Taxonomies of Human Performance: The Description of Human Tasks,Used

This widely acclaimed book reviews issues in evaluating factors which affect human performance. Partly for this work, the American Psychological Association presented Dr. Edwin A. Fleishman, the senior author, with the Distinguished Scientific Award for the Applications of Psychology. The book is based on an extensive research program directed by the first author. The book updates this work and integrates it with recent related research. The program attempted to develop and evaluate systems for describing and classifying tasks that could improve predictions about human performance. Emphasis is on a common taskdescriptive language to integrate the human performance literature and improve generalizations of research findings. The book brings together ideas from such diverse fields as human learning, experimental and differential psychology, task analysis, and human factors technology. These fields in one form or another are concerned with the prediction of human task performance, but there has so far been a lack of communication across these fields. This book provides the needed integration. The effort represents one of the few attempts to bridge the gap between basic research on human performance and the applications of the research to realworld problems. The book deals with conceptual and methodological issues in developing useful taxonomic structures in various areas of behavioral sciences, and relates these to developments in other sciences. Innovative efforts in areas of human performance are reviewed and evaluated according to a variety of criteria. The world of human tasks is not impossibly diverse and common task dimensions that allow improved predictions of human performance can be identified. A sampling of book reviews from authoritative journal International Personnel Management Association Council News ..A monumental approach in organizing and conceptualizing studies of human task performance from diverse fields.. A must book for the reading shelf in the personnel assessment library. An enlightening and cogent discussion of approaches to task definition and task determinations in relation to jobs. Journal of Classification Improving the quality and efficiency of human performance is perhaps the most serious challenge faced by todays business world. Edwin Fleishman has certainly been one of the pioneers in this area. Fleishmans research, especially his work on taxonomy of human performance, has contributed to a great deal of our understanding of specific skills, abilities and knowledge required for various classes of human tasks. An excellent job in writing a comprehensive book on.skills and abilities and personnel resources like selection and training.bringing together for the first time the most significant findings in human performance taxonomy. Human Factors Society Bulletin This book is a clear, scholarly analysis from many diverse areas and is an important approach to an enduring problem in psychology.presents a number of systems that may be immediately applied. The material has considerable relevance for human performance research, and should also prove valuable to human factors specialists interested in developing a theoretical basis for design decisions. Journal of Occupational Psychology The text is particularly impressive as it combines a historical review and a theoretical exposition of psychological taxonomies. As an introduction to the classification process underlying so much psychological research, it is to be welcomed.