AbstractThis revised version of a speech presented at the Bureau of Supplies and Accounts Field Conference of November, 1954, discusses the reasons for delinquent performance under a contract and possible solutions to this problem.
Experiments concerning the effects of acceleration on motor performance are discussed in a sequence which illustrates the evolution of research techniques in recent years. In the simplest of these techniques, performance is evaluated during or immediately following exposure to pre-programmed acceleration time histories. A more complex technique involves the study of interaction of subject performance with the pattern of acceleration experienced. Accelerations are actually controlled by subject performance by means of an analog computer control system. Certain limitations of centrifuge simulations are discussed.
A panel of five major metropolitan newspapers was slow in recognizing the onset of the 1957–58 recession, but eventually recouped in collective coverage. Closer study of economic indicators might have resulted in more effective performance.
The communication to which the present paper refers is the flow of information in and out of the human operator while he is performing a well-defined task. The steps in this process, the types of measures required in its analysis, and some recent data in human information processing are outlined. The paper ends with a brief evaluation of the function and the future of computer simulation in improving man-machine communications.