Engineering Psychophysiology : Issues and Applications

This book will appeal to ergonomists, human factors psychologists, industrial and safety engineers. It will introduce the components critical for the successful application of psychophysiological methods to problems in engineering.

This volume promotes engineering psychophysiology as a discipline and demonstrates its value to a new audience who we hope will consist of ergonomists, human factors psychologists, and engineers. The editors use a broad definition of what constitutes engineering, including all aspects of the fields known as human engineering, industrial engineering, and safety and systems engineering.

The two goals for the volume are reflected in the subtitle. The Issues section introduces the components critical for the successful application of psychophysiological methods to problems in engineering. The chapters are intended to provide an introduction for the reader who is unfamiliar with psychophysiology and to provide the newcomer to the discipline with an overview of the basic theoretical, measurement, instrumentation, and experimental design questions inherent in the use of psychophysiological methods. The Applications section illustrates the many ways that psychophysiological methods are already being used in engineering applications. A broad definition of application is used to include laboratory and simulation research, as well as field studies, and all of the chapters address questions that are relevant for applying psychophysiological methods in the field. The editor''s intent is to stimulate investigators to use these methods in new problem areas; therefore, the content of the chapters varies widely, from reviewing specific psychophysiological measures to reviewing work performed on specific engineering problems.