Specialisation III: Human Performance in Socio-Technical Systems

Specialisation III is intended to further develop the long-standing nationally and internationally respected field of cognitive and action-theoretical "occupational, engineering and organisational psychology" at TU Dresden, in a forward-thinking manner and in keeping with the Faculty's overall priorities. This specialisation analyses targeted performance in the complex sub-systems of work, education, business and transport. The aim is the empirical-experimental study and design of social, psychological, neuro-physiological and organisational conditional factors that enable people to optimise their performance potential when dealing with complex socio-technical systems, taking account of and promoting their health and personality development. These complex tasks are mainly performed using the resources of the following Chairs: Work and Organisational Psychology, Engineering Psychology and Cognitive Ergonomics, Social Psychology, Psychology of Learning and Instruction, Educational Psychology, Assessment and Intervention, Methods of Psychology, as well as the Knowledge-Thought-Action Research Group. The Chair of Transport & Traffic Psychology is also associated with this specialisation ("Friedrich List" Faculty of Transport and Traffic Sciences).
The individual research topics of Specialisation III include:

• Decision-based diagnostics of the performance potential of humans, from the standpoint of their neuro-cognitive, behavioural and social foundations
• Human-focussed and performance-promoting design of occupational and organisational systems in the information and service society
• Design of optimum social and communicative conditions for maximum performance
• Applied cognitive research, including the development of sensory and cognitive technical systems
• Knowledge engineering and knowledge management
• Development and promotion of lifelong learning services
• Optimisation of human-computer interaction and e-Learning, including science-based usability analyses and feedback design
• Computer-aided communication and cooperative teleworking
• Cognitive-behavioural analyses for business and transport as an aid to resolving mobility and transport issues (e.g. travel demand management and traffic safety).

These topics are dealt with as part of inter-faculty collaboration and in conjunction with the priorities of TU Dresden. Specially equipped laboratories are available for this, such as the Eye Movement and Virtual Reality Laboratory of the Chair of Engineering Psychology and Cognitive Ergonomics, the Concentration Test Laboratory of the Chair of Assessment and Intervention and the Multimedia Learning Laboratory of the Chair of Psychology of Teaching and Instruction. As well as inter-departmental collaboration with Specialisations I and II (for example as part of complex neurocognitive and neuroaffective foundations and occupational health topics), particular emphasis is also placed on collaboration with the technical faculties of TU Dresden, primarily the "Friedrich List" Faculty of Transport and Traffic Sciences", as well as the Faculties of Mechanical Science and Engineering, Computer Science, Electrical and Computer Engineering, Business and Economics, Architecture and the Carl Gustav Carus Faculty of Medicine.

This specialisation continues to focus on the close link between research and teaching, with emphasis on the potential practical application of the results obtained and theories developed. In future, therefore, joint inter-disciplinary Masters degree programmes in the areas of Human Factors Engineering, Cognitive Technologies, Virtual Reality and Computer-Assisted Cooperative Work will be pursued with some cooperating faculties. Specialisation III will become the reference centre for consultancy and evaluation services at a national level, e.g. in connection with the creation of DIN guidelines for psychological diagnostics. The outstanding qualifications of the represented Chairs are reinforced by their involvement in international research projects. This includes the Specialisation Chairs' involvement in European networks of excellence, as well as the development of other international scientific initiatives as part of the European Commission’s NEST (New and Emerging Science and Technology) programmes.