Does automation trust evolve from a leap of faith? An analysis using a reprogrammed pasteurizer simulation task.

Trust is a critical factor that drives successful human-automation interaction in a myriad of modern professional environments. One seminal work on human-automation trust is Muir and Moray (1996) showing that human-machine trust evolves from faith, then dependability, and finally predictability in a simulated supervisory control task. However, our recent work failed to replicate the finding of the original study, calling for further replication efforts. Experiment 1 aimed to fully replicate Muir and Moray (1996) where participants performed a simulated pasteurizer task. Experiment 2 attempted to replicate Experiment 1 using participants who major in Engineering as used in the original study. Both experiments showed that dependability was the best initial predictor of trust, building later to predictability and faith. Two experiments consistently failed to support both the hypothesis proposed by Muir and Moray (1996), that trust develops from predictability to dependability to faith, and their original findings that trust develops initially from faith. The results of the current experiments challenge this widely cited view of how human-machine trust develops. Modern automation designers should be aware that dependability might control initial trust development for general users and incorporate dependability information into their designs.

Minding the Gap: Effects of an Attention Maintenance Training Program on Driver Calibration.

OBJECTIVE: The present study examines the effect of an existing driver training program, FOrward Concentration and Attention Learning (FOCAL) on young drivers' calibration, drivers' ability to estimate the length of their in-vehicle glances while driving, using two different measures, normalized difference scores and Brier Scores. BACKGROUND: Young drivers are poor at maintaining attention to the forward roadway while driving a vehicle. Additionally, drivers may overestimate their attention maintenance abilities. Driver training programs such as FOCAL may train target skills such as attention maintenance but also might serve as a promising way to reduce errors in drivers' calibration of their self-perceived attention maintenance behaviors in comparison to their actual performance. METHOD: Thirty-six participants completed either FOCAL or a Placebo training program, immediately followed by driving simulator evaluations of their attention maintenance performance. In the evaluation drive, participants navigated four driving simulator scenarios during which their eyes were tracked. In each scenario, participants performed a map task on a tablet simulating an in-vehicle infotainment system. RESULTS: FOCAL-trained drivers maintained their attention to the forward roadway more and reported better calibration using the normalized difference measure than Placebo-trained drivers. However, the Brier scores did not distinguish the two groups on their calibration. CONCLUSION: The study implies that FOCAL has the potential to improve not only attention maintenance skills but also calibration of the skills for young drivers. APPLICATION: Driver training programs may be designed to train not only targeted higher cognitive skills but also driver calibration-both critical for driving safety in young drivers.

Revisiting human-machine trust: a replication study of Muir and Moray (1996) using a simulated pasteurizer plant task.

This study aimed to replicate Muir and Moray that demonstrated operators' trust in automated machines developing from faith, then dependability, and lastly predictability. Following the procedure of Muir and Moray, we asked undergraduate participants to complete a training program in a simulated pasteuriser plant and an experimental program including various errors in the pasteuriser. Results showed that the best predictor of overall trust was not faith but dependability, and that dependability consistently governed trust throughout the interaction with the pasteuriser. Thus, the obtained data patterns were inconsistent with those reported in Muir and Moray. We observed that operators in the current study used automatic control more frequently than manual control to successfully produce performance scores contrary to the operators in Muir and Moray. The results imply that dependability is a critical predictor of human-machine trust, which automation designer may focus on. More extensive future research using more modern automated technologies is necessary for understanding what factors control human-autonomy trust in modern ages. Practitioner Summary: The results suggest that dependability is a key factor that shapes human-machine trust across the time course of the trust development. This replication study suggests a new perspective for designing effective human-machine systems for untrained users who do not go through extensive training programs on automated systems.

Usability: Adoption, Measurement, Value.

OBJECTIVE: We searched for the application of usability in the literature with a focus on adoption, measurements employed, and demonstrated value. Five human factors domains served as a platform for our reflection, which included the last 20 years. BACKGROUND: As usability studies continue to accumulate, there has been only a little past reflection on usability and contributions across a variety of applications. Our research provides a background for general usability, and we target specific usability research subareas within transportation, aging populations, autistic populations, telehealth, and cybersecurity. METHOD: "Usability" research was explored across five different domains within human factors. The goal was not to perform an exhaustive review but, rather, sample usability practices within several specific subareas. We focused on answering three questions: How was usability adopted? How was it measured? How was it framed in terms of value? CONCLUSION: We found that usability is very domain specific. Usability benchmarking studies and empirical standards are rare. The value associated with improving usability ranged widely-from monetary benefits to saving lives. Thus, researchers are motivated to further improve usability practices. A number of data collection and interpretation challenges still call for solutions. APPLICATION: Findings offer insight into the development of usability, as applied across a variety of subdomains. Our reflection ought to inform future theory development efforts. We are concerned about the lack of established benchmarks, which can help ground data interpretation. Future research should address this gap in the literature. We note that our findings can be used to develop better training materials for future usability researchers.