William S. Helton

Since Canis lupus familiaris first shared a fire with man more than 15,000 years ago, dogs have been trusted and valued coworkers. Yet the relatively new field of canine ergonomics is just beginning to unravel the secrets of this collaboration. As with many new fields, the literature on working dogs is scattered across several non-overlapping disciplines from forensics and the life sciences to medicine, security, and wildlife biology. Canine Ergonomics: The Science of Working Dogs draws together related research from different fields into an interdisciplinary resource of science-based information. Providing a complete overview, from physiology to cognition, this is the first book to discuss working dogs from a scientific perspective. It covers a wide range of current and potential tasks, explores ergonomic and cognitive aspects of these tasks, and covers personality traits and behavioral assessments of working dogs. A quick look at the chapters, contributed by experts from across the globe and across the multidisciplinary spectrum, illustrates the breadth and depth of information available in this book. Traditionally, information concerning working dogs is mostly hearsay, with the exchange of information informal at best and non-existent at worst. Most books available are too general in coverage or conversely, too specific. They explain how to train a service dog or train a dog to track, based on training lore rather than empirical methods verified with rigorous scientific standards. This book, drawing on cutting edge research, unifies different perspectives into one global science: Canine Ergonomics.

The Science of Working Dogs

Canine Ergonomics

Christopher D. Wickens

Justin G. Hollands

Simon Banbury

Forming connections between human performance and design, this new edition of Engineering Psychology and Human Performance examines human–machine interaction. The book is organized directly from a psychological perspective of human information processing, and chapters correspond to the flow of information as it is processed by a human being—from the senses, through the brain, to action—rather than from the perspective of system components or engineering design concepts. Upon completing this book, readers will be able to identify how human ability contributes to the design of technology; understand the connections within human information processing and human performance; challenge the way they think about technology’s influence on human performance; and show how theoretical advances have been, or might be, applied to improving human–machine interactions. This new edition includes the following key features: A new chapter on research methods Sections on interruption management and distracted driving as cogent examples of applications of engineering psychology theory to societal problems A greatly increased number of references to pandemics, technostress, and misinformation New applications Amplified emphasis on readability and commonsense examples Updated and new references throughout the text This book is ideal for psychology and engineering students, as well as practitioners in engineering psychology, human performance, and human factors. The text is also supplemented by online resources for students and instructors.

William S. Helton

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