Jackson Simon A, Kleitman Sabina, Aidman Eugene
School of Psychology, University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia.
Land Division, Defence Science and Technology Organisation, Adelaide, South Australia, Australia.
PLoS One. 2014 Dec 30;9(12):e115689. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0115689. eCollection 2014.
The present study investigated the effects of low cognitive workload and the absence of arousal induced via external physical stimulation (motion) on practice-related improvements in executive (inhibitory) control, short-term memory, metacognitive monitoring and decision making. A total of 70 office workers performed low and moderately engaging passenger tasks in two successive 20-minute simulated drives and repeated a battery of decision making and inhibitory control tests three times—before, between and after these drives. For half the participants, visual simulation was synchronised with (moderately arousing) motion generated through LAnd Motion Platform, with vibration levels corresponding to a well-maintained unsealed road. The other half performed the same simulated drive without motion. Participants' performance significantly improved over the three test blocks, which is indicative of typical practice effects. The magnitude of these improvements was the highest when both motion and moderate cognitive load were present. The same effects declined either in the absence of motion (low arousal) or following a low cognitive workload task, thus suggesting two distinct pathways through which practice-related improvements in cognitive performance may be hampered. Practice, however, degraded certain aspects of metacognitive performance, as participants became less likely to detect incorrect decisions in the decision-making test with each subsequent test block. Implications include consideration of low cognitive load and arousal as factors responsible for performance decline and targets for the development of interventions/strategies in low load/arousal conditions such as autonomous vehicle operations and highway driving.
本研究调查了低认知工作量以及外部身体刺激（运动）引发的唤醒缺失对执行（抑制）控制、短期记忆、元认知监测和决策方面与练习相关的改善的影响。共有70名上班族在连续两次20分钟的模拟驾驶中执行低强度和中等强度的乘客任务，并在这些驾驶之前、之间和之后三次重复一系列决策和抑制控制测试。对于一半的参与者，视觉模拟与通过陆地运动平台产生的（中等唤醒）运动同步，振动水平对应于维护良好的未封路。另一半参与者进行相同的模拟驾驶但没有运动。参与者的表现在三个测试块中显著提高，这表明了典型的练习效果。当运动和中等认知负荷都存在时，这些改善的幅度最大。在没有运动（低唤醒）或进行低认知工作量任务后，相同的效果下降，因此表明认知表现与练习相关的改善可能受到阻碍的两条不同途径。然而，随着参与者在随后的每个测试块中越来越不可能在决策测试中检测到错误决策，练习会降低元认知表现的某些方面。其影响包括将低认知负荷和唤醒视为导致表现下降的因素，并将其作为在低负荷/唤醒条件（如自动驾驶车辆操作和高速公路驾驶）下开发干预措施/策略的目标。
