The Impact of Sustained Wakefulness and Time-of-day on OSPAT Performance

Abstract

Fatigue associated with shiftwork is a key contributor to human error in the workplace. One way to prevent fatigue-related errors from occurring is to identify fatigue in employees using fitness-for-duty measures. The Occupational Safety Performance Assessment Test (OSPAT), an unpredictable tracking task that measures hand-eye coordination, is currently being used as a fitnessfor-duty measure in a variety of industries, but has not yet been validated as a test sensitive to the effects of fatigue. Consequently, the aim of this study was to systematically examine the impact of sustained wakefulness and time-of-day on OSPAT performance. Twenty individuals (10 male, 10 female), aged between 18-25 yr (M=20.90, SD=2.29) participated in the study, which was conducted in Australia. The study had a repeated measures design, whereby participants completed the OSPAT and measures of sustained attention (i.e., the psychomotor vigilance task: PVT), and subjective alertness (i.e., the Visual Analog Scale: VAS) every 2 h during 24 h of sustained wakefulness, beginning at 07:00h. Results revealed that VAS ratings of alertness, PVT performance, and OSPAT performance declined significantly as hours of wakefulness increased during the night-time (all p<.01). Furthermore, a positive correlation between OSPAT and PVT performance was observed (r=0.40, p<.01). Overall, these findings suggest that OSPAT is sensitive to sustained wakefulness during the night-time, and builds the case for OSPAT being a suitable measure for determining fitness-for-duty in workplace environments.

Visually Guided Tracking on a Handheld Device

“…Vidacek, Kaliterna, Radoseric-Vidacek, and Folkard (1986), for example, reported a 5% reduction of the number of manually produced capacitors in an electronics component factory during the night shift. Those diurnal fluctuations are also observed in controlled laboratory settings, such as constant routines (Duffy & Dijk, 2002), in which all kinds of cognitive performance measures show significant time-of-day effects with performance minima during early morning hours and performance peaks during the day (Buck, 1977; De Gennaro, Ferrara, Curcio, & Bertini, 2001; Jasper, Häußler, Baur, Marquardt, & Hermsdörfer, 2009; Monk et al, 1997; Petrilli, Jay, Dawson, & Lamond, 2005). Shift workers often experience sleep deprivation and circadian disruption and typically report elevated fatigue levels, which have been linked to safety problems in the working place (Folkard & Akerstedt, 2004; Lombardi, Folkard, Willetts, & Smith, 2010).…”

“…Driving demands the effective coordination of information received through the eyes and the appropriate physical responses (Jasper et al, 2010). Therefore, driving can be related to tracking—a visuomotor skill that is part of our daily life also during object manipulation (Petrilli et al, 2005). Because tracking tasks tackle a multitude of important processes (visuomotor coordination, reaction time, sustained attention) that are part of various manual procedures, such tasks may also be ideal to examine efficient production at the work place (Petrilli et al, 2005).…”

“…There are precise spatiotemporal patterns in which the eye and hand display bidirectional interactions (Gowen & Miall, 2006). Thus, tracking tasks are used to assess visuomotor coordination, a skill considered a prerequisite for proficient performance, particularly during object manipulation (Forseth & Sigmundsson, 2003; Petrilli et al, 2005).…”

“…These visually guided tracking tasks have also been used extensively under constant conditions or in simulated shift-work studies to predict the occurrence of circadian rhythms and to detect performance fluctuations (Akerstedt, Kecklund, & Hörte, 2001; Contardi et al, 2004; Dawson & Reid, 1997; Jansen, Rutenfranz, & Singer, 1966; Jasper et al, 2010; Petrilli et al, 2005; van Eekelen & Kerkhof, 2003). In the studies using constant routines, participants were usually tested repeatedly at 2- or 3-hr intervals during extended wakefulness over at least 17 hr under laboratory conditions.…”

Fatigue in Emergency Services Operations: Assessment of the Optimal Objective and Subjective Measures Using a Simulated Wildfire Deployment

“…Occupational Safety Performance Assessment Test (OSPAT): The OSPAT is an unpredictable tracking task that assesses hand-eye coordination, sustained attention and reaction time, and is widely used as a fitness for duty measure in a variety of industries (see [ 23 ]). For this task, participants were instructed to keep the computer cursor positioned on the target displayed on the screen as much as possible for the duration of the test.…”