Publication statistics
Pub. period:1993-2003
Pub. count:7
Number of co-authors:9
Co-authors
Number of publications with 3 favourite co-authors:
Penelope Sanderson:4P. M. Sanderson:1S. Shaheen:1 Productive colleagues
Dal Vernon C. Reising's 3 most productive colleagues in number of publications:
Penelope Sanderson:19Neville Moray:16Jens Rasmussen:8 
Civilization advances by extending the number of important operations which we can perform without thinking of them.
-- Alfred North Whitehead
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Dal Vernon C. Reising
Has also published under the name of:
"D. V. Reising" and "Dal Vernon Reising"
Publications by Dal Vernon C. Reising (bibliography)
Jamieson, G., Ho, W. and Reising, Dal Vernon C. (2003): Ecological Interface Design in Practice: A Design for Petrochemical Processing Operations. In: Proceedings of the Tenth International Conference on Human-Computer Interaction 2003. pp. 133-137.
Reising, Dal Vernon C. and Sanderson, Penelope (2002): Work domain analysis and sensors I: principles and simple example. In International Journal of Human-Computer Studies, 56 (6) pp. 569-596.
In this paper we establish a foundation for understanding the
instrumentation needs of complex dynamic systems if ecological interface design
(EID)-based interfaces are to be robust in the face of instrumentation
failures. EID-based interfaces often include configural displays which reveal
the higher-order properties of complex systems. However, concerns have been
expressed that such displays might be misleading when instrumentation is
unreliable or unavailable. Rasmussen's abstraction hierarchy (AH) formalism can
be extended to include representations of sensors near the functions or
properties about which they provide information, resulting in what we call a
"sensor-annotated abstraction hierarchy". Sensor-annotated AHs help the analyst
determine the impact of different instrumentation engineering policies on
higher-order system information by showing how the data provided from
individual sensors propagates within and across levels of abstraction in the
AH. The use of sensor-annotated AHs with a configural display is illustrated
with a simple water reservoir example. We argue that if EID is to be
effectively employed in the design of interfaces for complex systems, then the
information needs of the human operator need to be considered at the earliest
stages of system development while instrumentation requirements are being
formulated. In this way, Rasmussen's AH promotes a formative approach to
instrumentation engineering.
© All rights reserved Reising and Sanderson and/or Academic Press
Reising, Dal Vernon C. and Sanderson, Penelope (2002): Work domain analysis and sensors II: Pasteurizer II case study. In International Journal of Human-Computer Studies, 56 (6) pp. 597-637.
In this paper we use sensor-annotated abstraction hierarchies (Reising &
Sanderson, 1996, 2002a , b) to show that unless appropriately instrumented,
configural displays designed according to the principles of ecological
interface design (EID) might be vulnerable to misinterpretation when sensors
become unreliable or are unavailable. Building on foundations established in
Reising and Sanderson (2002 a) we use a pasteurization process control example
to show how sensor-annotated AHs help the analyst determine the impact of
different instrumentation engineering policies on a configural display that is
part of an ecological interface. Our analyses suggest that configural displays
showing higher-order properties of a system are especially vulnerable under
some conservative instrumentation configurations. However, sensor-annotated AHs
can be used to indicate where corrective instrumentation might be placed. We
argue that if EID is to be effectively employed in the design of displays for
complex systems, then the information needs of the human operator need to be
considered while instrumentation requirements are being formulated. Rasmussen's
abstraction hierarchy -- and particularly its extension to the analysis of
information captured by sensors and derived from sensors -- may therefore be a
useful adjunct to up-stream instrumentation design.
© All rights reserved Reising and Sanderson and/or Academic Press
Sanderson, Penelope, Reising, Dal Vernon C. and Augustiniak, Marc J. (1995): Diagnosis of Multiple Faults in Systems: Effects of Fault Difficulty, Expectancy, and Prior Exposure. In: Proceedings of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society 39th Annual Meeting 1995. pp. 459-463.
It has often been noted that today's human operators of complex industrial systems must occasionally deal with multiple component failures, but that they are trained instead to think in terms of single faults. This can lead to the minor inconvenience of simply taking longer to troubleshoot, or to the major hazards of a fundamental misunderstanding of system state. In two studies we examined these influences on subjects' ability to diagnose a multiple fault in a simulated electronic circuit: (1) objective multiple fault difficulty, (2) prior practice with multiple faults, and (3) expectancy or mental set for multiple faults. Previous research had confounded the latter two variables. Experiment 1 showed that the difficulty of multiple faults varied as our model predicted, but that the difficulty of certain faults interacted with verbalization. Experiment 2 showed that both prior practice and expectancy influence how effectively subjects deal with a difficult multiple fault, but not quite as expected. We conclude that the ability to diagnose multiple faults is multiply determined, depending on degree of practice, mental set, and the difficulty of the multiple fault itself. These results will help us define the requirements for decision support tools and they have also led us to perform investigations in the field, as reported in Reising and Sanderson (1995).
© All rights reserved Sanderson et al. and/or Human Factors Society
Reising, Dal Vernon C. and Sanderson, Penelope (1995): Mapping the Domain of Electronic Repair Shops: A Field Study in Fault Diagnosis. In: Proceedings of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society 39th Annual Meeting 1995. pp. 464-468.
Recent experimental research has indicated that different multiple faults impose differing levels of objective and subjective difficulty on human troubleshooters. Technological advances suggest that systems are becoming more complex and integrated, in which case multiple components will fail. Operators will have to be able to deal with these more complex failures. In this paper we report field work conducted in order to build and substantiate a model of the factors influencing fault diagnosis in the field. By conducting field observations and by constructing concept maps, we investigated how expert troubleshooters handle the difficulty associated with diagnosing multiple faults. The troubleshooters were expert electronic technicians in departmental repair shops on a large university campus. The end product of the research is a model of fault diagnosis that is grounded in field data. Our results suggest that diagnostic difficulty arises from several factors: (1) organizational structure, (2) technicians' strategies for fault diagnosis, and (3) equipment design. The field observations and concept maps indicate that technicians approach the diagnostic task with standard, ritualistic methods that they have developed over years of experience. They generally go through two phases of troubleshooting: (1) the problem definition phase and (2) what we call the At-the-Equipment-TroubleShooting (AETS) phase. Technicians also reason about multiple failures in series, considering one simple explanation at a time. Our principal conclusion is that in real-world settings the three previously mentioned factors have evolved to avoid situations in which technicians must engage in prolonged functional reasoning. These findings will be used (1) to develop further the model of fault diagnosis, and (2) to guide future experimental investigations studying the influences of fault diagnosis.
© All rights reserved Reising and Sanderson and/or Human Factors Society
Moray, Neville, Jones, B. G., Sanderson, P. M., Reising, Dal Vernon C., Shaheen, S. and Rasmussen, Jens (1995): The "Bird's Foot" Integrated Graphical Interface for NPP Operation. In: Proceedings of the Sixth International Conference on Human-Computer Interaction July 9-14, 1995, Tokyo, Japan. pp. 995-998.
The traditional single-sensor-single indicator display is poorly matched to the cognitive abilities of operators, especially for large and complex systems. Our research aims to provide direct perception displays which will greatly reduce the cognitive load on the operator and allow the use of perceptual rather than cognitive mechanisms to support start-up, state diagnosis and fault management. In particular we describe a system of displays which supports movement by the operator up the abstraction hierarchy as the plant is brought on line. The aim is to minimise the cognitive load on the operator by providing information only at the level at which the operator is currently thinking, while at the same time showing how close the system is to operational limits.
© All rights reserved Moray et al. and/or Elsevier Science
Reising, Dal Vernon C. (1993): Diagnosing Multiple Simultaneous Faults. In: Proceedings of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society 37th Annual Meeting 1993. pp. 524-528.
Most recent studies of human diagnostic reasoning, or "troubleshooting," have concentrated on the human's ability to diagnose single faults in a system. Little attention has been paid to human diagnosis of multiple simultaneous faults. Multiple faults are usually functionally unrelated, but sometimes they interact with each other, resulting in potentially confusing symptoms. An experiment was conducted to test the relative difficulty of diagnosing multiple faults whose symptoms interacted to a lesser or greater degree. The experimental test-bed was a simulated binary adder (logic circuit) into which one or more faults could be inserted by the experimenter. Four levels of objective multiple fault difficulty were identified based on the type of evidence available and the type of reasoning required to successfully diagnose the fault. Subjective mental workload and the number of tests required for each diagnosis increased as objective multiple fault difficulty rose from level 1 to 4. The time taken for a diagnosis increased as difficulty rose from level 2 to 4, but level 1 was higher than expected, suggesting difficulties that were not captured in the initial classification. Further analysis has explored these finding through performance measures and verbal protocols. Overall, this research indicates that multiple faults differ in how readily they can be diagnosed. However performance and subjective mental workload depend upon a number of factors that are now just starting to be understood, including the ease and speed of extracting the sufficient evidence for diagnosis, prior exposure to the constituent faults, and the testing strategy used by troubleshooters.
© All rights reserved Reising and/or Human Factors Society
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