HUMAN FACTORS DATA THESAURUS (AN APPLICATION TO TASK DATA).

This report describes how vocabulary and thesaurus techniques can be applied to a user-oriented computerized data handling system. An analysis is presented of the specialized problems associated with the development of vocabularies and rules for regulating their usage. The content of the report consists of glossaries of action verbs and nouns accompanied by appropriate rules of usage and cross-reference indexes of acceptable terms and their synonyms. All the terms contained in the vocabularies are clearly defined and are mutually exclusive. Care was exercised to avoid selecting terms that had restricted usage, so they would be useful in a wide range of aerospace systems. Consistency in meaning of terms and rules governing their usage will reduce confusion when indexing data and help maintain the users confidence in the data retrieved. The vocabularies and rules for usage should, with modifications, be applicable to any data base containing aerospace human factors data. Only limited additions should be required to the verb glossary to express any human actions associated with aerospace systems. Author