An empirical study on the relationships between functional performance measure and task performance measure in NPP MCR

Abstract

In many industrial settings such as chemical plants and electrical power generating plants, operator performance measures have been used for multi-objectives such as control room design, human system interface evaluation, training and procedures. Because of multiple uses of performance measures, many methods and criteria for measuring human performance have been developed. Among these methods, functional performance measures and task performance measures are well known and widely used to measure human performance. Although these two methods are used independently for many industries, and most studies related to operators' performance use one of these measures, there has been no research to directly identify the relationships between the two measures. In this paper, task performance and functional performance measures are compared and investigated in terms of whether they have any relationships under the same Interfacing System Loss of Coolant Accident (ISLOCA) scenario considered in the experiment. Furthermore, to gain realistic results, these two performance measures are applied to Nuclear Power Plant Main Control Room (NPP MCR) operators to measure their performances in a full-scope simulator. Finally, a regression line plotting the relation between task and functional performance score and the correlation of the two performance measures are investigated. (C) 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.