Abstract
Fatigue can develop during prolonged computer work, particularly in elderly individuals. This study investigated eye movement characteristics in relation to fatigue development. Twenty young and 18 elderly healthy adults were recruited to perform a prolonged functional computer task while their eye movements were recorded. The task lasted 40 minutes involving 240 cycles divided into 12 segments. Each cycle consisted of a sequence involving memorization of a pattern, a washout period, and replication of the pattern using a computer mouse. The participants rated their perceived fatigue after each segment. The mean values of blink duration (BD) and frequency (BF), saccade duration (SCD) and peak velocity (SPV), pupil dilation range (PDR), and fixation duration (FD) along with the task performance based on clicking speed and accuracy, were computed for each task segment. An increased subjective evaluation of fatigue suggested the development of fatigue. BD, BF, and PDR increased whereas SPV and SCD decreased over time in the young and elderly groups. Longer FD, shorter SCD, and lower task performance were observed in the elderly compared with the young group. The present findings provide a viable approach to develop a computational model based on oculometrics to track fatigue development during computer work.
Highlights
Fatigue can develop during prolonged computer work, in elderly individuals
The effects of a prolonged mentally demanding computer task on the oculometrics were investigated in both young and elderly individuals to address the role of aging in fatigue development during a functional task
The blinking (BD and blink frequency (BF)), fixation-based (FD), pupillary (PDR), and saccadic (SCD and saccade peak velocity (SPV)) oculometrics significantly changed with the progression of TOT in both groups, reflecting changes in the oculomotor control in response to sustained mental demands
Summary
Fatigue can develop during prolonged computer work, in elderly individuals. This study assessed the changes in blinks, saccades, fixations, and pupillary responses during TOT in a well-studied model of computer work involving various cognitive processes, e.g. memorization, verbal perception, recall, decision-making, attention, visual search, and eye-hand coordination. The self-reported measures of fatigue, i.e. Karolinska Sleepiness Scale (KSS)[32], increased with TOT in both the young and elderly groups as illustrated, F(1.9, 65.4) = 8.4, p = 0.001, ηp2 = 0.2.
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