Wiley Handbook of Science and Technology for Homeland Security, 4 Volume Set

HUMAN SENSATION AND PERCEPTION

ROBERT W. PROCTOR

Department of Psychological Sciences, Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana

KIM-PHUONG L. VU

Department of Psychology, California State University, Long Beach, California

1 INTRODUCTION

Sträter begins his book Cognition and Safety with the statement “Human society has become an information processing society” [1, p. 3]. This statement is as true for homeland security tasks as for any other tasks that require people to interact with machines and other people in complex systems. Homeland security involves people interacting with information technology, and use of this technology to communicate effectively is an important aspect of security [2]. For communication to be effective, human–machine interactions must conform to users perceptual, cognitive, and motoric capabilities. In particular, because all information that a person processes enters by way of the senses, sensory and perceptual processes are going to be critical factors. These processes are relevant to detecting a weapon in luggage during screening, identifying vulnerable targets for which risk is high, and communicating warnings to individuals. Given the masses of data extracted from intelligence gathering activities of various types, these data need to be integrated and displayed to appropriate security personnel in an easy to perceive form at the proper time. These and other aspects of homeland security systems require an understanding of fundamental concepts of sensation ...