Low cognitive load and reduced arousal impede practice effects on executive functioning, metacognitive confidence and decision making

A new injury prevention program 'FUNBALL' improves cognitive performance of young football (soccer) players: A cluster randomized controlled trial

The youth football injury prevention program 'FUNBALL' contains exercises requiring high cognitive demands, which are performed concurrently to the training of the respective motor task. This study evaluates whether the program increases cognitive performances of young football players. 1253 football players (aged 13-19 years old) were randomly assigned to either a control (CON) or an intervention (INT) group. The INT group performed the 'FUNBALL' program at least twice per week in their training sessions for one season (9 months). The CON group continued their training routine. From the total sample, the cognitive performance of 304 players (n = 135 CON; n = 169 INT) was assessed at the beginning and the end of the season using the Cogstate® Brief Battery, with the following subtests: One Back test (accuracy), Two Back test (accuracy), One Card Learning test (accuracy), Chase Test (correct moves per second), Set Shifting (accuracy), Identification test (speed), Detection test (speed), Groton Maze Learning Test (accuracy), and Groton Maze Learning Test Delayed Recall (accuracy). A multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) on the cognitive performance improvements from pre-to posttest showed that the INT group improved their performances more strongly than the CON group for all cognitive tests, namely for working memory, visual learning, visual motor control, attention, psychomotor function, memory, and executive function. The present study indicates that the exercise-based injury prevention program 'FUNBALL' may improve the cognitive performance of young football players. Future research should include an active control group, and should investigate whether the improvement in cognition also has beneficial effects on in-game performance. TRIAL REGISTRATION NUMBER: AsPredicted (https://aspredicted.org/2kb3b.pdf).

Competitive (but not cooperative) body odors bias the discrimination of action intentions towards cooperation

Odors help us to interpret the environment, including the nature of social interactions. But, whether and how they influence the ability to discriminate the intentional states embedded in actions is unclear. In two experiments, we asked two independent groups of participants to discriminate motor intentions from videos showing one agent performing a reach-to-grasp movement with another agent with a cooperative or a competitive intent, and the same movement performed alone at either natural- or fast-speed, as controls. Task-irrelevant odor primes preceded each video presentation. Experiment 1 (N = 19) included masked cooperative and competitive body odors (human sweat collected while the donors were engaged in cooperative and competitive activities), whereas Experiment 2 (N = 20) included a common odor (cedarwood oil) and no odor (clean air) as primes. In an odor-primed, two-alternative forced choice task, participants discriminated the intention underlying the observed action. The results indicated that the odor exposure modulated the discrimination speed across different intentions, but only when the action intentions were hard to discriminate (cooperative vs. individual natural-speed, and competitive vs. individual fast-speed). Contrary to our hypothesis, a direct odor-action intention compatibility effect was not found. Instead, we propose a negative arousal compatibility-like effect to explain our results. Discrimination of high arousing action intentions (i.e., competitive) took longer when primed by high arousing odors (common odor and competitive body odor) than by low arousing odors (cooperative body odor and no odor). Discrimination of low arousing action intentions (i.e., cooperative) took longer when primed by low arousing odors than by high arousing odors. All in all, competitive (but not cooperative) body odors bias the discrimination of action intentions towards cooperation.

Shaken and stirred: emotional state, cognitive load, and performance of junior residents in simulated resuscitation

BACKGROUND

Patient resuscitation can be overwhelming for junior postgraduate medical residents due to its inherent complexity and high-stakes environment. Emotional states of unpleasant hyperarousal burden cognitive resources, contributing to cognitive overload and performance decline. Our objective is to characterize the associations between pre-scenario emotional state and junior residents' cognitive load and performance in a simulated-resuscitation, to provide evidence for informed curricular development.

METHODS

PGY-1 residents self-rated their emotional state before four simulated-resuscitation scenarios, and their cognitive load after. Faculty assessed performance with entrustment scores. Factor analysis identified the principal components of emotional state data. Linear regression models examined the relationship between pre-scenario emotional components, cognitive load, and performance scores.

RESULTS

47/47 medical and surgical residents (100%) participated and completed Emotional State (99.5%) and Cognitive Load (98.9%) surveys. Positive invigoration and negative tranquility were the principal components. Pre-scenario tranquility was negatively associated with cognitive load (b= -0.23, p < 0.0001), and cognitive load was negatively associated with performance scores (b= -0.27, p < 0.0001). Pre-scenario invigoration was negatively associated with cognitive load (b=-0.18, p = 0.0001), and positively associated with performance scores (b= 0.08, p = 0.0193).

CONCLUSION

Amongst junior residents participating in simulated resuscitation scenarios, pre-scenario agitation (negative tranquility) is associated with increased cognitive load, which itself is associated with lower performance scores. These findings suggest residency programs should consider developing curriculum aimed at modulating residents' emotional agitation and reducing residents' cognitive burden to improve resuscitation performance.

Vicarious value learning by differential outcomes training: A social transfer of control methodology

This article adapts an existing experimental protocol for assessing individuals’ ability to transfer knowledge across instrumental and pavlovian learning stages. The protocol (Transfer of Control using differential outcomes learning) is adapted to fit social contexts wherein the pavlovian learning phase is modulated so that individuals are able to observe, and potentially learn from, the stimulus associated with reinforcing outcomes presented to another (observable) individual. Transfer of Control concerns participants combining knowledge of learned instrumental and pavlovian (stimulus, response, outcome) associations in order to ground the learning of new associations. The article describes the theoretical and procedural underpinnings of a novel Social Transfer of Control methodology. The use of such a methodology is two-fold: i) to serve as a guide to researchers interested in evaluating how individuals can learn from others in a partially observable setting, i.e. when behavioural and reinforcing outcome information is hidden, and bring to bear this knowledge on their own instrumental decision making; ii), to facilitate investigation of the routes of cognitive and emotional empathy, with potential applications for educational and clinical settings.•

Three stage Transfer of Control behavioural methodology is adapted to include a social (pavlovian) learning stage.

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Hypotheses can be tested that concern learning rewarding instrumental responses achieved by observation of others’ emotionally expressive reactions to differentially rewarding outcomes.

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Methodological and validation considerations for evaluating the above are presented

Effects of cognitive load and type of object on the visual looming bias

According to the behavioral urgency hypothesis, organisms have evolved various mechanisms that facilitate their survival by focusing attention and resources on approaching danger. One example of such mechanisms is the looming bias-the tendency for an individual to judge an approaching object's distance as being closer or time-to-collision as being sooner than receding or stationary objects. To date, most research on the looming bias has explored the ways in which human factors and object characteristics influence the strength and direction of the bias. The current study expanded on this field of research in two novels ways by exploring (a) whether cognitive vulnerabilities may influence the strength of the looming bias in the visual domain, and (b) whether the combination of human factors (i.e., cognitive load) and object characteristics (i.e., object threat) interact to create an additive effect on looming bias strength. Findings appear to only partially support the hypotheses that cognitive vulnerabilities can influence looming bias strength in the visual domain, and that factors related to both the individual and the looming object may interact to create a stronger looming bias. These findings help to highlight possible evolutionary advantages of the looming bias and its presence across modalities, as well as add some strength to the claims that the margin of safety theory can be generalized to include psychological factors.

Car drivers coping with hazardous events in real versus simulated situations: Declarative, behavioral and physiological data used to assess drivers' feeling of presence

More than 1.3 million people lose their lives every year in traffic accidents. Improving road safety requires designing better vehicles and investigating drivers’ abilities more closely. Driving simulators are constantly being used for this purpose, but the question which often arises as to their validity tends to be a barrier to developments in this field. Here we studied the validity of a simulator, defined as how closely users’ behavior under simulated conditions resembles their behavior on the road, based on the concept of drivers’ feeling of presence. For this purpose, the driving behavior, physiological state and declarative data of 41 drivers were tested in the Sherpa2 simulator and in a real vehicle on a track while driving at a constant speed. During each trial, drivers had to cope with an unexpected hazardous event (a one-meter diameter gym ball crossing the road right in front of the vehicle), which occurred twice. During the speed-maintenance task, the simulator showed absolute validity, in terms of the driving and physiological parameters recorded. During the first hazardous event, the physiological parameters showed that the level of arousal (Low Heart Rate/High Heart Rate ratio x10) increased up to the end of the drive. On the other hand, the drivers’ behavioral (braking) responses were 20% more frequent in the simulator than in the real vehicle, and the physiological state parameters showed that stress reactions occurred only in the real vehicle (+5 beats per minute, +2 breaths per minute and the phasic skin conductance increased by 2). In the subjects’ declarative data, several feeling of presence sub-scales were lower under simulated conditions. These results suggest that the validity of motion based simulators for testing drivers coping with hazards needs to be questioned.

The Role of Cue Utilization and Cognitive Load in the Recognition of Phishing Emails

Phishing emails represent a major threat to online information security. While the prevailing research is focused on users' susceptibility, few studies have considered the decision-making strategies that account for skilled detection. One relevant facet of decision-making is cue utilization, where users retrieve feature-event associations stored in long-term memory. High degrees of cue utilization help reduce the demands placed on working memory (i.e., cognitive load), and invariably improve decision performance (i.e., the information-reduction hypothesis in expert performance). The current study explored the effect of cue utilization and cognitive load when detecting phishing emails. A total of 50 undergraduate students completed: (1) a rail control task; (2) a phishing detection task; and (3) a survey of the cues used in detection. A cue utilization assessment battery (EXPERTise 2.0) then classified participants with either higher or lower cue utilization. As expected, higher cue utilization was associated with a greater likelihood of detecting phishing emails. However, variation in cognitive load had no effect on phishing detection, nor was there an interaction between cue utilization and cognitive load. Further, the findings revealed no significant difference in the types of cues used across cue utilization groups or performance levels. These findings have implications for our understanding of cognitive mechanisms that underpin the detection of phishing emails and the role of factors beyond the information-reduction hypothesis.

Objective Level of Alertness and Inhibitory Control Predict Highway Driving Impairment in Adults With ADHD

Objective: It remains unclear whether daytime impairments in ADHD patients are better explained by an altered level of alertness and/or by cognitive deficits. The aim of this study was to determine the respective contribution of these factors on driving performance in ADHD adults. Method: ADHD adults (n = 39) and healthy controls (n = 18) underwent a nocturnal polysomnography (PSG) followed by a Maintenance of Wakefulness Test (MWT), a simulated driving task, and a neuropsychological evaluation. Results: ADHD patients had shorter mean sleep latency on the MWT and worse driving performance than controls. They also made more errors on attention and executive functioning tests. Logistic regression analyses showed that inhibition deficits and objective daytime sleepiness predicted highway driving performance in ADHD. Conclusion: Our study shows that not only inhibitory control deficits but also pathological level of alertness independently contribute to highway driving impairment in ADHD patients, providing a better understanding of the pathophysiological mechanisms involved in ADHD.

Cognitive demand of eccentric versus concentric cycling and its effects on post-exercise attention and vigilance

PURPOSE

This study tested the hypotheses that eccentric cycling (ECC) would be more cognitively demanding than concentric cycling (CONC), and attention and vigilance would improve more after ECC than CONC.

METHODS

Thirty young adults performed CONC and two bouts of ECC (ECC1 and ECC2) for 20 min at a similar workload (227.5 ± 51.5 W) with 1-week apart. Cognitive load during exercise was assessed by the average error from the target torque over 1200 (60 rpm × 20 min) revolutions, choice reaction time (CRT), the NASA-task load index (NASA-TLX), and prefrontal cortex oxygenation and deoxygenation (HHb) by near-infrared spectroscopy. Attention and vigilance were assessed by a sustained attention to response task (SART) before, immediately, and at every 15 min for 60 min after exercise or sitting (control).

RESULTS

Heart rate was lower during ECC1 (115.5 ± 20.3 bpm) and ECC2 (116.7 ± 21.0 bpm) than CONC (156.9 ± 19.4 bpm). The torque error was greater for ECC1 (26.1 ± 9.0%) and ECC2 (19.4 ± 9.0%) than CONC (10.8 ± 3.7%). CRT (CONC: 602.8 ± 69.0, ECC1: 711.1 ± 113.0, ECC2: 693.6 ± 122.6 ms) and mental demand in NASA-TLX (46.8 ± 25.8, 80.0 ± 15.3, 60.3 ± 17.6) were greater for ECC1 and ECC2 than CONC. Decreases in HHb were greater for ECC1 (- 0.41 ± 0.37 µM) and ECC2 (- 0.40 ± 0.40 µM) than CONC (0.10 ± 0.40 µM) and control (- 0.21 ± 0.28 µM). Attention and vigilance decreased 2-8% after 20-min sitting, but improved 2-10% immediately after ECC2, and did not decline from the baseline for 30 min after ECC1 or 60 min after CONC and ECC2.

CONCLUSION

Cognitive load was greater during ECC than CONC, but post-exercise attention and vigilance changes were not largely different between ECC and CONC.

Missing mediated interruptions in manual assembly: Critical aspects of breakpoint selection

The factory of the future aims to make manufacturing more effective and easily customisable, using advanced sensors and communications to support information management. In this paper, we examine how breakpoint selection during interruption management can fail, even when using recommendations for interruption management from existing research. We present an experiment based on prior work where mediated interruptions (i.e. smart interruptions that should interrupt at opportune moments) were missed by participants when sent at one of two pre-defined breakpoints. These breakpoints were selected based on existing research to minimise the cost of interruption, which can involve longer times to complete tasks as well as making errors on tasks. Missing mediated interruptions in this way was unexpected, and the prior study was not configured to measure this effect, which has led to the experiment detailed here. We strive to explore whether there is a risk of missing notifications when mediated interruptions are used, and how this is affected by breakpoint selection. This was investigated through an experiment that uses tasks and environments that simulate a manufacturing assembly facility. The results indicate that the effect exists, i.e. that participants miss significantly more notifications when interrupted at fine breakpoints than when interrupted at coarse breakpoints. An embodied cognition perspective was used for analysis of the tasks to understand the cause of the effect. This analysis shows that an overlap between "action" and "anticipation of action" can account for why participants miss notifications at fine breakpoints. Based on these findings, recommendations were developed for designing interruption systems that minimise the costs (errors and time) imposed by interruptions during assembly tasks in manufacturing.

Relations between mental workload and decision-making in an organizational setting

Background

The complexity of current organizations implies a potential overload for workers. For this reason, it is of interest to study the effects that mental workload has on the performance of complex tasks in professional settings.

Objective

The objective of this study is to empirically analyze the relation between the quality of decision-making, on the one hand, and the expected and real mental workload, on the other.

Methods

The study uses an ex post facto prospective design with a sample of 176 professionals from a higher education organization. Expected mental workload (Pre-Task WL) and real mental workload (Post-Task WL) were measured with the unweighted NASA-Task Load Index (NASA-TLX) questionnaire; difference between real WL and expected WL (Differential WL) was also calculated; quality of decision-making was measured by means of the Decision-Making Questionnaire.

Results

General quality of decision-making and Pre-Task WL relation is compatible with an inverted U pattern, with slight variations depending on the specific dimension of decision-making that is considered. There were no verifiable relations between Post-Task WL and decision-making. The subjects whose expected WL matched the real WL showed worse quality in decision-making than subjects with high or low Differential WL.

Conclusions

The relations between mental workload and decision-making reveal a complex pattern, with evidence of nonlinear relations.

Coordinating the interruption of assembly workers in manufacturing

This paper examines how interruptions from information and communications technology systems affect errors and the time to complete tasks for assembly workers. Interruptions have previously been examined in laboratory experiments and office environments, but not much work has been performed in other authentic environments. This paper contains the results of an experiment that was performed in a simulated manufacturing assembly environment, which tested the effects of interruptions on a manual assembly task. The experiment used existing interruption coordination methods as a basis, and the results showed a difference in the effect of interruptions and interruption coordination between cognitively complex laboratory tasks and manual assembly tasks in an authentic environment. Most notably, the negative effects of interruptions delivered without consideration were smaller in this experiment. Based on these findings, recommendations were developed for designing interruption systems for minimizing the costs (errors and time) imposed by interruptions during assembly tasks in manufacturing.