Scrutinizing inter-relations between performance influencing factors and the performance of human operators pertaining to the emergency tasks of nuclear power plant – An explanatory study

There is no doubt about the fact that reliable human performance is the key to the safe operation of human involved safety–critical systems. For this reason, it is necessary to understand (1) which factors (e.g., performance influencing factors; PIFs) affect the performance of human operators and (2) inter-relations between the significant PIFs and human performance variations. Unfortunately, a systematic framework by which these inter-relations can be properly identified seems to be scant. Therefore, in this study, the features of task complexity measure called TACOM are revisited. As a result, it is strongly expected that the TACOM measure can be used as a common tool for representing the characteristics of task related PIFs. Therefore, although additional studies are indispensible to establish more reliable technical basis, it is believed that the TACOM measure plays an important role in scrutinizing the effect of significant PIFs on the performance of human operators.

► Reliable human performance is the key to the safe operation of safety–critical systems.
► Scrutinizing inter-relations between the significant PIFs and human performance variations is necessary.
► A systematic framework for this purpose seems to be scant.
► The feasibility of the TACOM measure was investigated to scrutinize the inter-relations of PIFs.
► It is expected that the TACOM measure would be useful for scrutinizing the inter-relations of PIFs.