ABSTRACT
The current chapter presents an analyses of the experiments that were performed to evaluate the factor of significance in human performance from the position of applied activity theory. These psychological experiments were mostly performed by Tartu University Professor Mikhail A. Kotik and his colleagues. Here significance is considered as an emotional (affective) aspect of the sense of the task. When these experiments were undertaken, they were exclusively related to the study of human-operator performance (based on the actual practices of combat pilots) in potential situations that may pose a threat toward life or health (physical risks). Consequently, along with physical risks, social and material risks began to be analyzed as well. In addition to significance-as-anxiety, further experiments evaluated significance-as-value from social, material, and physical aspects. The final series of experiments linked both factors of significance-as-anxiety and significance-as-value and the decisions made in light of them. This was possible due to the application of soft verbal characteristics in experiments, such as weak–strong and seldom–often.
