Ability to perceive operation-response noise and the decision to stop system operation

Abstract

The responses of an information-processing system such as a computer contain noise. As this noise increases, the system becomes uncontrollable and the operator may be exposed to a significant risk. In this study, we investigated whether operators' ability to perceive operation-response noise influenced the decision to stop the operation of the system under the condition in which the operation system became gradually uncontrollable. In Experiment 1, we examined the correlation between operators' ability to discriminate the variance of operation- response noise and their performance in the stop-operation decision-making task. In Experiment 2, we trained a group of operators in variance discrimination task, and investigated the training effect on the performance in the stop-operation decision-making task. We demonstrated that the higher the operator's ability to discriminate variance, the earlier they decide to stop the system operation. However, the ability to discriminate variance did not influence to other indices of this decision-making. These results indicate that sensitive perception of operation- response noise causes the earlier stop operation, but it is not sufficient to lead to optimal decision-making in this regard.