High Workload Task Research Articles

The aftermath of surviving a sudden cardiac arrest for young exercisers - a qualitative study in Norway

BackgroundWhen surviving a sudden cardiac arrest (SCA), physical, cognitive, and emotional effects of surviving may be present for months or years. The survivors' family and colleagues are also highly affected by the incident. There is little knowledge about experiences of surviving SCA in individuals who prior to the incident were young and reported to exercise regularly. Consequently, the aim of this study was to explore the aftermath of surviving a SCA in young, regular exercisers.MethodsThe study had a qualitative design, conducting in-depth individual interviews with SCA survivors < 50 years of age reporting to exercise ≥ 5 h/week and/or who suffered SCA during or less than 60 min after exercise. The data were analysed using systematic text condensation in-line with recommendations from Malterud.Results18 of 31 eligible participants were included in the study. Through analysis we identified ‘Establishing a new everyday life’ as superordinate category, with subordinate categories a) being part of my surroundings, b) expecting normality but facing a new reality and c) lucky to be alive!ConclusionThis study adds knowledge about young and regular exercisers’ experiences after surviving a SCA. The obligations of everyday life in young survivors of SCA often imply a high work load and complex tasks, e.g. due to being in the beginning of their career or even still studying. Healthcare personnel, as well as the society, need to acknowledge that although lucky to be alive and apparently well-functioning, young survivors of SCA may have persistent challenges that cause frustration and reduced quality of life.

Development of Heart Rate Monitoring System to Estimate Driver’s Mental Workload Level

Driver’s mental workload is affecting the driver’s performance while driving. A high mental workload task proved that the driver’s performance level decrease. The decreasing of driver’s performance lead to driver carelessness that causes a road accident. Thus, the way to estimate and monitor the driver’s mental workload has to be developed. The purpose of this project is to monitor the driver’s mental workload and give a prompt warning to the drivers whether they are safe or not to drive, thus enhancing road safety. This project started by obtaining information about the driver’s mental workload through a driver’s heart rate. For early stage, this project conducted by using an electronic device for education, which is Arduino Kit and heart rate sensor. The heart rate sensor will detect the heart beat through the fingertips as an input. Then the input will be sent to Arduino, and it will monitor the reading of heart beat in beat per minutes (BPM) through a connected screen monitor. An experiment conducted in two conditions which are at rest condition and during Mathematical Arithmetic Task to estimate the driver’s mental workload. By using the developed sensor system, the threshold value of mental workload was collected. The buzzer will produce a sound if the reading heart rate value is exceeding the maximum threshold heart rate reading for the safe driving condition.

Cue Utilization Predicts the Impact of Interruptions during a Rail Simulation Task

This study was designed to examine the role of cue utilization in the management of interruptions during a high workload, rail control simulation incorporating an implicit pattern of rail movement. The experiment required participants to manage frequent interruptive tasks while diverting and logging the arrival of trains. Measures of response latency and accuracy in diverting and logging the arrival of trains were recorded. Participants with lower cue utilization demonstrated a greater loss of performance following interruptions. These results provide support for the assertion that a relatively greater capacity for cue utilization is associated with superior performance in the management of interruptions during high workload tasks.

A multi-measure approach for connecting cognitive workload and automation

A multi-measure approach for connecting cognitive workload and automation

Establishing team knowledge coordination from a learning perspective

ABSTRACTResearch has identified the importance of knowledge coordination in high-performing teams. However, little is known on the processes through which these cognitive structures are developed, more specifically on the learning occurring as teams communicate and interact to build new team knowledge. In a multiple-measures experiment, 33 teams with no prior experience in flight simulations were assigned to newly formed dyads to complete 4 successive performance episodes of a flight simulation task, modeling a complex, fast-paced, and high workload task context. The study showed how team learning processes (i.e., team learning behaviors and team reflexivity), driven by task cohesion, and group potency supported coordination development, which in turn predicted team performance.

Volitional Running and Tone Counting: The Impact of Cognitive Load on Running Over Natural Terrain

OCCUPATIONAL APPLICATIONS Many occupations, including those of emergency responders and military personnel, require the person to maintain volitional control of movement speed while simultaneously engaging in cognitive tasks. In the present study, runners who ran over uneven and even natural terrain slowed their running speed when confronted with increased cognitive load. Runners had impaired cognitive task performance only when the cognitive load was high and they were running over uneven terrain. While more research is warranted, the present findings indicate that willed running or movement speed reduces with increasing cognitive load. The addition of cognitive load to people who have to cover terrain may impair their speed. In occupational settings requiring both movement and cognitive tasks, the interacting effect of these tasks needs to be carefully considered. For example, where speed is important any additional cognitive load should be reduced or eliminated if possible.TECHNICAL ABSTRACT Background: Many occupations require movement over natural terrain while the person is simultaneously performing cognitive tasks (communication, navigations, etc.), yet there is little known about how cognitive load impacts movement over natural (not artificial) terrain. Purpose: The present study was designed to examine the impact of cognitive load on volitionally controlled running speed over natural terrain. Method: We examined the performance of runners on even and uneven terrain in a dual running and tone-counting working memory task. The tone counting task was performed at both a low and a high workload. Participants performed the tone-counting tasks both while running and while seated. In addition, they ran without a cognitive task load. Results: Counting accuracy significantly decreased during the dual task trials only for the high workload task and only for the uneven terrain runners. For both terrain groups there was a linear trend observed; run distance decreased as cognitive load increased. Reports of workload, task-focus and feelings of being spent after running all increased with increased cognitive load regardless of terrain. Conclusion: These findings have important theoretical and practical implications, particularly where natural running is coupled with complex cognitive tasks.

Effects of Gestational Age at Birth on Cognitive Performance: A Function of Cognitive Workload Demands

ObjectiveCognitive deficits have been inconsistently described for late or moderately preterm children but are consistently found in very preterm children. This study investigates the association between cognitive workload demands of tasks and cognitive performance in relation to gestational age at birth.MethodsData were collected as part of a prospective geographically defined whole-population study of neonatal at-risk children in Southern Bavaria. At 8;5 years, n = 1326 children (gestation range: 23–41 weeks) were assessed with the K-ABC and a Mathematics Test.ResultsCognitive scores of preterm children decreased as cognitive workload demands of tasks increased. The relationship between gestation and task workload was curvilinear and more pronounced the higher the cognitive workload: GA2 (quadratic term) on low cognitive workload: R 2 = .02, p<0.001; moderate cognitive workload: R 2 = .09, p<0.001; and high cognitive workload tasks: R 2 = .14, p<0.001. Specifically, disproportionally lower scores were found for very (<32 weeks gestation) and moderately (32–33 weeks gestation) preterm children the higher the cognitive workload of the tasks. Early biological factors such as gestation and neonatal complications explained more of the variance in high (12.5%) compared with moderate (8.1%) and low cognitive workload tasks (1.7%).ConclusionsThe cognitive workload model may help to explain variations of findings on the relationship of gestational age with cognitive performance in the literature. The findings have implications for routine cognitive follow-up, educational intervention, and basic research into neuro-plasticity and brain reorganization after preterm birth.

Temporal Awareness in Teleoperation of Conversational Robots

Awareness of time is particularly important for teleoperation of conversational robots, both for controlling the robot and for estimating interaction success, because people have a low tolerance for long pauses in conversation. Findings have shown that people engaged in high-workload tasks tend to underestimate the passage of time. This study confirms that this problem exists for operators controlling a conversational robot, and it investigates mechanisms for improving temporal awareness and task performance while minimizing workload. In a laboratory experiment, two approaches to helping an operator perform various information input tasks were compared: first, assisting temporal awareness by using a clock display, and second, using autonomy to assist one of the operator's time-dependent tasks. Results revealed that assisting the task itself, even without the clock, improved not only task performance but also the operator's temporal awareness. However, results regarding the effect of the clock were ambiguous: it increased workload in general and did not help temporal awareness overall, but it did improve temporal awareness for text entry tasks in particular. As text entry is an important task for teleoperation of social robots, we further investigated the problem of improving temporal awareness during text entry tasks. As the first experiment suggested the effectiveness of a clock, we further validated that the clock is specifically useful to improve temporal awareness. These results showed that the clock did not increase workload for text entry tasks; however, for touch-typing operators, the results suggested that showing a clock after the end of an interaction, rather than continuously throughout the task, could lower the operator's perceived workload.

Design and Realization of Automatic Mapping System for Borehole Data

Drawing geologic maps (profile\plane\column map) are high-workload and low-accuracy task. Based on a series of research on previous study, system architecture, database and key algorithm, an auto-mapping system has been developed by interacting with MS SQL database, the framework of MAPGIS and visual programming tools. The actual-measured data in ZhiJiaDi district, Shanxi Province, China is chosen as a case study to demonstrate the validity and capability of the system. The test results compared with the manual-mapping one in GEMD method shows that the key algorithm are reliable, and this new system not only provide a user friendly interface, but also have the ability to satisfy requirement on the geologic maps with high accuracy, efficiency and conveniences.The geologic maps (profile\plane\column map) are the most basic forms of expression for the geological content, which play an important role in guidance of geological exploration, metallogenic prediction and decision-making [1]. In China, various maps are manually drawn in MAPGIS platform according to the paper map provided by the geologists, which results in large workload, complicated process and inaccuracy. It seriously affects the quality of work for computing of resources amount, metallogenic prediction and mine design, etc. Therefore, research on a new automatic mapping system which is convenient, efficient and accurate becomes the urgent need for domestic mineral system.

Effects of physical and mental task demands on cervical and upper limb muscle activity and physiological responses during computer tasks and recovery periods

The present study examined the effects of physical and mental workload during computer tasks on muscle activity and physiological measures. Activity in cervical postural muscles and distal forearm muscles, heart rate and blood pressure were compared among three tasks and rest periods of 15min each in an experimental study design. Fourteen healthy pain-free adults participated (7 males, mean age=23.2±3.0years) and the tasks were: (1) copy-typing ("typing"), (2) typing at progressively faster speed ("pacing"), (3) mental arithmetic plus fast typing ("subtraction"). Typing task was performed first, followed by the other two tasks in a random order. Median muscle activity (50th percentile) was examined in 5-min intervals during each task and each rest period, and statistically significant differences in the "time" factor (within task) and time×task factors was found in bilateral cervical erector spinae and upper trapezius muscles. In contrast, distal forearm muscle activity did not show any significant differences among three tasks. All muscles showed reduced activity to about the baseline level within first 5min of the rest periods. Heart rate and blood pressure showed significant differences during tasks compared to baseline, and diastolic pressure was significantly higher in the subtraction than pacing task. The results suggest that cervical postural muscles had higher reactivity than forearm muscles to high mental workload tasks, and cervical muscles were also more reactive to tasks with high physical demand compared to high mental workload. Heart rate and blood pressure seemed to respond similarly to high physical and mental workloads.

Effects of acceptance-based coping on task performance and subjective stress

Effects of acceptance-based coping on task performance and subjective stress

Functional Fidelity, Context-Matching, and Individual Differences in Performance

Conventional personality questionnaires are often only weak predictors of operational performance. A major problem is that personality effects are moderated by contextual factors which may be mismatched across laboratory and real-world studies. Context mismatch threatens the ‘functional fidelity’ of laboratory performance tasks; the extent to which the individual behaves as they would in the operational environment. Three research strategies for enhancing the functional fidelity of laboratory studies of individual differences are proposed. First, contexts relevant to specific personality traits may be developed in the laboratory. For example, socially threatening environments may be necessary to find meaningful effects of neuroticism. Second, traits linked to a specific performance context may be employed. The validity of traits for driver stress vulnerability supports this approach. Third, psychophysiological responses to simulations of the cognitive demands of the work environment may be used. Our recent work shows that stress and hemodynamic responses to short high-workload tasks predict longer-duration sustained performance.

Selection for vigilance assignments: a review and proposed new direction

Vigilance or sustained attention is a critical aspect of operational tasks including air-traffic control, airport security, industrial quality control and inspection, and medical screening and monitoring. Consequently, the selection of personnel for assignments involving vigilance is a key ergonomic concern. As reviewed herein, traditional approaches to personnel selection for tasks requiring vigilance have concentrated on unidimensional measures involving sensory acuity, aptitude, sex, age and personality factors. These approaches have been ineffective. In this article, we suggest an alternative approach in which the selection issue is considered in terms of a theory-driven analysis of different types of vigilance tasks and multidimensional predictors. As an example of that approach, we made use of a resource model of vigilance and measures of cerebral blood flow velocity and subjective state obtained from a short battery of high-workload tasks to successfully predict individual performance on subsequent high-workload sensory and cognitive vigilance tasks.

Experts' Circumvention of Processing Limitations: An Example From the Sport of Orienteering

This article provides a discussion of how experts in the sport of orienteering are able to circumvent natural limits on information processing during performance and thus acquire a performance advantage. Orienteering requires navigation in outdoor environments and thus research on skill acquisition in orienteering is of relevance to an understanding of military tasks involving navigation and their training. It is also argued that insight into how experts in general circumvent natural limits on processing is of relevance to an understanding of performance on high-tempo, high-workload tasks common in military settings. Findings from a series of studies of orienteering show how expert orienteers develop various strategies that change the way task-relevant information is mentally processed or displayed in the environment prior to being processed in order to circumvent processing limitations. Implications of this research for training in navigation-based military tasks and other military-related tasks are discussed.

Emergency Automated Response System (EARS)

This paper presents a comparison of two versions of an Emergency Automated Response System (EARS), a fully manual version and a partially automated version. User evaluations involving both versions of the system were conducted using a low workload task and a high workload task. The results indicate that the automation employed by the partially automated system decreased overall response time and perceived workload for both tasks, but accuracy decreased and response times increased from low workload to high workload with both versions.

On the potential value and limitations of emphasis change and other exploration-enhancing training methods.

Two experiments are presented that examine the efficiency of training methods that force trainees to explore the possible strategy space. Both experiments used a 2-dimensional search task. Experiment 1 studies a method that enforces exploration by preventing repetitions within short sequences. It shows that the effect of this "enhanced exploration" method in the abstract setting is similar to the effect of "emphasis change" training (see D. Gopher, 1993) in high cognitive workload tasks. This finding appeared only in strategic spaces where intuitive exploration converges to a local optimum. Experiment 2 compares the effect of exploration enhancement with the effect of guided instruction. The results of the experiments, which are captured well by a generalization of I. Erev and D. A. Gopher's (1999) model of the conditions for the success of emphasis change training, shed light on the limitations and potential of exploration-enhancing training methods.

Automation Management Strategies: Pilot Preferences and Operational Experiences

With the evolution of technology from passive tool to highly independent agent, it is becoming increasingly important to support operators in coordinating human and machine intentions and actions. One way to achieve this goal is the context-sensitive use and implementation of different automation management strategies. This study examined pilots' preferences for and their operational experiences with 3 different strategies-management-by-consent, management-by-exception, and full automation. Pilots expressed a strong preference for management-by-consent in which the automation cannot take action unless explicit pilot consent has been received. High time pressure, high workload, and low task criticality led to a shift in pilots' preferences toward management-by-exception in which the automation can initiate actions on its own. These preferences can be explained, in part, by pilots' operational experiences with existing cockpit systems that illustrate that human-machine coordination is a complex process involving the negotiation of multiple goals, activities, and strategies rather than simply assuming manual control in case of disagreements.

Experiment on validity of skin resistance level as an index of arousal level

It is important in establishing and improving work management and work planning to estimate the arousal level of workers during operation and monitoring tasks. This paper proposes a technique based on experimental results to estimate the arousal level during job execution. In this experiment, both a monotonous low workload task which degrades the arousal level and a high workload task which has an awakening action were alternately applied to five subjects for three hours. Skin resistance level (SRL) as an index of arousal level of the autonous nervous system was measured with subjective drowsiness and task performance, that is, signal omission probability for low workload task and both reaction time and error probability for high workload task, as indexes of arousal level of the central nervous system. The following results were obtained. (1) The results suggested that SRL as an index of arousal level of the autonous nervous system is significantly related and correlated with subjective drowsiness and signal omission probability as indexes of arousal level of the central nervous system. (2) The average reaction time and the error probability tended to increase by the application of high workload when the arousal level was degraded. The influence of degraded arousal continued for a short time and showed an unfavorable effect on task execution. The degree of this influence, however, differed between subjects. (3) SRL can be used as an index of arousal level of the autonous nervous system because the measurement is comparatively easy and is little influenced by artifacts due to body movements. (4) Using SRL at initial high workload period as the standard value, it is possible to quantify the SRL value at arbitrary time by estimating how many times the standard value goes into the SRL value. Based on this quantified value as an index of arousal level, comparison with task performance can be made. The proposed index of arousal level of the autonous nervous system showed a significant correlation with indexes of the central nervous system. This technique can be applied to various kinds of estimation on human characteristics accompanied with changes in arousal level.

Prediction of Skill Retention and Retraining from Initial Training

The goal of this research was to examine a method for predicting retention and retraining performance of a manual skill after controlled training. In an experiment, 40 men were trained to criterion performance on low- or high-workload tracking tasks, then retested and retrained after no-practice intervals of 1 to 6 wk. Retention and retraining performance times were modeled as a function of (1) average tracking completion time during initial training and (2) a power-model point-estimate of training completion times. The power model predicted retention and retraining times slightly better than the average times, but both models were significant (.64 &lt; R2 &lt;.78). Performance times were not related to duration of retention and were marginally related to training workload. Over-all, later performance was well predicted by earlier task performance, but retention was independent of the elapsed no-practice time period.