Gavriel Salvendy

Handbook of industrial engineering

Unrivaled coverage of a broad spectrum of industrial engineering concepts and applicationsThe Handbook of Industrial Engineering, Third Edition contains a vast array of timely and useful methodologies for achieving increased productivity, quality, and competitiveness and improving the quality of working life in manufacturing and service industries. This astoundingly comprehensive resource, now available in a three-volume set, also provides a cohesive structure to the discipline of industrial engineering with four major classifications: technology; performance improvement management; management, planning, and design control; and decision-making methods. Completely updated and expanded to reflect nearly a decade of important developments in the field, this Third Edition features a wealth of new information on project management, supply-chain management and logistics, and systems related to service industries. Other important features of this essential reference include: More than 1,000 helpful tables, graphs, figures, and formulas Step-by-step descriptions of hundreds of problem-solving methodologiesHundreds of clear, easy-to-follow application examples Contributions from 176 accomplished international professionals with diverse training and affiliations More than 4,000 citations for further readingVolume 1 includes the list of advisory board members, the contributors, Foreword by John Powers, Preface by Gavriel Salvendy, the table of contents, Section 1: Industrial Engineering Function and Skills, and Section II: Technology. Volume 2 includes Section III: Performance Improvement Management and Section IV: Management, Planning, Design, and Control.Volume 3 includes Section V: Methods for Decision Making and the comprehensive Author and Subject Index.The Handbook of Industrial Engineering, Third Edition is an immensely useful one-stop resource for industrial engineers and technical support personnel in corporations of any size; continuous process and discrete part manufacturing industries; and all types of service industries, from healthcare to hospitality, and from retailing to finance.

Can Traditional Divergent Thinking Tests Be Trusted in Measuring and Predicting Real-World Creativity?

Derived from the psychometric tradition of creativity research, divergent thinking (DT) tests are the major instrument for measuring peoples creative potential. Although still prevalent, DT testing has received substantial criticism of its validity and practical value. This article focuses on the issue of how to reliably and validly assess and predict peoples real-world creative potential. Based on reviews of the literatures on the concept of creativity, creative thinking process, the psychometric approach, and DT tests, we examine 6 major weaknesses of traditional DT instruments: lack of construct validity; not testing the integrated general creative process; neglect of domain specificity and expertise; and poor predictive, ecological, and discriminant validities. This evaluation calls for development of improved psychometric instruments to better capture peoples creativity in specific professional domains of interest. Broadening the conceptions of creativity and assessment instruments should allow development of more realistic models and theories and enable the psychometric approach to studying creativity to thrive.

Measuring Player Immersion in the Computer Game Narrative

In order to measure player immersion in the computer game narrative, this study explores and analyzes factors of the computer game narrative that influence players who are immersed in the game story world. Originally a questionnaire consisting of six dimensions—Curiosity, Concentration, Challenge, Control, Comprehension, and Empathy—was proposed. To evaluate the questionnaire, two surveys were conducted on the Internet, and data were collected from 734 respondents. After exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis, the dimensions were modified to Curiosity, Concentration, Challenge and Skills, Control, Comprehension, Empathy, and Familiarity.

Information visualization; assisting low spatial individuals with information access tasks through the use of visual mediators

This study investigated the use of visual mediators to facilitate information access by low spatial individuals. Based on theories of adaptive learning and field-dependence, two human-computer interfaces were developed which were intended to compensate for the inability of low spatial individuals to readily construct visual mental models of a menu systems structure. The two compensatory interfaces included: a 2D visual hierarchy and a linear structure. The information search performance of high and low spatial individuals was compared on the two compensatory interfaces and a third challenge match interface, which challenged individuals to construct a mental model of a hierarchical menu system in order to perform efficiently. The visual mediators were successful in accommodating low spatial individuals, as indicated by the lack of any significant performance differences being detected between the high and low spatial groups on the two compensatory interfaces. High spatial individuals outperformed low spatial individuals only when information search tasks required the use of spatial ability in mentally constructing a model of the organization and structure of embedded task information. The key factor in the accommodation process was the elimination of the need to mentally visualize the structure of embedded task information. These results indicate that visualization techniques can be successfully used to enhance the information search performance of low spatial individuals.

Review and reappraisal of modelling and predicting mental workload in single- and multi-task environments

The concept of mental workload has long been recognized as an important factor in individual performance within complex systems. It is documented that either overload or underload may degrade performance, and further affect the efficiency of the whole system. Therefore, systems designers need some explicit models to predict the mental workload imposed on individuals by the system at an early design phase so that alternative system designs can be evaluated. In examining mental-workload literature, it is found that few predictive mental-workload models have considered factors specific to individuals. This research aims to develop a practical framework for predicting mental workload in both single- and multi-task environments considering such individual factors. In order to describe mental workload more precisely and more completely, a framework for mentalworkload definitions, which contains instantaneous workload, average workload, accumulated workload, peak workload and overall workload, is proposed. In order to model individual factors, two new variables, i.e. effective workload and ineffective workload, are introduced to model the taskgenerated workload and individual-generated workload. The extension of the model to multi-task environments is also discussed. The proposed conceptual models are domain-independent and could be used to guide the development of operational models for different specific tasks.

Perceived security determinants in e-commerce among Turkish university students

Perceived security is defined as the level of security that users feel while they are shopping on e-commerce sites. The aims of this study were to determine items that positively influence this feeling of security by users during shopping, and to develop guidelines for perceived security in e-commerce. An experiment allowed users with different security assurances to shop on simulated e-commerce sites. The participants were divided into three groups, shopping for cheap, mid-range, and expensive products, respectively. Following the shopping environment, the virtual shopping security questionnaire (VSSQ), consisting of fourteen perceived security items, was presented to the users. The VSSQ was presented to the participants to validate these perceived security items. The VSSQ had a Cronbachs alpha internal reliability value of 0.70. With the exception of two items, there were no significant differences in item ratings between the groups of different shopping item values. A factor analysis procedure determined two main factors concerning perceived security in e-commerce. The perceived operational factor includes: the sites blocking of unauthorized access; emphasis on login name and password authentication; funding and budget spent on security; monitoring of user compliance with security procedures; integration of state-of-the-art systems; distribution of security items within the site; websites encryption strategy; and consolidation with network security vendors. The perceived policy-related factor includes: the websites emphasis on network security; top management commitment; effort to make users aware of security procedures; the websites keeping up-to-date with product standards; the websites emphasis on security in file transfers; and issues concerning the web browser.

Usability and Security An Appraisal of Usability Issues in Information Security Methods

In the modern multi-user computer environment, Internet-capable network servers provide connectivity that allows a large portion of the user population to access information at the desktop from sources around the world. Because of the ease with which information can be accessed, computer security breaches may occur unless systems and restricted information stored therein are kept secure. Breaches of security can have serious consequences, including theft of confidential corporate documents, compromise of intellectual property, unauthorized modification of systems and data, denial of service, and others. Considerable research has been conducted on threats to security.

Microbreak length, performance, and stress in a data entry task

The effects of brief rest pauses on performance and well-being were evaluated for a highly repetitive, data entry task. Experienced data entry operators (N = 20) performed the task in a two-day experiment in a simulated office environment. Each day was divided into six, 40-min work periods. Subjects took a brief rest pause at the workstation (microbreak) in the middle of each work period. Subjects were instructed to terminate this microbreak when ready to resume work. Keystroke rate, error rate, correction rate, heart rate and heart rate variability were scored for each half of the work period. In addition, mood states before and during the work period were assessed. Microbreaks were found to average 27.4 s in duration. High ratings of fatigue and boredom during the work period were associated with longer microbreaks, suggesting that the break period was self-adjusted relative to mood state. In addition, correction rate and heart rate were lower following long microbreaks, implying that the degree of recovery was linked to the length of the microbreak. Comparison of keystroke output and correction rate before and after the microbreak, however, revealed that performance worsened after the microbreak, suggesting that subjects terminated microbreaks before complete recovery could occur.

Shopping behaviour and preferences in e-commerce of Turkish and American university students: Implications from cross-cultural design

With internationalization of commerce and business and with increased use of e-business and e-commerce, it is important to ensure that these systems can be effectively utilized across cultural boundaries. To increase effectiveness, appropriate changes and modifications in the systems may be required. With this in mind, a survey of 300 Turkish university students was undertaken to assess their on-line shopping and behaviour preferences, and these were compared with the results derived from 64 US university students. The results provide guidelines for specific design of features for the Turkish population that may not be necessary for the US population.

Improving computer security for authentication of users: influence of proactive password restrictions.

Entering a username—password combination is a widely used procedure for identification and authentication in computer systems. However, it is a notoriously weak method, in that the passwords adopted by many users are easy to crack. In an attempt to improve security, proactive password checking may be used, in which passwords must meet several criteria to be more resistant to cracking. In two experiments, we examined the influence of proactive password restrictions on the time that it took to generate an acceptable password and to use it subsequently to log in. The required length was a minimum of five characters in Experiment 1 and eight characters in Experiment 2. In both experiments, one condition had only the length restriction, and the other had additional restrictions. The additional restrictions greatly increased the time it took to generate the password but had only a small effect on the time it took to use it subsequently to log in. For the five-character passwords, 75% were cracked when no other restrictions were imposed, and this was reduced to 33% with the additional restrictions. For the eight-character passwords, 17% were cracked with no other restrictions, and 12.5% with restrictions. The results indicate that increasing the minimum character length reduces crackability and increases security, regardless of whether additional restrictions are imposed.