From safety assessment to research in the domain of human factors: the case of operation with computerised procedures

This paper looks at the notion of safety assessment supporting research as developed by the Institute for Nuclear Safety and Protection in the human factor domain. Firstly, the authors list the main issues identified when assessing the safety of computerised procedures from the human factor point of view. They then present the methodology used to gather and analyse data in an attempt to derive further into the issues by means of research. The approach presented consists of trying to describe and understand the cognitive activity of the operators when they are operating a nuclear unit using a computerised procedure. The first results from this research are illustrated through an example