David M. Cades, Ph.D.

Dr. Cades received his Ph.D. in Human Factors and Applied Cognition from George Mason University in 2011. He has expertise in testing and analysis of how interruptions and distractions affect human performance. He has investigated the negative effects of interruptions on high vigilance proceduralized tasks in environments, including, but not limited to, driving, commercial aviation, healthcare, offices, and classrooms. He has applied this knowledge to see how distractions and interruptions can cause errors or missed steps that lead to more serious accidents. Dr. Cades has performed experiments exploring what makes different types of interruptions more or less disruptive and what types of tools and strategies can mitigate the deleterious effects of interruptions. On the flight deck, specifically, he has collected over forty hours of data from airline pilots performing safety critical flight tasks with interruptions and distractions.

Dr. Cades also has expertise in evaluating and designing in-vehicle devices for automobiles and commercial aircraft. He has performed evaluations of how automobile manual and voice-activated infotainment devices affect driver behavior. He also designed an integrated dashboard display to aid drivers in achieving safe slower speeds when driving during inclement conditions and explored how aging and glare affect people’s driving ability. For commercial aircraft, he conducted focus groups with pilots, air traffic controllers, and airline operations representatives in support of FAA’s NextGen initiative to work towards significantly increasing air traffic in the near future.

In Dr. Cades’s graduate work, he has utilized and presented on various statistical methods including Bayesian, Generalizabiltiy Theory, and Just Noticeable Differences. He has authored papers on how attributes of interruptions affect task performance, ways to improve how people handle interruptions and distractions, interruptions’ effects in different environments, individual differences in task performance, driver behavior with respect to in-vehicle displays and devices, flight deck performance with novel systems and interruptions, the effects of glare on human vision, and various statistical approaches for predicting and understanding research outcomes.

Since joining Exponent, Dr. Cades has worked on projects involving industrial construction sites and equipment, kitchen appliances, video game entertainment systems, home theater products, personal protective equipment, product warnings and labels, and commercial and personal vehicles.

Werner NE, Cades DM, Boehm-Davis DA, Chang J, Kahn H, Thi, G. Understanding interruption resiliency: Individual differences in spatial ability and working memory capacity in resumption. Proceedings, Human Factors and Ergonomics Society 55th Annual Meeting, 2011.

Trafton JG, Monk CA. Mitigating disruptive effects of interruptions through training: What needs to be practiced? Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied 2011; 17(2):97–109.

Cades DM, Arndt SR, Kwasniak AM. Driver distraction is more than just taking eyes off the road. Institution of Transportation Engineers Journal 2011; 81(7).

Nelson E, Kidd D, Cades D. Examining patterns of simulator sickness during increased exposure to a motion-based driving simulator over time. Journal of the Washington Academy of Sciences 2010; 96(3):1–14.

Werner NE, Cades DM, Boehm-Davis DA, Peterson MS, Alothman SJ, Zhang X. Individual differences in resuming interrupted tasks. Journal of the Washington Academy of Sciences 2010; 96(3):35–49.

Barrow J, Cades D, Kidd D, Nelson E, Roberts D. Managing speed in inclement conditions using an in-vehicle interface. Proceedings, 2nd International Conference on Automotive User Interfaces and Interactive Vehicle Applications, 2010.

Cades DM, Kidd DG, King EB, McKnight PE, Boehm-Davis DA. Factors affecting interrupted task performance: Effects of adaptability, impulsivity, and intelligence. Proceedings, 54th Human Factors and Ergonomics Society Annual Meeting, 2010.

Cades DM, Werner NE, Boehm-Davis DA, Arshad Z. What makes real-world interruptions disruptive? Evidence from an Office Setting. Proceedings, 54th Human Factors and Ergonomics Society Annual Meeting, 2010.

Werner NE, Cades DM, Boehm-Davis DA, Peterson MS, Alothman SJ, Zhang X. Where was I and what was I doing? Individual differences in resuming after an interruption and implications for real-world distractions. Proceedings, Washington Academy of Sciences 2010 Capital Science Conference, 2010.

Nelson E, Kidd DG, Cades DM. The effect of repeated exposures to simulated driving on ratings of simulator sickness. Proceedings, Washington Academy of Sciences 2010 Capital Science Conference, 2010.

Werner NE, Cades DM, Boehm-Davis DA, Peterson MS. Resuming after an interruption: Exploring the roles of spatial and goal memory. Proceedings, Human Factors and Ergonomics Society 53rd Annual Meeting, San Antonio, TX, October 19–23, 2010.

Barrow JH, Cades DM, Kidd DG, Nelson E, Roberts D. SLIC: Speed limit for inclement conditions. Proceedings, 2009 Eye and the Auto Conference hosted by the Detroit Institute of Ophthalmology, Detroit, MI, 2009. (Note that all authors contributed equally).

Cades DM, Jones SM, Werner NE, Boehm-Davis DA. Knowing when to switch tasks: Effectiveness of internal versus external cues. Journal of the Washington Academy of Sciences 2008; 94(3):93–109.

Kidd DG, Cades DM, Horvath DJ, Jones SM, Pitone MJ, Monk CA. Listen up! Do voice recognition systems help drivers focus on the road? User Experience Magazine: A publication of the Usability Professionals’ Association 2008; 7(4):10–12.

Cades DM, Werner NE, Trafton JG, Boehm-Davis DA, Monk CA. Dealing with interruptions can be complex, but does interruption complexity matter: A mental resources approach to quantifying disruptions. Proceedings, Human Factors and Ergonomics Society 52nd Annual Meeting, New York, NY, September 22–26, 2008.

Cades DM, Kidd DG, McKnight PE. Where is the real-world variance? A generalizability theory approach to understanding interruptions in naturalistic environments. Abstract, Proceedings, III European Congress of Methodology, pp. 20–21, Oviedo, Spain, July 8–12, 2008.

Kidd DG, Cades DM, McKnight PE. Generalizability theory in laboratory interruptions research: Estimating variance to improve future research. Proceedings, III European Congress of Methodology, pp. 20, Oviedo, Spain, July 8–12, 2008.

Cades DM, Trafton JG, Boehm-Davis DA, Monk CA. Does the difficulty of an interruption affect our ability to resume? Proceedings, Human Factors and Ergonomics Society 51st Annual Meeting, pp. 234–238, Baltimore, MD, October 1–5, 2007.

Cades DM. Measuring individual differences over and above experimental manipulations. Proceedings, International Society for the Study of Individual Differences 13th Biennial Meeting, Giessen, Germany, July 22–27, 2007.

Cades DM, Trafton JG, Boehm-Davis DA. Mitigating disruptions: Can resuming an interrupted task be trained? Proceedings, Human Factors and Ergonomics Society 50th Annual Meeting, pp. 368–371, San Francisco, CA, October 16–20, 2006.

Presentations

Werner NE, Cades DM, Boehm-Davis DA, Peterson MS, Alothman SJ, Zhang X. Where was I and what was I doing? Individual differences in resuming after an interruption and implications for real-world distractions. Presented at research symposium at the University of the District of Columbia (UDC), 2010.

McKnight PE, Kidd DG, Cades DM, Kendra MS. Generalizability theory applications in program and policy evaluation: An introduction and application to quasi-experimental and experimental designs. Presented at Evaluation 2009, 23rd Annual Conference of the American Evaluation Association, 2009. (Symposium – all authors presented equally).

Najab J, Cades DM, Kidd DG. A gentle introduction to Bayesian Analysis. Presented at Evaluation 2009, 23rd Annual Conference of the American Evaluation Association, 2009. (Symposium – all authors presented equally).

Barrow JH, Cades DM, Kidd DG, Nelson E, Roberts D. SLIC: Speed limit for inclement conditions. Paper and Poster presented at Enhanced Safety of Vehicles conference, Stuttgart, Germany, 2009. (Note that all authors contributed equally).

Barrow JH, Cades DM, Kidd DG, Nelson E, Roberts D. SLIC: Speed limit for inclement conditions. Paper presented to National Highway Traffic Safety Administration for design competition of Enhanced Safety of Vehicles conference, Fairfax, VA, 2009. (Note that all authors contributed equally).

Cades DM, Boehm-Davis DA, Trafton JG. Interruptions in the office: An observational field study. Poster presented at the 2007 American Psychological Association Division 21, Division 19, and Human Factors and Ergonomics Society Potomac Chapter Annual Symposium on Applied Experimental Research, Fairfax, VA, 2007.

Krall J, Cades DM, McKnight PE. Predicting baseball winners using just noticeable differences. Poster presented at the 2007 annual conference of the Association for Psychological Science, Washington, D. C., 2007.

Higgins KE, White JM, Cades DM, Ciaccio V, Liu L. Effect of age on transient adaptation at low light levels. Poster presented at Optical Society of America Annual Meeting, Tucson, AZ, 2005.

Higgins KE, White JM, Asami R, Liu L, Rosenthal B, Ciaccio V, Cades DM, Gauthier H. Physiology of glare and readaptation (including age differences). Presented at National Highway Traffic Safety Administration Workshop on Headlamp Safety Metrics: Balancing Visibility and Glare, July 2004.

Higgins KE, White JM, Cades D, Ciaccio V, Liu L. Early dark adaptation: Effect of age. Presented at the annual meeting of The Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology (ARVO), May 2006.

• Human Factors and Ergonomics Society 2001–present
  • Computational Modeling Technical Group
  • Cognitive Engineering Technical Group
  • Aerospace Technical Group
  • Surface Transportation Technical Group
  • Product Design Technical Group
• George Mason Human Factors and Ergonomics Society Student Chapter 2005–2011
  • President 2006–2007
• Human Factors and Ergonomics Society Potomac Chapter Fall 2006–present
• American Psychological Association 2006–present
  • Division 21 – Applied Experimental and Engineering Psychology
• Usability Professionals Association 2006–present
• Association for Psychological Science 2006–present
• Cognitive Science Society 2008–present