Man-machine Systems: Information, Control and Decision Models of Human Performance

"In this book, Sheridan and Ferrell announce clearly and capably the maturation of a field that was in its infancy when Wiener wrote "Cybernetics." The book deals with models for three important areas of human behavior: information processing, manual tracking, and decision-making. In each field, enough of the mathematical background is given to make the model basis understandable to the reader with advanced undergraduate training in mathematics or engineering.... In dealing with human information processing, the authors introduce Bayes's theorem and the Shannon-Wiener information concept and then apply them to subjective estimation, movement precision, and continuous monitoring. The information theory concepts of channel capacity, redundancy, and noise are shown to apply to psychophysical data concerning reaction times, human information transmission, and subjective probabilities."--"American Scientist" "This book has been long in the making, and it has benefited from the reactions and responses of students who used earlier versions of the text in courses offered by the authors.... The authors have provided a significant service to the field of ergonomics by giving an excellent presentation of quantitative models of human performance in man-machine systems."--"Ergonomics" "A valuable and comprehensive reference....also a proven text."--"American Journal of Psychology"