefore, subjects may have learned to attend to the information integration task more, and thus they performed it better than they did the separable tasks. The present experiment manipulates the probability of the occurrence of the information integration and separable tasks. As the probability of the integral task increased, absolute error increased for the separable task but remained constant for the integral task. Also, reaction time dropped sharply for the integral task as the probability of the integral task increased, but it rose slowly for the separable task. Before using object displays, designers of visual displays should consider the attentional strategy of the operator.

Building a new user experience department requires skills in management, team development, organizational design, and strategy. There are few published resources specifically targeted at human factors analysts who have accepted the challenge of creating a UX department. All of the panelists have successfully developed UX departments in large organizations, and will discuss their lessons learned in the process of building their teams.

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This experiment investigated the workload associated with both a consistently mapped (CM) and variably mapped (VM) version of a memory/visual search task that required the processing of spatial pattern information representative of that found with some Command and Control (C2) systems. A secondary loading task paradigm which required concurrent performance of an additional spatial pattern search task was employed. The results demonstrated superior dual-task performance relative to single-task baselines on both the primary and secondary tasks when the CM version of the task was performed. The results indicate that the development of automatic processing through training can reduce the workload associated with processing spatial patterns of the type employed by C2 operators.