Impact of training standard complexity on inspection performance

Research in the area of visual inspection has shown that various factors influence inspection performance. Task factors have been identified as one of the primary classes of factors influencing the complexity of inspection tasks. If inspection task complexity is to be reduced it is essential to understand the influence of various task factors and prescribe interventions based on the impact of these factors. Moreover, historical work in this area has shown that the greater the difficulty of a vigilance task, the more engaged operators may become. Therefore, this research studies the influence of the following task factors: number of defect types, defect standard complexity, defect probability, and defect distribution on both the visual search and decision-making components of a contact lens inspection task. This study was conducted using a computer simulation of a real world contact lens inspection task using 28 student subjects. Performance was measured on both the visual search and decision-making components of the task. The results revealed a negative influence of defect standard complexity and a positive influence of defect probability on both the visual search and decision-making components of the inspection task.