Time-on-task

Our minds tend to wander, sometimes with little control. Despite this phenomenon, that can affect our ability to perform everyday tasks gaining much interest, relatively little is understood about the actual time course of MW across an experimental task. With this in mind, we collated data from two previously reported studies investigating the effect of auditory beat stimulation on MW. Taking experience sampling probes intermittently dispersed throughout a sustained-attention-to-response task (SART), we re-evaluated responses to theta monaural beat stimulation, as well as to two control conditions (silence (headphones only) and a sine wave control tone)...

In aviation, mental workload and stress are two major factors that can considerably impact a pilot's flight performance and decisions. Their consequences can be even more dramatic in single-pilot aircraft or with the forthcoming single-pilot operations where the pilot will fly alone and will not be able to be assisted in case of difficulty. An accurate and automatic monitoring of the pilot's mental state could help to prevent the potentially dangerous effects of an excess mental workload and stress. For example, some tasks could be allocated to automation or to a ground-based flight crew if a mental overload or significant stress is detected...

The Systematic Review Toolbox aims provide a web-based catalogue of tools that support various tasks within the systematic review and wider evidence synthesis process. Identifying publications surrounding specific systematic review tools is currently challenging, leading to a high screening burden for few eligible records. We aimed to develop a search strategy that could be regularly and automatically run to identify eligible records for the SR Toolbox, thus reducing time on task and burden for those involved...

As a common complaint in contemporary society, mental fatigue is a key element in the deterioration of the daily activities known as time-on-task (TOT) effect, making the prediction of fatigue-related performance decline exceedingly important. However, conventional group-level brain-behavioral correlation analysis has the limitation of generalizability to unseen individuals and fatigue prediction at individual-level is challenging due to the significant differences between individuals both in task performance efficiency and brain activities...

Consistent evidence has established that people avoid cognitively effortful tasks. However, the features that make a task cognitively effortful are still not well understood. Multiple hypotheses have been proposed regarding which task demands underlie cognitive effort costs, such as time-on-task, error likelihood, and the general engagement of cognitive control. In this study, we test the novel hypothesis that tasks requiring behavior according to higher degrees of policy abstraction are experienced as more effortful...

To determine the effect of distributed practice (spacing out of study over time) and retrieval practice (recalling information from memory) on academic grades in health professions education and to summarise a range of interventional variables that may affect study outcomes. A systematic search of seven databases in November 2022 which were screened according to predefined inclusion criteria. The Medical Education Research Study Quality Instrument (MERSQI) and Newcastle-Ottawa Scale-Education (NOS-E) were used to critically appraise eligible articles...

Research in cognitive fatigue has identified the negative impact that cognitive exertion can have on subsequent task performance. An underexamined question is whether there are different types of fatigue, particularly: active fatigue, similar to cognitive fatigue, and passive fatigue, similar to boredom. This online study examined whether active and passive fatigue can be elicited and differentiated using computerized cognitive tasks. We compared subjective and behavioural outcomes to look for distinctions between fatigue types in response to different cognitive tasks...

OBJECTIVE: This study investigated the effect of auditory working memory task on situation awareness (SA) and eye-movement patterns in complex dynamic environments. BACKGROUND: Many human errors in aviation are caused by a lack of SA, and distraction from auditory secondary tasks is a serious threat to SA. However, it remains unclear how auditory working memory tasks affect SA and eye-movement patterns. METHOD: Participants (n = 28) were randomly allocated to two groups and received different periods of visual search training (short versus long)...

OBJECTIVE: Few community pharmacies have access to health information exchange (HIE) data. We conducted a first-of-its-kind usability evaluation of a HIE interface prototype (referred to throughout as the "HIE-Pioneer mock-up") developed with pharmacists and pharmacy technicians to aid future implementation in community pharmacies. METHODS: Community pharmacists and pharmacy technicians were recruited to complete usability evaluations with the HIE-Pioneer mock-up...

A study was developed for a limb-different accessible video game controller that utilizes an electromyographic sensor to control gameplay actions. Data was collected from 50 college-aged student participants. This biofeedback-based serious game trains users in a virtual capacity, through the visualization of muscle contraction, via the movement of the video game character. The training platform has been developed to accompany the corresponding electromyographic actuated prosthetic arm device, leveraging the same control scheme to enable the translation of hand gesture states...

Across four experiments, we manipulated features of a simple reaction time (RT) task to examine the effects of such features on sustained attention. In Experiment 1, we created simple RT "game" that pitted participants against two computerized avatars. In one condition, participants were awarded points, while the other condition did not receive points. Performance in the two conditions did not differ, but both conditions showed shorter RTs and shallower time-on-task performance decrements compared to a standard psychomotor vigilance task...

BACKGROUND: The present quasi-experimental study aimed to evaluate the effects of active breaks intervention (ABs) to promote physical and cognitive improvement in primary school. METHODS: The active breaks group (ABsG) performed 10 min of ABs three times per school day and the control group (CG) did normal lessons. The baseline and follow-up evaluation was conducted respectively in October 2019 and in May 2021. Cognitive performance was assessed using working memory test, physical performance was analyzed with ActiGraph accelerometers and physical fitness tests, quality of life was monitored using the Paediatric Quality of Life questionnaire (PedsQL) and classroom behavior was collected with an ad hoc questionnaire...

OBJECTIVE: Drivers using level 2 automation are able to disengage with the dynamic driving task, but must still monitor the roadway and environment and be ready to takeover on short notice. However, people are still willing to engage with non-driving related tasks, and the ways in which people manage this tradeoff are expected to vary depending on the operational design domain of the system and the nature of the task. Our aim is to model driver gaze behavior in level 2 partial driving automation when the driver is engaged in an email task on a cell phone...

Listening to self-selected background music has been shown to be associated with increased task focus and decreased mind wandering during a sustained attention task (Kiss and Linnell, Psychological Research Psychologische Forschung 85:2313-2325, 2021). It is unclear, however, how this relation may depend on the potentially critical factor of task difficulty. To address this knowledge gap, we explored how listening to self-selected music, compared to silence, affects subjectively experienced task engagement (i...

The time on task (ToT) effect describes the relationship of the time spent on a cognitive task and the probability of successful task completion. The effect has been shown to vary in size and direction across tests and even within tests, depending on the test taker and item characteristics. Specifically, investing more time has a positive effect on response accuracy for difficult items and low ability test-takers, but a negative effect for easy items and high ability test-takers. The present study sought to test the replicability of this result pattern of the ToT effect across samples independently drawn from the same populations of persons and items...

Previous studies suggest that performance in visual inspection and typical vigilance tasks depend on time on task and task load. European regulation mandates that security officers (screeners) take a break or change tasks after 20 min of X-ray baggage screening. However, longer screening durations could reduce staffing challenges. We investigated the effects of time on task and task load on visual inspection performance in a four-month field study with screeners. At an international airport, 22 screeners inspected X-ray images of cabin baggage for up to 60 min, while a control group (N = 19) screened for 20 min...

STUDY OBJECTIVES: The psychomotor vigilance test (PVT), a 10-min one-choice reaction time task with random response-stimulus intervals (RSIs) between 2 and 10 s, is highly sensitive to behavioral alertness deficits due to sleep loss. To investigate what drives the performance deficits, we conducted an in-laboratory total sleep deprivation (TSD) study and compared performance on the PVT to performance on a 10-min high-density PVT (HD-PVT) with increased stimulus density and truncated RSI range between 2 and 5 s...

The end-spurt effect, where performance declines with time-on-task and then increases toward the end of a task, has garnered little attention in the vigilance literature. Researchers have suggested the performance enhancement is due to increased motivation or arousal with knowledge of the end of the vigil. However, recent examination of neural signature patterns during a simultaneous discrimination task, where task length was unknown, provided preliminary support that the end-spurt reflects pacing of resources...

OBJECTIVE: The objectives of this systematic review were to describe the current dose and content of usual care upper limb motor intervention for inpatients following stroke and examine if context factors alter dose and content. DATA SOURCES: A systematic search (EMBASE, MEDLINE) was completed from January 2015 to February 2023 (PROSPERO CRD42021281986). METHODS: Studies were eligible if they reported non-protocolised usual care upper limb motor intervention dose data for stroke inpatients...

When human monitors are required to detect infrequent signals among noise, they typically exhibit a decline in correct detections over time. Researchers have attributed this vigilance decrement to three alternative mechanisms: shifts in response bias, losses of sensitivity, and attentional lapses. The current study examined the extent to which changes in these mechanisms contributed to the vigilance decrement in an online monitoring task. Participants in two experiments (N = 102, N = 192) completed an online signal detection task, judging whether the separation between two probes each trial exceeded a criterion value...