1,721,055 research outputs found
Relationship Between Arousal and Technical Performance in the Oil and Gas Sector: An Investigation Using a Simulated Well Control Scenario.
No full textThe present paper summarizes the results of a study investigating the relationship between arousal, as reflected by cardiovascular responses, and technical performance in a simulated well control task. As part of a certification exam at the end of a training session, pairs of rig operators (drillers) and supervisors were involved in a role-play exercise using a simulation equipment, while the electrocardiogram (ECG) signal was recorded from rig supervisors with the Polar H10 device. During the scenario an anomaly in well operations occurred and supervisors were required to adopt specific procedures to restore pressure containment. Our results showed that heart rate (HR) and heart rate variability (HRV) measures differently reflected the changes in the demands imposed by the different phases of the simulated task and highlighted the need to integrate the assessment of technical skills with workload and arousal assessment to increase the effectiveness of training procedures
Searching for a tactile target: the impact of set-size on the N140cc
Full text linkThe time needed to find a visual target amongst distractors (search task) can increase as a function of the distractors’ number (set-size) in the search-array (inefficient search). While the allocation of attention in search tasks has been extensively investigated and debated in the visual domain, little is known about these mechanisms in touch. Initial behavioral evidence shows inefficient search behavior when participants have to distinguish between target and distractors defined by their vibro-tactile frequencies. In the present study, to investigate the allocation of attention to items of the search-array we measured the N140cc during a tactile task in which the set-size was manipulated. The N140cc is a lateralized component of event-related brain potentials recently described as a psychophysiological marker of attentional allocation in tactile search tasks. Participants localized the target, a singleton frequency, while ignoring one, three or five homogeneous distractors. Results showed that error rates linearly increased as a function of set-size, while response times were not affected. Reliable N140cc components were observed for all set-sizes. Crucially, the N140cc amplitude decreased as the number of distractors increased. We argue that the presence of additional distractors hindered the preattentive analysis of the search array resulting in increased uncertainty about the target location (inefficient preattentive stage). This, in turn, increased the variability of the deployment of attention to the target, resulting in reduced N140cc amplitudes. Consistent with existing behavioral evidence, these findings highlight systematic differences between the visual and the tactile attentional systems
Is there an action potentiation effect with two-handles objects?
No full textTwo experiments explore the action Potentiation effect with grasped bimanual objects having two symmetrical handles. objects typically used in the kitchen (e.g., mezzaluna knife) and objects typically used during spare time (e.g., joypad) were presented during a categorization task in four experimental conditions: compatible grasping object, incompatible grasping object, object alone, two-handles grasping object. results show a more difficult categorization when objects were shown as grasped on the opposite side than the response rather than on the same side in each of two different response modes (bimanual: experiment 1; unimanual: experiment 2). We discuss implications of these results for action potentiation and spatial coding theories
Observational learning without a model is influenced by the observer’s possibility to act: evidence from the Simon task.
No full textThe influence of prime identity on the emergence of affordance effects
No full textThe present study used a visuomotor priming task to investigate whether classification responses to pairs of graspable objects are influenced by prior presentation of pictures of two human or robotic hands. Participants had to press one of two keys to discriminate whether pairs of graspable objects could be usually found in the kitchen or in the garage. The objects could be used together or not. In each pair there was an active object (i.e., the object that is actively manipulated during a specific action), presented to the right or left of the screen center. Only when the objects were preceded by two robotic hands and could be used together, responses were faster when the position of the active object and the position of the response were spatially corresponding, that is when objects appeared in standard co-locations for right-handed actions. This result demonstrates that affordance effects evoked by object pairs are influenced by the nature of motor cues present in the scene
Attention control and susceptibility to hypnosis
No full textThe present work aimed at assessing whether the interference exerted by task-irrelevant spatial information is comparable in high- and low-susceptible individuals and whether it may be eliminated by means of a specific posthypnotic suggestion. To this purpose high and low-susceptible participants were tested using a Simon-like interference task after the administration of a suggestion aimed at preventing the processing of the irrelevant spatial information conveyed by the stimuli. The suggestion could be administered either in the absence or following a standard hypnotic induction. We showed that, outside from the hypnotic context, the Simon effect was similar in high and low-susceptible participants and it was significantly reduced following the posthypnotic suggestion in high-susceptible participants only. These results show that a specific posthypnotic suggestion can alter information processing in high-susceptible individuals and reduce the interfering effect exerted by arrow stimuli
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