Factor

Informative presentation of basic Human Factors principles from a psychology perspective. Touches on Cognition, Perception, and the Design Process. The last of which is extremely valuable for any UI design. Handy reference tool.

Wickens et al. really fill the gap between system engineering and cognitive psychology. I have found quite a few of books of this kind.
The book contains good examples and references for workplace design, environmental conditions and several other applications that make it useful for a course textbook or professional's desk reference.
One word of caution (mea culpa as well): the authors did not address in this version the engineering tradition of poor, monotonous writing.

Wickens is a true pioneer in the field of human factors who fills the gap between (system) engineering and cognitive psychology with great diligence and competence. This book, "An Introduction to Human Factors Engineering", is another excellent reference tool made for engineers to integrate psychologic research results in their creations; I read it in combination with Wickens' "Engineering Psychology and Human Performance", which concentrates rather on the psychological perspective of human factors than on practical design advices. Both books have considerable overlappings, and are similar to each other, even in the structure of the chapters; nevertheless, I highly recommend them both. I have not (yet) found better literature for this field.

Although most of the stories here have been told before, it may prove handy to have them all in this one slim volume. It does start to delve into the details of several air campaigns, but I found myself wanting more. Readers of Overy's "Air War" and Shaw's "Fighter Combat" will find little new material here, other than some WWI anecdotes. Mr. Spick seems to conclude that it is not possible to define the "Ace Factor", which begs the question, "Why then write this book?"

With so many books available on aces and air combat tactics, Spick's focus is a remarkably fresh one. He identifys, and discusses the rare human qualities that made a small percentage of fighter pilots, "ace" pilots. This is achieved via a historical look at many successful pilots in all of history's air wars. From Bolcke to Cunningham, there's a good balance between history, technique and tactics. A good companion book to Robert Shaw's "Fighter Combat: Tactics and Maneuvering," and a better read too.

I really enjoyed this book. The author has woven a very interesting, believable plot. It's a first rate mystery thriller. I liked it so much that I sent a copy to my sister in California and she thinks The Cascade Factor would make a great movie. I highly recommend this book- I am looking forward to this author's next novel.

This is a great first novel. Think of Tom Clancy's techno-thrillers. This falls into that category. The author manages to blend plausible and exciting action with technical material in a very readable story. He keeps the technical understandable and the action moving. Added to that, it is a very timely topic. I highly recommend this to anyone.

It was short, it contained good character building, it had an uninteresting plot.

Not as good as I'd hoped, but you should read it anyway because of the insight on the character of Kathryn Janeway, wich repairs some of the damage caused by not-so-good plotting, short lenght and uninteresting side-characters.

Kathryn Janeway has always been a complicated personality. The Starfleet Academy novels reflect that nicely. I'm 27 years old and got a kick out of all three!

I purchased this book several months ago and I have been slowly integrating into my work with special Ed children. Lots of good, solidly backed information that fits so well with Occupational Therapy in the Classroom. However, this book is not friendly towards the right-brained readers like myself. I had to read the muscle-checking section 20 times before I figured it out, and I am still a little confused. Three other OTs and two PT also struggled with her descriptions. I think this will be the downfall of this otherwise wonderful book.

Dr. Carla Hannaford is at the forefront of mind/body/heart integration. We are fortunate to have her sharing her expertise in Smart Moves and the present book. Muscle checking, like Brain Gym exercises, are understandably difficult to master just from a book. For over 20 years, I've been sceptical about muscle checking, wondering if it was due more to subjective variations in the application of pressure. But I begin to see more validity to its use now. Knowing the dominance factors and the 32 dominance profiles is a great help to appreciating our individual differences. There are also many suggestions for integration. One needs to go beyond the simplistic right/left brain dominance theories and even the 8 or 9 multiple intelligences. Education worldwide needs such a revolution in integration through physical movements and the development of heart intelligence and all the senses.

I needed to learn about principal components and factor analysis. The book seemed just right appealing to "practical issues". In fact, I found the book difficult to follow. Maybe it's too practical and I failed to understand the why's. I have used two other books that I found more useful: Jolliffe's Principal Components Analysis, which I rate very high and Kline's An Easy Guide to Factor Analysis.

Kim and Mueller's book is a must for everyone who is a beginner in factor analysis. It takes you stepwise trough the different methods. The book is written in a way that makes it easy to understand the principles of factor analysis. You might not be an expert after reading this book but you manage what's most commonly needed.

The subjects for the chapters are: I: Method of extracting initial factors II:Methods of rotation III: Number of factors problem revisited IV:Introduction to confirmatory factor analysis V:Construction of factor scales VI:Brief answers to questions frequently asked VII:Glossary

A great introduction to human factors but it shows its age in its focus, its examples, and its recommendations. Nevertheless, this book makes a good starting point.

If you are in senior airline management and are wondering why things happen the way they happen and you really can't figure out why, this book might provide some help. It's the first step towards understanding the human impact in airline operations, be that pilots, cabin crew or ground crews. Far from being an expert in the field I think this work provides great background material, probably to be better understood when you hold a degree in psychology, but also readable for the un-initiated like myself. CRM specialists/trainers, Human Resource Managers etc. should have this book on their shelv(es).

This is the easiest to use and probably most comprehensive book of human measurement, in my opinion. The data provided in this book is of extreme value to anybody designing anything that physically interacts with human bodies. This is the only complete source of anthropometric data, that I know of, for children of virtually every age range.

However, some of the extrapolated data in the book is impractical for real use. For example, children's furniture dimensions recommended by this book are generally too small as they appear to be based upon exact proportions of adult recommendations. This is inappropriate because children's bodies and minds are not exact scale models of adult bodies.

Overall, though, I still recommend this book highly, but also recommend very careful use of it.

Rich in visual and graphical material, calculations, diagrams and in-scale drawings of various humans (both sexes), in varous situations... Interesting and important reference tool for the industrial designer. (one of the very few available on the market today)

Karen Messing's book advocates setting up of a fruitful dialogue between those interested in women's health and those interested in occupational health. The author decided to study the interactions of biological and social factors. "Environment", according to Messing, "channels the performance and well-being of biologically divergent populations".

Messing states that the work environment ignores women's needs because tools, workspaces and load factors are geared for men and not women as well. She suggests that rather than finding a worker to fit the job, the job should be made accessible to the workers. She also decries the fact that science treats women's biology in ways that reinforce their subordination in society. Scientific studies about the workplace also tend to forget about the additional work load that women have at home, or to treat it as a reason against women holding certain jobs or not deserving insurance compensation.

This glaring discrimination is obvious in the scientific treatment given to work-related injuries. When men get injured, they get compensation more often than women, because cause and effect can easily be established between, say heavy lifting and a back injury, whereas the repetitive strains that women are subjected to in their jobs are less visible and more cumulative in nature. Moreover, men tend to be promoted out of repetitive types of jobs and have greater control over their work environment and methodology.

Karen Messing believes employers, scientists and insurance companies should be accountable for this state of affairs. She recognises that labour unions work very hard to protect their members, but they do not always have the support of highly paid scientific experts or lawyers to protect the rights of women. She also deplores the fact that an agent, or condition must be proved dangerous before being removed from the workplace or the environment, hence she pushes for a preventive approach. Many scientists opt for scientific certainty thereby relying on evident illness rather than symptoms to determine whether job hazards are to be validated by them. Messing diagnoses a male-gender bias in the scientific community at large.

Karen Messing's "Occupational Health..." contains useful information for researchers who wish to ensure that their methodology is not gendered. However, this jumble of facts and findings can be a bit confusing for other readers such as policymakers, labour union representatives, feminist groups and just plain workers who wish to gain an insight into this most important subject. Hopefully readers, especially scientists, will not be put off by this minor drawback in their quest for a science that has two eyes to see both sides of the question.

The implications of Messing's arguments regarding the disparate orientation of policies and practices, research and research funding, and record keeping regarding workers, is a call to awareness about how bias toward men workers has resulted in omission of women's occupational health issues from research and policy. The thoroughness of her review, the integration of hundreds of studies and the multitude of concrete examples clearly demonstrate the breadth and depth of the problems for parity in occupational health research and remedies.

I'll give this book higher marks than the original book by these authors in which they put forward their idea of "Power Factor Training." The reason, is because while there are still a lot of people who will convincingly pick apart each argument put forward by the authors, at least with this specialization book, you get a look at what the most effective back and shoulder exercises are. That alone was worth the book. As for their controversial plan, look, if you're in a rut, it may be worth trying. Just read the fine print carefully, and buy a good calculator. You'll need it.

I would recommend the "power factor " approach to trainees in the intermediate and advance category. After a 26 year training career (weightlifting, powerlifting and bodybuilding), it was refreshing to read practical training ideas that could immediately be introduced to my workouts to up the overall intensity. Be warned.. these techniques are not for beginners and advance trainees should not overestimate their abilities when they hit those first high rep, short range movements ! Like all new training techniques ,apply your mind to the ideas and and routines presented and make an informed decision as to the best way to use them in terms of your own abilities and training goals...remember there are no final answers in the mysterious world of weight training (in spite what the academics would have us believe !).All I can say is that short range overloads did'nt harm Paul Anderson any (one of the strongest men of all time ) and after my first shoulder workout using this system , my delts were so burnt out I did'nt know where to put my arms !