This presentation provides a brief primer to High Velocity Human Factors. A human factors paradigm to analyze affective, cognitive and sociological issues pertaining to mission critical domains such as law enforcement, fire fighting, combat, disaster response, etc.

1. High Velocity Human Factors
Human Factors of Mission Critical Domains in
Nonequilibrium
Moin Rahman
Motorola
Plantation, FL
1

2. A World in Nonequilibrium
The only certainty is that there is no certainty
- Robert Rubin
2

3. Nonequilibrium: Human-Machine Systems
“Emergency or crisis conditions occur suddenly and
often unexpectedly, operators must make critical
decisions under extreme stress, and the consequences
of poor performance are immediate and catastrophic.”
(Salas, Driskell & Hughes, 1996).
3

4. Nonequilibrium Events
Volatile
Uncertain
Complex
Ambiguous
“Golden Hour”
Time
4

5. BLACK SWAN
extremely rare events
- Nicolas Taleb
5

6. 9/11 Attacks on WTC
Poor Situation Awareness
- people inside the towers
- NORAD
- impending collapse (102 minutes)
Emotional Stress (triggers)
- deafening sounds, shaking building, failure
of lighting, dust & debris
- threats to life and limb
- insufficient time (escape & rescue)
6

7. NE Spectrum
complex
multiplayer
multi-component
Loosely coupled
simple
few players
limited component
tightly coupled
7

8. High Velocity Human Factors
NE Meta Characteristics Psychological Reactions
(physical-informational-outcome
landscape)
High velocity of events High Velocity of information
Non-linear dynamics processing
Naturalistic setting Emotionally modulated cognition
- ill structured Event perception
- ill defined - volatile
- high stakes - uncertain
- incomplete information - complex
- ambiguous
Naturalistic decision making
High stakes: e.g., direct threat to life & limb
8

9. HVHF Dimensions
Velocity differential dimension (Vel-D)
Psychophysiologial dimension
Decision-making dimension
9

10. Vel-D Dimension
Δ Information processing rate
emotion-induced
e.g., attentional rubbernecking, auditory exclusion,
tachypsychia
event-agent interactions
autocatalysis: Vel-D becomes its own catalyst
(exponential rise)
10

11. Psychophysiological Dimension
neurological & physiological reactions
behaviors: highly aroused sympathetic nervous system
- autovigilance
- response competition
- attentional capacity
- hormonal overflow
- behavioral inhibition
- regressive behavior (e.g., death blossom and burst reaction)
parasympathetic backlash
11

12. Decision-making Dimension
hypervigilant decision making (Johnston, et al., 1997)
recognition primed decision making (klein, 1999)
decision-making heuristics (Wickens, 1992)
12

13. HVHF Challenge
Unknown unknowns
Known unknowns
13

14. HVHF Example
14

15. HVHF Analysis
Dimensional Experiential Design
Vel-D Oral history Standard HF
Psychophysiological Simulations HVHF
Decision-making HVHF Drills Hybrid: HFHVHF
15

16. HVHF Application: prevent fratricide (blue-
on-blue)
16

17. HVHF Applications
17

18. HVHF Laws (prescriptive)
1) Law of Relevance 6) Law of Absoluteness
2) Law of Acceptance 7) Law of Intelligence
3) Law of Transparence 8) Law of Reliance
4) Law of Clairvoyance
18

19. Closing Thoughts
• HVHF: A HF paradigm for Mission Critical Domain
Non-equilibrium
Emotional modulation of cognition
Three HVHF dimensions (Vel-D, Psychophysiological &
Decision making)
• A HVHF approach
Analysis
Design
Training
19

20. Contact Info:
moin.rahman@motorola.com
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The author thanks Mark Palmer (Senior Manager, Motorola) for giving him
the opportunity to explore un-chartered waters in the human factors
sciences; and, Tim Bergin, for reviewing the manuscript and providing
insightful comments.
20