ISSN:
1432-1246
Keywords:
EEG
;
Job monitoring
;
Occupational monotony
;
Secondary task
;
Vigilance
Source:
Springer Online Journal Archives 1860-2000
Topics:
Medicine
Notes:
Summary The SIFA is a paced secondary motor task used on modern rail engines. Adequate performance of this task is regarded as a guarantee for the train-driver's long-term attention. Observation as well as several preliminary studies made us doubt this claim. Our considerations, which led to the development of an experiment that allows SIFA-simulation and vigilance reduction under laboratory conditions, have been reported in an earlier part of this study. Our present investigation of the SIFA device under laboratory conditions of sensory deprivation, using a test-group of 12 experienced train drivers of the German Railway, proves that a paced secondary motor task like the SIFA can be operated in stages of reduced vigilance down to light sleep. Under conditions of impaired vigilance, the SIFA is correctly operated either in response to a warning signal or spontaneously within a physiological arousal reaction, which raises the driver's vigilance sufficiently to allow a goal-directed motor activity. Attendance of the SIFA interrupts, but does not prevent, phases of low vigilance. The inefficiency of the SIFA as a vigilance monitor was proved by means of EEG recordings which allowed us to establish a relationship between different stages of vigilance and the modes of SIFA-operation. Finally, it became evident that the number of warnings, respectively spontaneous operations of the device, does not correspond to the drivers' average stage of vigilance.
Type of Medium:
Electronic Resource
URL:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/BF02226899
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