Microcomputer analyses of performance on a portable, simple visual RT task during sustained operations

Abstract

There is a need for brief, portable performance measures that are free of practice effects but that reliably show the impact of sleep loss on performance during sustained work. Reaction time (RT) tasks hold considerable promise in meeting this need, if the extensive number of responses they typically yield can be processed in ways that quickly provide the essential analyses. While testing the utility of a portable visual RT task during a sustained, quasi-continuous work schedule of 54 h, we developed a microcomputer software system that inputs, edits, transforms, analyzes, and reduces the data from the RT portable audiotapes, for each lO-min trial on the task. With relatively minor modifications, the software system can be used on a minimally configured microcomputer system that supports BASIC. The software is flexible and capable of retrieving distorted data, and it generates a variety of dependent variables reflecting intratrial optimum response capacity, lapsing, and response slowing.Some of the more useful measures of performance during sustained operations are those known to be sensitive to sleep loss; in particular, tasks that are portable and brief and that are without practice effects are most important. Reaction time tasks have the potential of meeting these three criteria. Lisper and Kjellberg (1972) demonstrated that a simple, lO-min auditory reaction time (ART) task was sensitive to 24-h sleep loss. Based on this study, Wilkinson and Houghton (1982) developed a portable, 10-min simple visual reaction time (VRT) device and showed that performance on it was sensitive to as little as one night without sleep (Glenville, Broughton, Wing, & Wilkinson, 1978).Application of this portable VRT task to an experimental protocol involving quasi-continuous performance demands for sustained periods beyond 24 h has been underway in our laboratory. We are interested in determining whether aspects of VRT performance can serve as sensitive indices of sleep tendency and overall performance capacity during sustained operations. Accordingly, we sought to have VRT task performance yield in each trial dependent variables that reflected the extent of lapsing (Williams, Lubin, & Goodnow, 1959), optimum response slowing (Dinges, Orne, & Orne, 1983), and habituation This research was supported in part by Office of Naval Research Contract NOOOI4-80-C-0380 to the first author and in part by a grant from the Institute for Experimental Psychiatry. We thank Robert Wilkinson of the MRC Applied Psychology Unit, Psychophysiology Section, for developing the VRT device and for suggestions regarding its use, and Stephen R. Fairbrother for contributing to the development of the analyses; we acknowledge the helpful comments of Emily Carota Orne, Wayne G. Whitehouse, Martin T. Orne, and David A. Soskis. Reprint requests should be sent to D. F. Dinges, Unit for Experimental Psychiatry, III N. 49th Street, Philadelphia, PA 19139-2798. (Kjellberg, 1977. For practicality we sought to generate these performance parameters by computer analyses o...

Non-image forming effects of illuminance level: Exploring parallel effects on physiological arousal and task performance

“…as developed by Dinges and Powell [46]. The PVT has been found to measure vigilance levels reliably because of the monotonous, repetitive, and unpredictable nature of target presentation [47].…”

Influence of gender on psychomotor vigilance task performance by adolescents

“…The first can be measured by means of the Karolinska Sleepiness Scale (KSS) (12,13). The psychomotor vigilance task (PVT) (14,15) has been used in sleep research as an objective measure for the assessment of sustained attention and alertness. PVT results throughout the day reflect a circadian modulation of neuro-Influence of gender on PVT performance by adolescents www.bjournal.com.br behavioral functions as well as the effect of sleep pressure developing with time awake (16)(17)(18)(19)(20).…”

Sleep and performance in simulated Navy watch schedules

“…1). The PVT is a 10 min simple reaction time test requiring subjects to respond as quickly as possible to a visual stimulus appearing on a computer screen at random intervals of 2-10 s (Dinges and Powell, 1985). The PVT measures the ability to sustain attention in a stable manner (Doran et al, 2001) and is a sensitive assay of fatigue due to sleep deprivation and circadian misalignment (Lim and Dinges, 2008).…”