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At least 19 records

Can practice eliminate the psychological refractory period effect?

Can people learn to perform two tasks at the same time without interference? To answer this question, the authors trained 6 participants for 36 sessions in a Psychological Refractory Period (PRP) experiment, where Task 1 required a speeded vocal response to an auditory stimulus and Task 2 required a speeded manual response to a visual stimulus. The large PRP effect found initially (353 ms in Session 1) shrank to only about 40 ms over the course of practice, disappearing entirely for 1 of the 6 participants. This reduction in the PRP effect with practice is considerably larger than has been previously reported. The obtained pattern of factor interactions between stimulus onset asynchrony and each of three task difficulty manipulations (Task 1 judgment difficulty, Task 2 stimulus contrast, and Task 2 mapping compatibility) supports a postponement (bottleneck) account of dual-task interference, both before and after practice.

Pitch Perception/physiology

Practice Drastically Reduces Interference in the Psychological Refractory Period Paradigm

Six subjects were given 36 sessions of practice in a PRP paradigm. Task 1 required vocal responses, while Task 2 required manual responses. Unlike previous experiments with two manual response tasks, practice dramatically reduced the size of the PRP interference, from an initial 353 msec to only 40 msec. Analysis of factor interactions support a central bottleneck model of Task 2 postponement both early and late in practice.

VanSelst, Mark

Vanishing dual-task interference after practice: has the bottleneck been eliminated or is it merely latent?

Practice can, in some cases, largely eliminate measured dual-task interference. Does this absence of interference indicate the absence of a processing bottleneck (defined as an inability to carry out certain stages in parallel)? The authors show that a bottleneck need not produce any observable interference, provided that there is no temporal overlap in the demand for bottleneck stages on the 2 tasks. Such a "latent" bottleneck is especially likely after practice, when central stages are short. The authors provide new evidence that a latent bottleneck occurred for a participant who produced no interference in M. Van Selst, E. Ruthruff, and J. C. Johnston (1999). These findings demonstrate that the absence of dual-task interference does not necessarily indicate the absence of a processing bottleneck.

Clinical Trial

Simultaneous dual-task performance reveals parallel response selection after practice

E. H. Schumacher, T. L. Seymour, J. M. Glass, D. E. Kieras, and D. E. Meyer (2001) reported that dual-task costs are minimal when participants are practiced and give the 2 tasks equal emphasis. The present research examined whether such findings are compatible with the operation of an efficient response selection bottleneck. Participants trained until they were able to perform both tasks simultaneously without interference. Novel stimulus pairs produced no reaction time costs, arguing against the development of compound stimulus-response associations (Experiment 1). Manipulating the relative onsets (Experiments 2 and 4) and durations (Experiments 3 and 4) of response selection processes did not lead to dual-task costs. The results indicate that the 2 tasks did not share a bottleneck after practice.

Practice (Psychology)

Context-dependent arm pointing adaptation

We sought to determine the effectiveness of head posture as a contextual cue to facilitate adaptive transitions in manual control during visuomotor distortions. Subjects performed arm pointing movements by drawing on a digitizing tablet, with targets and movement trajectories displayed in real time on a computer monitor. Adaptation was induced by presenting the trajectories in an altered gain format on the monitor. The subjects were shown visual displays of their movements that corresponded to either 0.5 or 1.5 scaling of the movements made. Subjects were assigned to three groups: the head orientation group tilted the head towards the right shoulder when drawing under a 0.5 gain of display and towards the left shoulder when drawing under a 1.5 gain of display; the target orientation group had the home and target positions rotated counterclockwise when drawing under the 0.5 gain and clockwise for the 1.5 gain; the arm posture group changed the elbow angle of the arm they were not drawing with from full flexion to full extension with 0.5 and 1.5 gain display changes. To determine if contextual cues were associated with display alternations, the gain changes were returned to the standard (1.0) display. Aftereffects were assessed to determine the efficacy of the head orientation contextual cue compared to the two control cues. The head orientation cue was effectively associated with the multiple gains. The target orientation cue also demonstrated some effectiveness while the arm posture cue did not. The results demonstrate that contextual cues can be used to switch between multiple adaptive states. These data provide support for the idea that static head orientation information is a crucial component to the arm adaptation process. These data further define the functional linkage between head posture and arm pointing movements.

Clinical Trial

The role of selective attention in perceptual and affective priming

Two kinds of perceptual priming (word identification and word fragment completion), as well as preference priming (that may rely on special affective mechanisms) were examined after participants either read or named the colors of words and nonwords at study. Participants named the colors of words more slowly than the colors of nonwords, indicating that lexical processing of the words occurred at study. Nonetheless, priming on all three tests was lower after color naming than after reading, despite evidence of lexical processing during color naming shown by slower responses to words than to nonwords. These results indicate that selective attention to (rather than the mere processing of) letter string identity at study is important for subsequent repetition priming.

Affect

Nonverbal working memory of humans and monkeys: rehearsal in the sketchpad?

Investigations of working memory tend to focus on the retention of verbal information. The present experiments were designed to characterize the active maintenance rehearsal process used in the retention of visuospatial information. Rhesus monkeys (Macaca mulatta; N = 6) were tested as well as humans (total N = 90) because these nonhuman primates have excellent visual working memory but, unlike humans, cannot verbally recode the stimuli to employ verbal rehearsal mechanisms. A series of experiments was conducted using a distractor-task paradigm, a directed forgetting procedure, and a dual-task paradigm. No evidence was found for an active maintenance process for either species. Rather, it appears that information is maintained in the visuospatial sketchpad without active rehearsal.

Non-NASA Center

Mueller-Lyer decrement: practice or prolonged inspection?

Noting the similarity between the illusion decrement and selective adaptation paradigms, Long has challenged the view that illusion decrement effects reflect a strategic--as opposed to a structural--underlying mechanism, and has called for further research on this issue. To investigate the confound between prolonged free inspection and repeated trials in the standard decrement procedure, the effects of three inspection conditions (continuous, intermittent, and immediate) on the magnitude of the overestimation Mueller-Lyer illusion have been assessed under two levels of trials (a total of two or six judgments). Significant illusion decline was found only under conditions of repeated trials, with either continuous or intermittent inspection. These findings do not support the predictions of purely structural theories (including neural adaptation and efferent readiness theories), according to which degree of decrement should be determined solely by viewing time. Instead, the data demonstrate that illusion decrement is a product of practice, providing converging evidence for the view of decrement as involving a cognitive 'recalibration' or learning process.

Form Perception

Understanding Workforce Agility at NASA Kennedy Space Center

NASA leads the world in space research and provides other government agencies, educational institutions, and companies opportunities to explore, launch, and conduct research in and around space. NASA has 11 formal locations based around the United States, and each has different goals and objectives to help NASA meet its overall mission. 2004, President George Bush announced a new vision for the Space Exploration program. During his grand announcement, he discussed that the Space Shuttles would retire due to the 2003 Space Shuttle Columbia accident, where the crew and the space vehicle were lost. The Kennedy Space Center (KSC) would no longer manage the day-to-day operations of maintaining the US Space Shuttle fleet. Our NASA teams would continue working to finish the Space Shuttle program's mission to build the International Space Station. Afterward, NASA would transition to develop and test a new spacecraft, the Crew Exploration Vehicle. The third goal was to return to the moon by 2020 as the launching point for missions beyond, to get humans from lower Earth orbit to the moon and Mars. (Secretary, 2004) The KSC engineering workforce had to prepare to transition from Operational support of the Space Shuttle program to the design and development of over 50 subsystems for the future SLS and Orion Launch Systems at the Kennedy Space Center. These subsystems developed at the Kennedy Space Center Engineering Directorate followed a comprehensive design process that required several different product deliverables during various phases for each subsystem. (Schafer et al., 2013) What allowed these systems to be successful? What enabled NASA KSC to complete over 130 Artemis 1 Design Certification and System Acceptance Reviews, closing over 21,656 Requirements to deem the Artemis 1 rocket ready for launch? Little is known about the NASA engineering workforce agility characteristics that enabled the organization to transition from the Space Shuttle program that ended in 2011 and launch the Artemis Program's SLS rocket on November 16, 2022.

Workforce Agility

Effects of Single-Task Interference on Dual-Task Interference

Van Sergi, Ruthruff and Johnston found that dual-task practice can markedly reduce interference in the Psychological Refractory Period paradigm. Their results are consistent with a bottleneck model in which practice serves primarily to reduce stage durations. This model predicts that single-task practice on Task 1 alone should produce marked reductions in interference, whereas single-task practice on Task 2 should not. New experiments test these predictions. Alternative theoretical accounts are also considered.

Johnson, James C.

Why practice reduces dual-task interference

M. A. Van Selst, E. Ruthruff, and J. C. Johnston (1999) found that practice dramatically reduced dual-task interference in a Psychological Refractory Period (PRP) paradigm with 1 vocal response and 1 manual response. Results from 3 further experiments using the highly trained participants of M. A. Van Selst et al. (1999) support 4 main conclusions: (a) A processing bottleneck exists even after extensive practice; (b) the principal cause of the reduction in PRP interference with practice is shortening of Task 1 bottleneck stages; (c) a secondary cause is that 1 or more, but not all, of the Task 2 substages that are postponed before practice are not postponed after practice (i.e., become automatized); and (d) the extent of PRP reduction with practice depends on the modalities of the 2 responses. A control experiment with 2 manual response tasks showed less PRP reduction with practice than that found by Van Selst et al.

Auditory Perception/physiology

Joint University Program for Air Transportation Research, 1986

The research conducted under the NASA/FAA sponsored Joint University Program for Air Transportation Research is summarized. The Joint University Program is a coordinated set of three grants sponsored by NASA and the FAA, one each with the Mass. Inst. of Tech., Ohio Univ., and Princeton Univ. Completed works, status reports, and bibliographies are presented for research topics, which include computer science, guidance and control theory and practice, aircraft performance, flight dynamics, and applied experimental psychology. An overview of activities is presented.

Morrell, Frederick R.

Joint University Program for Air Transportation Research, 1987

The research conducted during 1987 under the NASA/FAA sponsored Joint University Program for Air Transportation Research is summarized. The Joint University Program is a coordinated set of 3 grants sponsored by NASA-Langley and the FAA, one each with the MIT, Ohio Univ., and Princeton Univ. Completed works, status reports, and annotated bibliographies are presented for research topics, which include computer science, guidance and control theory and practice, aircraft performance, flight dynamics, and applied experimental psychology. An overview of the year's activities for each university is also presented.

Morrell, Frederick R.

Joint University Program for Air Transportation Research, 1988-1989

The research conducted during 1988 to 1989 under the NASA/FAA-sponsored Joint University Program for Air Transportation Research is summarized. The Joint University Program is a coordinated set of three grants sponsored by NASA Langley Research Center and the Federal Aviation Administration, one each with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Ohio University, and Princeton University. Completed works, status reports, and annotated bibliographies are presented for research topics, which include computer science, guidance and control theory and practice, aircraft performance, flight dynamics, and applied experimental psychology. An overview of the year's activities for each university is also presented.

Morrell, Frederick R.

Forced guidance and distribution of practice in sequential information processing.

Distribution of practice and forced guidance were used in a sequential information-processing task in an attempt to increase the capacity of human information-processing mechanisms. A reaction time index of the psychological refractory period was used as the response measure. Massing of practice lengthened response times while forced guidance shortened them. Interpretation was in terms of load reduction upon the response-selection stage of the information-processing system.-

Decker, L. R.

Behavioral Components Of NASA’s 2021 Astronaut Selection Cycle

To successfully implement the behavioral aspects required to select and screen for long-duration missions on the International Space Station and for Artemis Program lunar missions, a multi-phase process combining best practice elements from the fields of industrial-organizational psychology, operational psychology, aerospace psychology and aerospace psychiatry, are needed. Furthermore, this process should preferably be implemented by professionals with extensive experience in human spaceflight operations.

Gary Edward Beven

Human Factors and Behavioral Performance Exploration Measures Harmonized Across HERA, NEK, and ISS: Teams Risk

BACKGROUNDThe Human Factors and Behavioral Performance Exploration Measures (HFBP-EM) suite is a set of standardized measures to assess behavioral health and performance risk related to future exploration class missions, and to support reduction of the Human Research Program’s (HRP) Behavioral Medicine (BMed), Team, Sleep, and Human Systems Integration Architecture risks. HFBP-EM were collected during Human Exploration Research Analogs (HERA) campaigns 4 (C4) and 5 (C5), and during SIRIUS 17 and 19 missions in the Russian Ground Based Experiment Complex, NEK, to document the feasibility, flexibility, and acceptability of these measures in analogsof the spaceflight environment. A subset of the HFBP-EM suite was collected during spaceflight as part HRP’s Standard Measures in Spaceflight Project. Whenever possible, the HFBP-EM protocol and measures are kept the same across studies, however, differences across research settings (e.g., experimental manipulations, mission scenarios, mission length) and implementation of the measures require the data are harmonized to ensure comparable views across missions. The purpose of our project is to develop a harmonized database of HFBP-EM data from different settings, and to summarize the trajectory of behavioral health and performance within and between research settings. In this presentation, we will summarize the harmonized dataset and the trajectory of measures related to the Team Risk, including team performance, team cohesion, team processes, and psychological safety, over time and between and within settings.METHODSWe followed best practices for data harmonization. Characteristics of each research setting were assessed for harmonization potential, and we deemed NEK-SIRIUS 17 as inappropriate due to study aims, length, and data quality. Common variables of interest were identified. Study characteristics and key variables with which datafiles could be merged were defined as “meta-data.” HFBP-EM data from all settings were processed under a common format. We then created a harmonized team-level database designed to facilitate analyses that address HRP research gaps related to HRP’s Team risk. In this database, team cohesion, processes, performance, psychological safety, and group living were operationalized as the team mean of the crew responses for each data collection (e.g., on mission day 7). Data collected on the International Space Station (ISS) included a subset of scale items administered to participants. Data collected from ISS team members within +/- 7 days of the first data collection and every following 30 +/-4 days were aggregated to the team level. We generated figures that display the mean and variability of team constructs across research settings. We also generated plots of changes in team constructs with mission day and with percentage of the mission completed. Where possible, we compared data from spaceflight analogs with data from astronauts aboard the ISS. RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONThe team-level harmonized database was structured such that each row represents data for a team on a specific mission day. Team constructs (e.g., team cohesion) were included as columns (i.e., wide format) with repeated measures across mission days given in rows (i.e., long format). The database included data from 18 crews: five, 4-person American crews in HERA C4, four 4-person American crews in HERA C5, one 6-person multinational crew in NEK-SIRIUS 19, and eight, 2–11-person multinational crews aboard the ISS. Results provide insights into mission and campaign differences in team functioning and performance. For example, between campaign differences were observed for team processes—the interdependent team actions that orchestrate taskwork in pursuit of the team’s goals [1]. Greater between-team variability on team processes was detected during HERA C4 than during C5, and a downward trend was observed over the duration of C4, but not C5 or SIRIUS 19. This may be due to the campaign-level differences such as the sleep deprivation implemented during C4. Responses on the subset of team process items administered on the ISS indicate between-crew variability more like those observed in C4 than C5 and NEK, with some, but not all ISS crews demonstrating a downward trend over time. Additional findings will be presented. REFERENCESMarks, M. A., et al (2001) Academy of Management Review, 26(3), 356-376.

S T Bell

Human Exploration Ethnography of the Haughton-Mars Project, 1998-1999

During the past two field seasons, July 1988 and 1999, we have conducted research about the field practices of scientists and engineers at Haughton Crater on Devon Island in the Canadian Arctic, with the objective of determining how people will live and work on Mars. This broad investigation of field life and work practice, part of the Haughton-Mars Project lead by Pascal Lee, spans social and cognitive anthropology, psychology, and computer science. Our approach involves systematic observation and description of activities, places, and concepts, constituting an ethnography of field science at Haughton. Our focus is on human behaviors-what people do, where, when, with whom, and why. By locating behavior in time and place-in contrast with a purely functional or "task oriented" description of work-we find patterns constituting the choreography of interaction between people, their habitat, and their tools. As such, we view the exploration process in terms of a total system comprising a social organization, facilities, terrain/climate, personal identities, artifacts, and computer tools. Because we are computer scientists seeking to develop new kinds of tools for living and working on Mars, we focus on the existing representational tools (such as documents and measuring devices), learning and improvization (such as use of the internet or informal assistance), and prototype computational systems brought to the field. Our research is based on partnership, by which field scientists and engineers actively contribute to our findings, just as we participate in their work and life.

Clancey, William J.