Utilizing a Remote LED Stimulus to Concurrently Measure Cognitive and Visual Task Demand

Author(s):  
Conner J. Motzkus ◽  
Douglas J. Getty ◽  
Andrea Campos ◽  
Joel M. Cooper ◽  
David L. Strayer

The ISO 17488 standard Detection Response Task (DRT) has been validated as an effective tool for measuring fluctuations in cognitive workload while driving and performing secondary tasks. This research evaluated the possibility of consolidating a dual stimulus DRT to a single remote LED stimulus to concurrently measure visual and cognitive demand. Hit rate and reaction times to a remote LED stimulus and an ISO standard vibrotactor stimulus were compared for three in-vehicles tasks: a single task baseline, a cognitively demanding task, and a visually demanding task. Analyses showed that the remote LED and vibrotactor were equally sensitive to cognitive load, while the remote LED was more sensitive to visual load. We suggest the remote LED DRT system serves as a cost-effective, practical, sensitive method to concurrently assess cognitive and visual demand.

2018 ◽  
pp. 253-254
Author(s):  
Antonia S. Conti ◽  
Moritz Späth ◽  
Klaus Bengler

Author(s):  
Wim van Winsum

Objective: The independent effects of cognitive and visual load on visual Detection Response Task (vDRT) reaction times were studied in a driving simulator by performing a backwards counting task and a simple driving task that required continuous focused visual attention to the forward view of the road. The study aimed to unravel the attentional processes underlying the Detection Response Task effects. Background: The claim of previous studies that performance degradation on the vDRT is due to a general interference instead of visual tunneling was challenged in this experiment. Method: vDRT stimulus eccentricity and stimulus conspicuity were applied as within-subject factors. Results: Increased cognitive load and visual load both resulted in increased response times (RTs) on the vDRT. Cognitive load increased RT but revealed no task by stimulus eccentricity interaction. However, effects of visual load on RT showed a strong task by stimulus eccentricity interaction under conditions of low stimulus conspicuity. Also, more experienced drivers performed better on the vDRT while driving. Conclusion: This was seen as evidence for a differential effect of cognitive and visual workload. The results supported the tunnel vision model for visual workload, where the sensitivity of the peripheral visual field reduced as a function of visual load. However, the results supported the general interference model for cognitive workload. Application: This has implications for the diagnosticity of the vDRT: The pattern of results differentiated between visual task load and cognitive task load. It also has implications for theory development and workload measurement for different types of tasks.


Author(s):  
Joel M. Cooper ◽  
Spencer C. Castro ◽  
David L. Strayer

Objective: A set of 4 driving related tasks were used to evaluate the potential for a modified Detection Response Task (DRT) to simultaneously measure visual and cognitive task demands. Background: The accurate assessment of cognitive and visual tasks demands in driving has become increasingly important. As of yet, no simple, cost effective approach has been found to measure visual demands in complex, multimodal tasks. Methods: Two experiments are presented which evaluate an extension of the standard DRT methodology. The discriminate sensitivity of the experiments is tested using an integrated testing configuration, which systematically increased visual demand across four conditions. Results: Results suggest that the standard DRT configurations are highly tuned to selectively evaluate cognitive demand but that a variant of the system may be able to simultaneously evaluate changes in both visual and cognitive task demands. Conclusions: These data suggest that the simple, rapid, and reliable assessment of both visual and cognitive task demands is possible, even in highly fluid systems with non-constant visual task requirements.


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zachary L Howard ◽  
Nathan J. Evans ◽  
Reilly James Innes ◽  
Scott Brown ◽  
Ami Eidels

With the advancement of technologies like in-car navigation and smartphones, concerns around how cognitive functioning is influenced by ``workload'' are increasingly prevalent. Research shows that spreading effort across multiple tasks can impair cognitive abilities through an overuse of resources, and that similar overload effects arise in difficult single-task paradigms. We developed a novel lab-based extension of the Detection Response Task, which measures workload, and paired it with a Multiple Object Tracking Task to manipulate cognitive load. Load was manipulated either by changing within-task difficulty or by the addition of an extra task. Using quantitative cognitive modelling we showed that these manipulations cause similar cognitive impairments through diminished processing rates, but that the introduction of a second task tends to invoke more cautious response strategies that do not occur when only difficulty changes. We conclude that more prudence should be exercised when directly comparing multitasking and difficulty-based workload impairments, particularly when relying on measures of central tendency.


2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maykel Hernández-Mesa ◽  
David Moreno-González ◽  
Carmen Cruces-Blanco ◽  
Ana M. García-Campaña

Author(s):  
Holland M. Vasquez ◽  
Justin G. Hollands ◽  
Greg A. Jamieson

Some previous research using a new augmented reality map display called Mirror-in-the-Sky (MitS) showed that performance was worse and mental workload (MWL) greater with MitS relative to a track-up map for navigation and wayfinding tasks. The purpose of the current study was to determine—for both MitS and track-up map—how much performance improves and MWL decreases with practice in a simple navigation task. We conducted a three-session experiment in which twenty participants completed a route following task in a virtual environment. Task completion times and collisions decreased, subjective MWL decreased, and secondary task performance improved with practice. The NASA-TLX Global ratings and Detection Response Task Hit Rates showed a larger decrease in MWL with MitS than the track-up map. Additionally, means for performance and workload measures showed that differences between the MitS and track-up map decreased in the first session. In later sessions the differences between the MitS and track-up map were negligible. As such, with practice performance and MWL may be comparable to a traditional track-up map.


PLoS ONE ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (10) ◽  
pp. e0258089
Author(s):  
Amelie M. Hübner ◽  
Ima Trempler ◽  
Corinna Gietmann ◽  
Ricarda I. Schubotz

Emotional sensations and inferring another’s emotional states have been suggested to depend on predictive models of the causes of bodily sensations, so-called interoceptive inferences. In this framework, higher sensibility for interoceptive changes (IS) reflects higher precision of interoceptive signals. The present study examined the link between IS and emotion recognition, testing whether individuals with higher IS recognize others’ emotions more easily and are more sensitive to learn from biased probabilities of emotional expressions. We recorded skin conductance responses (SCRs) from forty-six healthy volunteers performing a speeded-response task, which required them to indicate whether a neutral facial expression dynamically turned into a happy or fearful expression. Moreover, varying probabilities of emotional expressions by their block-wise base rate aimed to generate a bias for the more frequently encountered emotion. As a result, we found that individuals with higher IS showed lower thresholds for emotion recognition, reflected in decreased reaction times for emotional expressions especially of high intensity. Moreover, individuals with increased IS benefited more from a biased probability of an emotion, reflected in decreased reaction times for expected emotions. Lastly, weak evidence supporting a differential modulation of SCR by IS as a function of varying probabilities was found. Our results indicate that higher interoceptive sensibility facilitates the recognition of emotional changes and is accompanied by a more precise adaptation to emotion probabilities.


Molecules ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 26 (18) ◽  
pp. 5593
Author(s):  
Katalin Szilágyi ◽  
Beáta Flachner ◽  
István Hajdú ◽  
Mária Szaszkó ◽  
Krisztina Dobi ◽  
...  

Rapid in silico selection of target focused libraries from commercial repositories is an attractive and cost-effective approach in early drug discovery. If structures of active compounds are available, rapid 2D similarity search can be performed on multimillion compounds’ databases. This approach can be combined with physico-chemical parameter and diversity filtering, bioisosteric replacements, and fragment-based approaches for performing a first round biological screening. Our objectives were to investigate the combination of 2D similarity search with various 3D ligand and structure-based methods for hit expansion and validation, in order to increase the hit rate and novelty. In the present account, six case studies are described and the efficiency of mixing is evaluated. While sequentially combined 2D/3D similarity approach increases the hit rate significantly, sequential combination of 2D similarity with pharmacophore model or 3D docking enriched the resulting focused library with novel chemotypes. Parallel integrated approaches allowed the comparison of the various 2D and 3D methods and revealed that 2D similarity-based and 3D ligand and structure-based techniques are often complementary, and their combinations represent a powerful synergy. Finally, the lessons we learnt including the advantages and pitfalls of the described approaches are discussed.


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