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Human factors safety and forensic professionals are often tasked with inspecting a scene where an accident or injury occurred. Retelling a story accurately and in a compelling way, without a visual context, is challenging. Three-dimensional computer modeling is a tool that some human factors professionals are utilizing to assist in their practice. The goal of the alternate format session is to demonstrate how this technology can be beneficial to human factor (HF) professionals. In addition, the session will emphasize the need for collaboration between HF practitioners and visual media professionals whose skill sets embrace computer graphics and animation. Two such professionals have accepted invitations to participate in the session. Both have earned acclaim as innovators, which will be supported by the content of their respective presentations.

There are several models that assist the human factors specialist in identifying those behaviors that most likely contributed to an accident's occurrence. Of particular importance to forensic human factors specialists are models that can also serve as demonstrative aids in communicating the bases of their opinions to jurors. One such aid is a version of Ramsey's (1978) accident sequence model. The model, which has been expanded by the author, traces sequentially the activities that likely take place within the individual before an accident occurs. The expanded model prompts the investigator to ask the following questions: (1) Was the hazard detected? (2) If so, was it identified? (3) If correctly identified, were its characteristics perceived accurately? (4) If perception was veridical, was the individual alert to the danger? (5) If alert to the danger, did they appreciate the degree of risk involved? (6) If their assessment of risk was realistic, did the individual want to avoid the hazard? 7) And if they sought to avoid the hazard, could they to do so under the existing conditions? The author draws from cases in which he served as an expert witness to illustrate the model's application.

Evidence is presented that there are individual differences in the early stages of information processing which are due, in part, to the criteria adopted by the left and right hemispheres in perceptual organization. Sex differences were found in organization criteria and in the extent that both hemispheres participate in ordering perceptual experience. Of perhaps greater importance in terms of practical implications, significant and dramatic differences were found in perceptual organization for “extreme right-handers” and “right-handers who tend towards mix-handedness.” “Mixed-handers” of both sexes grouped states into perceptual units to a significantly greater extent than their very right-handed counterparts. A method is described for determining the relative location of grouping criteria on the decision axis.