More than 50 years of history and accomplishments in human performance model development.

OBJECTIVE: I provide a summary that introduces three significant threads in the development of human performance models (HPMs) - manual control models derived from engineering control theory, network models founded on the definition of human reliability, and models derived from cognitive architectures.

BACKGROUND: HPMs are important because they allow the quantification of human performance capacities and limitations to be included in the analysis and simulation of engineering systems.

METHOD: For each thread, founding articles and contemporary developments are cited that illustrate the range of innovation that has taken place.

RESULTS: Many contemporary concepts are rooted in this modeling history.

CONCLUSION: The most successful models represent circumstances for which the situational and temporal environment in which the human performance takes place is most heavily constrained.

APPLICATION: Applied illustrations are drawn from vehicle handling qualities, unmanned aerial systems, and mission training, for example.