Abstract
Nuclear power plant control rooms are information-rich environments. One source of information is the labels used to differentiate controls and alarms. Due to the multitude of alarms and controls, space is limited on the control boards. Consequently, labels are often abbreviated. Operators report abbreviations are faster to comprehend. However, these communications are anecdotal and in conflict with nuclear regulatory guidance. NUREG-0544 Revision 5 acknowledges that abbreviations are not ideal and are used for convenience. Moreover, operator anecdotes are also in conflict with decades of research, which have demonstrated that a word context allows for faster recognition of letters over a non-word context in adults. This paper outlines a coming study comparing abbreviations to spelled-out labels. Here, we discuss the potential in investigating this line of research.
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Miyake, T.M., Le Blanc, K. (2020). Is There a Notable Comprehension Difference Between Abbreviations and Spelled-Out Words?. In: Arezes, P., Boring, R. (eds) Advances in Safety Management and Human Performance. AHFE 2020. Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing, vol 1204. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-50946-0_39
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-50946-0_39
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