Guastello Stephen J, Reiter Katherine E, Malon Matthew
Marquette University, Milwaukee, WI.
Mt. Mary University, Milwaukee, WI.
Nonlinear Dynamics Psychol Life Sci. 2016 Oct;20(4):509-35.
The effects of workload, fatigue, and practice on the performance of cognitive tasks are often intertwined. Previous research has shown that these influences can be separated with the two cusp catastrophe models. This study expanded an earlier investigation of the two models for workload and fatigue in a vigilance task to include a wider range of bifurcation variables that could affect the elasticity versus rigidity of the operator in response to workload and added performance variability resulting from fatigue. The study also responded to a concern in the literature that performance on cognitive tasks can be complicated by adaptive responses to artificial task situations and thus distort underlying cognitive events. Therefore, we also explored whether wearing biometric sensors, frequently used in workload studies, can affect performance dynamics. Participants were 279 undergraduates who responded to target stimuli that appeared on a simulated security camera display at three rates of speed while completing a secondary task. Participants worked alone, in pairs, or in pairs wearing GSR sensors. Results supported the efficacy of the two models and isolated the impact of wearing sensors on the fatigue process. The strongest control variables across both the workload and fatigue models were field independence, anxiety, indecisiveness, inflexibility, secondary task completion, working in pairs, and wearing the sensors. The contributing effect of wearing sensors could possibly extend to other types of wearable technologies.
工作量、疲劳和练习对认知任务表现的影响常常相互交织。先前的研究表明，使用两种尖点突变模型可以将这些影响区分开来。本研究扩展了早期对警戒任务中工作量和疲劳的两种模型的调查，纳入了更广泛的分岔变量，这些变量可能会影响操作员在应对工作量时的弹性与刚性，并增加因疲劳导致的表现变异性。该研究还回应了文献中的一个担忧，即对人工任务情境的适应性反应可能会使认知任务的表现变得复杂，从而扭曲潜在的认知事件。因此，我们还探讨了工作量研究中常用的佩戴生物特征传感器是否会影响表现动态。279名本科生参与了实验，他们在完成一项次要任务时，以三种速度对模拟安全摄像头显示屏上出现的目标刺激做出反应。参与者单独工作、成对工作或成对佩戴皮肤电反应传感器工作。结果支持了这两种模型的有效性，并分离出了佩戴传感器对疲劳过程的影响。在工作量和疲劳模型中，最有力的控制变量是场独立性、焦虑、优柔寡断、僵化、次要任务完成情况、成对工作以及佩戴传感器。佩戴传感器的促成效应可能会扩展到其他类型的可穿戴技术。
