Effects of task difficulty on pilot workload

Watson, Anthony Craig; Ntuen, Celestine A.; Park, Eui

doi:10.1016/0360-8352(96)00181-7

Cited by 10 publications

(5 citation statements)

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“…HEMS pilots were considered an appropriate population for this study's purposes because of their demanding psychosocial work environment. Their work requires high cognitive effort 25) and includes high emotional demands 26) and a highly unpredictable workload. Irrespective of their demanding work characteristics, HEMS pilots reported relatively high levels of wellbeing in a previous study which suggests that they were healthy and felt competent to do their jobs 27) .…”

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confidence: 99%

Work Stressors, Perseverative Cognition and Objective Sleep Quality: A Longitudinal Study among Dutch Helicopter Emergency Medical Service (HEMS) Pilots

Radstaak

Geurts

Beckers

et al. 2014

Journal of Occupational Health

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Work Stressors, Perseverative Cognition and Objective Sleep Quality: A Longitudinal Study among Dutch Helicopter Emergency Medical Service (HEMS) Pilots: Mirjam RADSTAAK, et al. Behavioural Science Institute, Radboud University Nijmegen, The Netherlands— Objectives This longitudinal study examined the associations between work stressors, perseverative cognition and subjective and objective sleep quality. We hypothesized work stressors to be associated with (i) poor nocturnal sleep quality and (ii) higher levels of perseverative cognition during a free evening. We further hypothesized (iii) perseverative cognition to be associated with poor nocturnal sleep quality and (iv) the association between work stressors and sleep quality to be mediated by perseverative cognition. Methods The participants were 24 pilots working for the Dutch Helicopter Emergency Medical Service (HEMS). They completed six questionnaires: at the end of three consecutive day shifts and each morning following the shifts. The questionnaires addressed work stressors (workload, distressing shifts and work‐related conflicts), subjective sleep quality and perseverative cognition. Participants wore actigraphs to assess sleep onset latency, total sleep time and number of awakenings. Results Correlation analysis revealed that (i) distressing shifts were related to delayed sleep onset (r=0.50, p=0.026) and that workload was related to impaired sleep quality (e.g., subjective sleep quality: r=−0.42, p=0.044). Moreover, (ii) distressing shifts were positively related to perseverative cognition (r=0.62, p=0.002), (iii) perseverative cognition delayed sleep onset (r=0.74, p<0.001) and (iv) mediated the association between distressing shifts and sleep onset latency. Conclusions Perseverative cognition may be an explanatory mechanism in the association between work stressors and poor sleep.

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confidence: 99%

Work Stressors, Perseverative Cognition and Objective Sleep Quality: A Longitudinal Study among Dutch Helicopter Emergency Medical Service (HEMS) Pilots

Radstaak

Geurts

Beckers

et al. 2014

Journal of Occupational Health

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“…Task difficulty refers to the characteristic of a task in terms of the degree of trouble in achieving a criterion level of performance. It implies to the extent of how hard or easy it is to perform the task (Ellis, 2003;Watson, Ntuen, & Park, 1996). Moreover, difficulty of a task is a mutual function of ability requirements and performance considerations.…”

Section: Figure 1 Schematic Presentation Distinguishing Delayed Inten...mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The matter of time constraint is critical since the concept of workload is based on the difference between the amount of resources demanded by the task situation and the amount of resources available by the operator to perform in the task situation (Watson et al, 1996). The primary issue with time constraint is that it creates extra cognitive demands on individuals and the preponderance of research suggests that time constraint has an adverse effect (Thomas, Esper, & Stank, 2011).…”

Section: Figure 1 Schematic Presentation Distinguishing Delayed Inten...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Task Difficulty and Time Constraint in Programmer Multitasking

Sanjram

Gupta

2013

International Journal of Green Computing

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The present study investigates how task difficulty and time constraint affect prospective memory (ProM) performance in programmer multitasking (N = 60). The results indicate that an increase in task difficulty and time constraint has a detrimental effect on ProM performance. Moreover, participants are able to successfully complete fewer difficult programs as compared to easier programs regardless of time constraint. Analysis shows that difficulty of the programming problems does not necessarily have a significant effect on cognitive workload (in short, workload) experienced by the programmers. Time constraint has a significant effect on workload experienced by the programmers. The results not only suggest a ProM performance decrement under high urgency (HU) as compared to low urgency (LU) but also show that time constraint has a significant effect on workload. Multiple regression analysis reveals that temporal demand is the most critical dimension of workload which explains 46% of the variation.

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“…During their shifts, they are called upon when an emergency happens and this makes their workload highly variable and unpredictable. During a mission, pilots are continuously interpreting information and making decisions that require high cognitive effort (Watson et al, 1996). In addition, HEMS employees are confronted with high emotional demands as they often encounter emotionally taxing situations such as driving accidents, heart attacks and falls (Blau et al, 2012).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%