Showing What People Can and Cannot Do: Human Capacity and Limitations Demonstrations:

To communicate Human Factors Design Principles to audiences of computer programmers, community groups, junior college and college students, the authors have combined a set of thirteen demonstrations of Human Capabilities and Limitations into an effective, stand-alone presentation lasting from one to two hours. Each of the demonstrations and the implications of each demonstration for product design will be explained. The content areas include:MemoryClassical ConditioningOperant ConditioningCognitive LearningObedience to Authority.Rule UsagePerceptionAdaptationResponse CompetitionThe primary goal of this paper is to provide the Human Factors Educator, Practitioner or Graduate Student with an alternative way to introduce the topic of Human Factors in one or two consolidated sessions to a variety of audiences which will be informative, popular, easy to prepare for, and very inexpensive. A secondary goal is to provide some demonstration ideas which might be used to supplement traditional classroom lectures.