Emotions, Cognitions and Human Performance
Led by Dr Amanda Stephens, the MUARC Emotions, Cognitions and Human Performance theme explores topics rooted in psychology, using an understanding of how people think and feel to support and strengthen human-factors work in safety-critical environments.
The emotions, cognitions and human performance theme is rooted in psychology, using an understanding of how people think and feel to support and strengthen human-factors work in safety-critical environments. It recognises that reactions aren’t fixed. Two people can face the same situation and respond completely differently, and even the same person might react differently on another day or in a different context.
The theme considers different states such as anger, anxiety, stress, fatigue or emotional overload, because these shifts can significantly change how people perceive risk, how they behave and how they perform under pressure. This work is especially important now, as people are experiencing higher levels of stress, distraction, and emotional strain, all of which can influence behaviour in critical moments.
By exploring the heart of behaviour in different contexts, from how people interact with vehicle technology through to aggression directed at frontline workers, this helps shape practical ways to reduce risk.
THEME LEAD
RESEARCH TEAM
Research Portfolio
- Anger and aggression across a range of transportation users.
- Occupational violence and aggression in health care, emergency services and other workplaces, including how common it is and what form it takes across different settings.
- Systems approaches to workplace aggression, tracing contributing factors and good practice from the frontline encounter through to organisational and regulatory decisions.
- Stress and emotional fatigue.
- Decision-making under stress in high-stakes and safety-critical environments.
- Emotional regulation, and how people manage anger, anxiety and frustration at work and on the road.
- Diabetes management and driving.
- Fatigue in the workplace and for drivers.
- The cognition and motivation behind unsafe cycling and driving behaviours.
- Developing a deeper understanding of driver anxiety and avenues to support anxious drivers.
- How people understand, trust and adapt to advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) and increasing vehicle automation, including what happens when a system does not behave as expected.
- Attention, reliance and behavioural adaptation when people share control of a task with technology.
- Designing programs to support safer behaviours and manage fatigue, stress or anger.