Risk behaviour and mental workload: Multimodal assessment techniques applied to motorbike riding simulation

We present data from an ongoing research project on the cognitive, emotional and neuropsychological basis of risk behaviour. The main aim of the project is to build a model of risk behaviour so that if we know certain cognitive, behavioural and emotional variables, we will be able to predict decisions made in the face of uncertainty and risk, with the final goal of designing programs for evaluating, preventing and controlling risk behaviour. The objective of the present study was to look for individual differences in hazard perception during a static riding simulation and their relationship with mental workload. We used a multidimensional methodology, including behavioural, subjective and physiological data. The behavioural measures were obtained in a static riding simulation during eight hazard situations. We evaluated whether eye activity measures correlated with cognitive workload and different types of risky behaviours. Eye movement parameters were measured using a video-based eye tracking system. We found that risk-prone individuals showed specific patterns of risky behaviours and that peak of saccadic velocity and subjective mental workload indexes were both reliable indicators of risk proneness. Mental workload was higher for participants showing attitudes to risk behaviours probably because of a lack of conscious awareness of specific cues indicating dangerous scenarios.     

Going beyond the Human: Christians and Other Transhumanists

Transhumanism is a Christian concept. Although today's transhumanism has secularized the original Christian promise for divinization or theosis by adding evolution and technological progress, Christians should critically re‐take ownership of the role transhumanism plays in the sanctification process.     

Perception of autonomic reactions and actual heart rate in phobic patients

The relationship between perceived physiological arousal and actual heart-rate reactions was studied in two behavioral test situations. The subjects were 70 phobic patients (34 social phobics and 36 claustrophobics) who were given the general form of the Autonomic Perception Questionnaire about 1 month before the respective behavioral test and the specific form immediately after the test. The results showed significant correlations between APQ and actual heart rate for the social phobics, while the picture was more complicated for the claustrophobics. The implications of these results are discussed.This research was supported by Grant 05452 from the Swedish Medical Research Council.     

Eye movement indices of mental workload

Four investigations were carried out to assess the feasibility of using eye movement measures as indices of mental workload. In the first experiment, saccadic extent was measured during free viewing while subjects performed low, moderate and high complexity, auditory tone counting as the workload tasks. The range of saccadic extent decreased significantly as tone counting complexity (workload) was increased. In the second experiment the range of spontaneous saccades was measured under three levels of counting complexity with a visual task that did not require fixation or tracking. The results indicated that the extent of saccadic eye movements was significantly restricted as counting complexity increased. In the third experiment, the effects of practice were examined and decreased saccadic range under high tone counting complexity was observed even when significant increases in performance occurred with practice. Finally, in experiment 4, the first experiment was repeated with additional optokinetic stimulation and the saccadic range was again observed to decrease with tone counting complexity. The results indicated that the extent of spontaneous and elicited eye movements was significantly restricted as counting complexity increased. We conclude that this measure may provide a valuable index of mental workload.     

NASA TLX: Software for assessing subjective mental workload

The NASA Task Load Index (TLX) is a popular technique for measuring subjective mental workload. It relies on a multidimensional construct to derive an overall workload score based on a weighted average of ratings on six subscales: mental demand, physical demand, temporal demand, performance, effort, and frustration level. A program for implementing a computerized version of the NASA TLX is described. The software version assists in simplifying collection, postprocessing, and storage of raw data. The program collects raw data from the subject and calculates the weighted (or unweighted) workload score, which is output to a text file. The program can also be tailored to a specific experiment using a simple input text file, if desired. The program was designed in Visual Studio 2005 and is capable of running on a Pocket PC with Windows CE or on a PC with Windows 2000 or higher. The NASA TLX program is available for free download.     

The association between personality and cognitive ability: Going beyond simple effects

To examine the relationship between the Big Five and cognitive ability, we investigated whether we could replicate in a heterogeneous population sample the positive association between cognitive ability and Openness and Emotional Stability and its negative association with Conscientiousness. Besides analyzing the pure associations, we shed further light on sources of these associations by investigating potential moderating effects of education and labor force participation. Our results clearly replicate the previously found positive association between cognitive ability and Emotional Stability and Openness and the negative relationship between Conscientiousness and cognitive ability. The correlation between cognitive ability and Openness was found to be moderated by educational attainment, the negative association between Conscientiousness and cognitive ability was moderated by labor force participation.     

经济伦理道德建设：对市场经济的适应和超越

社会主义市场经济发展的现实要求我们必须加强经济伦理学道德建设。经济伦理道德建设必须建立在对市场经济的适应和超越这两个层面上 ,实现构想一种最低要求和最高要求相结合、广泛性和先进性相结合、现实性和理想性相结合的经济伦理道德价值体系 ,为进一步完善和发展社会主义市场经济体系 ,为实现社会主义四个现代化提供坚实的经济伦理保障。     

Note on relation of autonomic perception to voluntary control of heart rate.

Relationships between subscores of the Autonomic Perception Questionnaire and ability to raise and lower heart rate voluntarily were examined in 40 subjects. Subscores which reflected autonomic awareness in anxiety and pleasure states were not predictive of degree of cardiac control, while the subscore specific to reported awareness of heart functioning during pleasure states only was positively correlated with ability to raise heart rate.     

Going beyond the evidence: abstract laws and preschoolers' responses to anomalous data

Given minimal evidence about novel objects, children might learn only relationships among the specific entities, or they might make a more abstract inference, positing classes of entities and the relations that hold among those classes. Here we show that preschoolers (mean: 57 months) can use sparse data about perceptually unique objects to infer abstract physical causal laws. These newly inferred abstract laws were robust to potentially anomalous evidence; in the face of apparent counter-evidence, children (correctly) posited the existence of an unobserved object rather than revise the abstract laws. This suggests that children's ability to learn robust, abstract principles does not depend on extensive prior experience but can occur rapidly, on-line, and in tandem with inferences about specific relations.     

Attentional processes in time perception: effects of mental workload and event structure

The role of attention in timing was evaluated in 2 experiments. In Experiment 1, participants reproduced the durations of melodies with either a coherent or an incoherent structure. Participants were tested under control (timing only) and detection (timing plus target detection) workload conditions. Reproductions were shorter and more inaccurate under detection conditions, and incoherent event structure extended the effect to a wider range of durations. In Experiment 2, participants reproduced the durations of auditory prose passages that represented 3 levels of mental workload and 3 levels of event structure. Both increases in workload and the degradation of structure led to inaccurate reproductions. The results point to the central role of attention in temporal experience.     

Going beyond the facts: Young children extend knowledge by integrating episodes

The major question posed in this research was whether 4- and 6-year-olds productively extend their knowledge by integrating information acquired in separate episodes. The vehicle was a read-aloud activity during which children were presented with a novel fact in each of two passages. In Experiment 1, both age groups showed evidence of integration between the passages. For the 6-year-olds, the evidence came in the form of responses to open-ended questions. The 4-year-olds recognized the correct answers but did not generate them in the open-ended question format. The 6-year-olds who generated the correct answers also were likely to recall both of the individual facts presented in the passages. In Experiment 2, we tested whether the 4-year-olds’ integration performance would improve if their memory for the individual facts improved. Extra exposure to the individual facts resulted in higher levels of integration performance in both recall and recognition testing. The roles of memory and other potential sources of age-related differences in integration performance are discussed.     

Autonomic determinism: the modes of autonomic control, the doctrine of autonomic space, and the laws of autonomic constraint.

Contemporary findings reveal that the multiple modes of autonomic control do not lie along a single continuum extending from parasympathetic to sympathetic dominance but rather distribute within a 2-dimensional space. The physiological origins and empirical documentation for the multiple modes of autonomic control are considered. Then a formal 2-dimensional conception of autonomic space is proposed, and a quantitative model for its translation into a functional output surface is derived. It is shown that this model (a) accounts for much of the error variance that has traditionally plagued psychophysiological studies, (b) subsumes psychophysiological principles such as the law of initial values, (c) gives rise to formal laws of autonomic constraint, and (d) has fundamental implications for the direction and interpretation of a wide array of psychophysiological studies.     

Oculographic assessment of workload influence on flight performance

Presented are specific parameters of visual information intake in pilots on the job. The role of eye movements in the process of visual stimulus reception is discussed. Our own study on a MIG-23 flight simulator is presented. The method of oculographic testing of pilots performing professional assignments differing in workload is presented, and the practical implications of oculographic research are discussed.     

The effect of gender and time-of-day on time perception and mental workload

Two experiments are reported which investigated how subject gender and time-of-day influenced the estimation of duration and the perception of task-related mental workload. In the first experiment, 24 subjects performed a filled time-estimation task in a constant blacked-out, noise-reduced environment at 0800h, 1200h, 1600h, and 2000h, respectively. In the second experiment, 12 different subjects performed an unfilled time estimation task in similar conditions at 0900h, 1400h, and 1900h. At the termination of all experimental sessions, participants completed the NASA Task Load Index workload assessment questionnaire as a measure of perceived mental workload. Results indicated that physiological response, reflected in body temperature change, followed an expected pattern of sequential increase with time-of-day. However, estimates of duration and the perception of mental workload showed no significant effects for time-of-day. In each of the experiments there were significant differences in time estimation and mental workload response contingent on the gender of the participant. These results are interpreted in light of the previous positive findings for circadian fluctuation in performance efficiency and the equivocal findings of a gender difference in time estimation. A unifying account of these collective results is given based on gender by time-of-day interactional effects. An earlier version of this paper was presented at the 32nd Annual Meeting of the Human Factors Society, Anaheim, CA, October, 1988.     

The effect of gender and time-of-day on time perception and mental workload

Two experiments are reported which investigated how subject gender and time-of-day influenced the estimation of duration and the perception of task-related mental workload. In the first experiment, 24 subjects performed a filled time-estimation task in a constant blacked-out, noise-reduced environment at 0800h, 1200h, 1600h, and 2000h, respectively. In the second experiment, 12 different subjects performed an unfilled time estimation task in similar conditions at 0900h, 1400h, and 1900h. At the termination of all experimental sessions, participants completed the NASA Task Load Index workload assessment questionnaire as a measure of perceived mental workload. Results indicated that physiological response, reflected in body temperature change, followed an expected pattern of sequential increase with time-of-day. However, estimates of duration and the perception of mental workload showed no significant effects for time-of-day. In each of the experiments there were significant differences in time estimation and mental workload response contingent on the gender of the participant. These results are interpreted in light of the previous positive findings for circadian fluctuation in performance efficiency and the equivocal findings of a gender difference in time estimation. A unifying account of these collective results is given based on gender by time-of-day interactional effects. An earlier version of this paper was presented at the 32nd Annual Meeting of the Human Factors Society, Anaheim, CA, October, 1988.