Fatigue impact on teams versus individuals during complex tasks.

Abstract

One perspective of how fatigue impacts cognitive performance is through physiological states, mechanistically determined by sustained wakefulness, habitual amounts of nightly sleep, and time of day. When fatigue is induced by such factors, the factors are thought to influence a physiologically implemented cognitiveeffort reservoir and an independent circadian rhythm, both of which impact performance quality (Hursh et al., 2004). Task performance, rested and fatigued, is often used to index the underlying physiological changes, as more indirect indices (e.g., mood ratings; Van Dongen, Baynard, Maislin, & Dinges, 2004) or even direct physiological indices (e.g., electroencephalogram; Galliaud et al., 2008) can disassociate from performance. However, one has a very large latitude for selecting tasks and performance contexts.In this chapter, we assess some moderating effects of task choices and their testing context for fatigue impact. In particular, we are broadly interested in whether teams fatigue differently from individuals when performing similar tasks. This interest has a pragmatic basis in maintaining work environments that often consist of teams doing the work. Very little is known about the potential for fatigue moderation from team performance contexts (Whitmore, . So we have observed, over the course of two studies, performers in both a team and a solo air-war battle manager task, Command, Control, and Communications, Simulation, Training, and Research System (C3STARS;Tessier, 2006). Unfortunately, comparing team performance meaningfully with individual performance, not to mention assessing differential effects of fatigue on the same, is not an easy endeavor. Significant methodology has to be developed, and the contributions of confounds to our effects of interest have to be better understood.

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“…Participants also completed a 20-minute version of the updated MATB (MATB-II) prior to, and after the gradCPT task. Comparing task performance when rested and fatigued is a common method for assessing the effects of fatigue (Chaiken et al, 2011). Performance on the first MATB-II session provided an initial measure of executive function for VGPs and NVGPs and any decline in MATB-II performance between the first and second MATB-II sessions is therefore attributed to cognitive fatigue.…”