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This study explores the effects of different perceptual and cognitive information processing stages on mental workload by assessing multimodal indicators of mental workload such as the NASA-TLX, task performance, ERPs and eye movements. Repeated measures ANOVA of the data showed that among ERP indicators, P1, N1 and N2 amplitudes were sensitive to perceptual load (P-load), P3 amplitude was sensitive to P-load only in the prefrontal region during high cognitive load (C-load) states, and P3 amplitude in the occipital and parietal regions was sensitive to C-load. Among the eye movement indicators, blink frequency was sensitive to P-load in all C-load states, but to C-load in only low P-load states; pupil diameter and blink duration were sensitive to both P-load and C-load. Based on the above indicators, the k-nearest neighbours (KNN) algorithm was used to propose a classification method for the four different mental workload states with an accuracy of 97.89%.Practitioner summary: Based on the results of this study, it is possible to implement the monitoring of mental workload states and optimise brain task allocation in operations involving high mental workload, such as human-computer interaction.

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Objective: The event-related potential (ERP) methods based on laboratory control scenes have been widely used to measure the level of mental workload during operational tasks. In this study, both task difficulty and test time were considered. Auditory probes (ignored task-irrelevant background sounds) were used to explore the changes in mental workload of unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) operators during task execution and their ERP representations. Approach: 51 students participated in a 10-day training and test of simulated quadrotor UAV. During the experiment, background sound was played to induce ERP according to the requirements of oddball paradigm, and the relationship between mental workload and the amplitudes of N200 and P300 in ERP was explored. Main results: Our study shows that the mental workload during operational task training is multi-dimensional, and its changes are affected by bottom-up perception and top-down cognition. The N200 component of the ERP evoked by the auditory probe corresponds to the bottom-up perceptual part; while the P300 component corresponds to the top-down cognitive part, which is positively correlated with the improvement of skill level. Significance: This paper describes the relationship between ERP induced by auditory probes and mental workload from the perspective of multi-resource theory and human information processing. This suggests that the auditory probe can be used to reveal the mental workload during the training of operational tasks, which not only provides a possible reference for measuring the mental workload, but also provides a possibility for identifying the development of the operator's skill level and evaluating the training effect.

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Owing to the aging of the rural population in the hilly and mountainous areas of Japan, mowing on narrow ridges and steep slopes is done manually by the elderly-individuals over 65 years of age. Studies have shown that many accidents that occurred during mowing were caused by workers' unstable posture, especially when mowing on steep surfaces where there is a high risk of falling. It is necessary to analyze the body movements of mowing workers to elucidate the elements related to the risk of falls. Therefore, in this study, based on a high-precision motion-capture device and a series of experiments with elderly, skilled mowing workers, we focused on the movements of mowing. We sought to identify effective and safe mowing patterns and the factors that lead to the risk of falls. In various mowing styles, compared to the stride (S) and downward (D) mowing patterns, the basic (B) and moving (M) patterns were the most efficient; however, the risk of falls was also the highest among these patterns. While mowing, workers need to pay more attention to their arm strength and take appropriate measures to reduce the risk of falls according to their age and physique. The results can be used as data for the development of fall-detection systems and offer useful insights for the training of new mowing workers.

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Distractions external to a vehicle contribute to visual attention diversion that may cause traffic accidents. As a low-cost and efficient advertising solution, billboards are widely installed on side of the road, especially the motorway. However, the effect of billboards on driver distraction, eye gaze, and cognition has not been fully investigated. This study utilises a customised driving simulator and synchronised electroencephalography (EEG) and eye tracking system to investigate the cognitive processes relating to the processing of driver visual information. A distinction is made between eye gaze fixations relating to stimuli that assist driving and others that may be a source of distraction. The study compares the driver's cognitive responses to fixations on billboards with fixations on the vehicle dashboard. The measured eye-fixation related potential (EFRP) shows that the P1 components are similar; however, the subsequent N1 and P2 components differ. In addition, an EEG motor response is observed when the driver makes an adjustment of driving speed when prompted by speed limit signs. The experimental results demonstrate that the proposed measurement system is a valid tool in assessing driver cognition and suggests the cognitive level of engagement to the billboard is likely to be a precursor to driver distraction. The experimental results are compared with the human information processing model found in the literature.

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INTRODUCTION: Bradyphrenia is a key cognitive feature in Parkinson's disease (PD). There is no consensus on whether information processing speed is impaired or not beyond motor performance. OBJECTIVE: This study aims to explore which perceptual, motor, or cognitive components of information processing are involved in the slowdown affecting cognitive performance. METHODS: The study included 48 patients with PD (age: 63, 3 ± 8, 18; HY I-III; UPDRS 15,46 ± 7,76) and 53 healthy controls (age: 60,09 ± 12,83). Five reaction time (RT) tasks were administered to all participants. The average RT in each of the tasks and the percentage of correct answers were measured. Patients with PD were in "ON state" at the time of the evaluation. Perceptual, motor, and cognitive components were isolated by means of a series of ANCOVAs. RESULTS: As expected, the motor component was slowed down in patients with PD. Moreover, while patients with PD showed slower RT than controls in all tasks, differences between groups did not exponentially increase with the increasing task complexity. ANCOVA analyses also revealed that the perceptual and sustained alert component resulted to be slowed down, with no differences being found in any of the remaining isolated cognitive components (i.e., response strategy-inhibition, decisional, visual search, or interference control). CONCLUSIONS: The results revealed that slowness of information processing in PD was mainly associated with an impaired processing speed of the motor and perceptual-alertness components analyzed. The results may help designing new neurorehabilitation strategies, focusing on the improvement of perceptual and alertness mechanisms.

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In line with the theory of event coding, many studies on tool use show that perceived visual and haptic information interacts with action execution. In two experiments, we investigated the temporal persistence of after-effects within an event file, and after-effects in temporally overlapping event files with the n-1 replication task. Each trial consisted of two phases: In phase 1, participants moved a cursor with a pen on a covered tablet while a gain varied the relation between hand and cursor amplitude (Experiment 1). In phase 2, participants replicated the hand amplitude of phase 1 of the previous trial without visual feedback. Any systematic over- and undershoot would be indicative for after-effects. When the cursor amplitude varied and the hand amplitude remained constant, we did not find any after-effects but adjustment of the internal model. For varying hand amplitudes, after-effects appeared in terms of a contrast and assimilation effect between temporally overlapping event files and within an event file, respectively. In Experiment 2, we confirmed that the observed pattern of over- and undershoots fully reflect assimilation/contrast due to perception-action interaction. The findings extend the current view on the temporal stability of short-term binding in sensorimotor transformation tasks: In the n-1 replication task, after-effects appeared only in trials with varying hand amplitudes. We replicated the contrast effect and assimilation effect, and the assimilation effect persisted for up to approximately 20 s.

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BACKGROUND: In the UK, cancer-screening invitations are mailed with information styled in a standard, didactic way to allow for informed choice. Information processing theory suggests this "standard style" could be more appealing to people who prefer deliberative thinking. People less likely to engage in deliberative thinking may be disenfranchised by the design of current standard-style information. PURPOSE: To examine the distribution of preference for deliberative thinking across demographic groups (Study 1) and explore associations between preference for deliberative thinking and perceived usefulness of standard- and narrative-style screening information (Study 2). METHODS: In Study 1, adults aged 45-59 (n = 4,241) were mailed a questionnaire via primary care assessing preference for deliberative thinking and demographic characteristics. In Study 2, a separate cohort of adults aged 45-59 (n = 2,058) were mailed standard- and narrative-style leaflets and a questionnaire assessing demographic characteristics, preference for deliberative thinking, and perceived leaflet usefulness. Data were analyzed using multiple regression. RESULTS: In Study 1 (n = 1,783) and Study 2 (n = 650), having lower socioeconomic status, being a women, and being of nonwhite ethnicity was associated with lower preference for deliberative thinking. In Study 2, the standard-style leaflet was perceived as less useful among participants with lower preference for deliberative thinking, while perceived usefulness of the narrative-style leaflet did not differ by preference for deliberative thinking. CONCLUSIONS: Information leaflets using a standard style may disadvantage women and those experiencing greater socioeconomic deprivation. More work is required to identify design styles that have a greater appeal for people with low preference for deliberative thinking.

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The importance to older adults of being able to learn to perform activities related to leisure, work, or daily living for maintaining independence and a good quality of life is unquestionable. An appreciation of the challenges that older adults face during learning, as well as insights into ways to help them overcome these challenges, whether through design or instruction, can be obtained through a basic understanding of human information processing. The purpose of this article is to facilitate this understanding within the context of older adult learning. The article begins with an overview of the human information-processing system and cognitive limitations and capabilities associated with aging. Critical components of the information-processing system are then revisited in greater detail from the perspective of older adult information-processing capabilities. Concepts are illustrated through examples to demonstrate how older adults could make more efficient use of their information-processing resources during learning.

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Safety is a constant priority for the railway industry and there are numerous hazards in and around the rail system which may result in damage to train and environment, human injury and fatalities. Low levels of human and organisational performance have been shown to be a prime cause of railway accidents and a number of accident models and methods have been developed in order to probe deeper into the role played by organisational factors in accident causation. The Systems-Theoretical Accident Modelling and Processes (STAMP) method for example, represents a promising systematic and systemic way of examining sociotechnical systems such as the railway. Another method, the Human Factors Analysis and Classification System (HFACS), based upon Reason's model of human error in an organisational context, has also proved popular as a human factors accident analysis framework. However, human factors elements are still somewhat limited and under-specified and these managerial and social issues within an organisation are simply regarded as sources of failure in the control constraints of STAMP. HFACS likewise, categorises accident data rather than analysing it in more depth. In this context, a hybrid human and organisational analysis method based on HFACS-STAMP (HFACS-STAMP method for railway accidents, HS-RAs) is proposed to identify and analyse human and organisational factors involved in railway accidents. Using the categories of human errors derived from HFACS and the structured systematic analysis process of STAMP, the HS-RAs method provides a mechanism by which active failures can promulgate across organisations and give a systemic analysis of human error in accidents. Combined with human information processing, the HS-RAs method gives a detailed causal analysis of human errors from receiving information to implement control actions. At last, the HS-RAs method is demonstrated using a case study of the 2011 Yong-Wen railway collision. A number of prominent accident causes of human factors are revealed and necessary countermeasures are proposed to avoid the recurrence of similar accidents. The HFACS-STAMP hybrid method has several advantages and can contribute to railway safety by providing a detailed analysis of the role of human error in railway accidents.

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There is a tendency in decision-making research to treat uncertainty only as a problem to be overcome. But it is also a feature that can be leveraged, particularly in social interaction. Comparing the behavior of profitable and unprofitable poker players, we reveal a strategic use of information processing that keeps decision makers unpredictable. To win at poker, a player must exploit public signals from others. But using public inputs makes it easier for an observer to reconstruct that player's strategy and predict his or her behavior. How should players trade off between exploiting profitable opportunities and remaining unexploitable themselves? Using a recent multivariate approach to information theoretic data analysis and 1.75 million hands of online two-player No-Limit Texas Hold'em, we find that the important difference between winning and losing players is not in the amount of information they process, but how they process it. In particular, winning players are better at integrative information processing-creating new information from the interaction between their cards and their opponents' signals. We argue that integrative information processing does not just produce better decisions, it makes decision-making harder for others to reverse engineer, as an expert poker player's cards act like the private key in public-key cryptography. Poker players encrypt their reasoning with the way they process information. The encryption function of integrative information processing makes it possible for players to exploit others while remaining unexploitable. By recognizing the act of information processing as a strategic behavior in its own right, we offer a detailed account of how experts use endemic uncertainty to conceal their intentions in high-stakes competitive environments, and we highlight new opportunities between cognitive science, information theory, and game theory.

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OBJECTIVE: To create a human information-processing model for laparoscopic surgery based on already established literature and primary research to enhance laparoscopic surgical education in this context. DESIGN: We reviewed the literature for information-processing models most relevant to laparoscopic surgery. Our review highlighted the necessity for a model that accounts for dynamic environments, perception, allocation of attention resources between the actions of both hands of an operator, and skill acquisition and retention. The results of the literature review were augmented through intraoperative observations of 7 colorectal surgical procedures, supported by laparoscopic video analysis of 12 colorectal procedures. RESULTS: The Wickens human information-processing model was selected as the most relevant theoretical model to which we make adaptions for this specific application. We expanded the perception subsystem of the model to involve all aspects of perception during laparoscopic surgery. We extended the decision-making system to include dynamic decision-making to account for case/patient-specific and surgeon-specific deviations. The response subsystem now includes dual-task performance and nontechnical skills, such as intraoperative communication. The memory subsystem is expanded to include skill acquisition and retention. CONCLUSIONS: Surgical decision-making during laparoscopic surgery is the result of a highly complex series of processes influenced not only by the operator's knowledge, but also patient anatomy and interaction with the surgical team. Newer developments in simulation-based education must focus on the theoretically supported elements and events that underpin skill acquisition and affect the cognitive abilities of novice surgeons. The proposed human information-processing model builds on established literature regarding information processing, accounting for a dynamic environment of laparoscopic surgery. This revised model may be used as a foundation for a model describing robotic surgery.

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Four different platforms were compared in a task of exploring an angular stimulus and reporting its value. The angle was explored visually, tangibly as raised fine-grit sandpaper, or on a touch-screen with a frictional or vibratory signal. All platforms produced highly accurate angle judgments. Differences were found, however, in exploration time, with vision fastest as expected, followed by tangible, vibration, and friction. Relative to the tangible display, touch-screens evidenced greater noise in the perceived angular value, with a particular disadvantage for friction. The latter must be interpreted in the context of a first-generation display and a rapidly advancing technology. On the whole, the results point both to promise and barriers in the use of refreshable graphical displays for blind users.

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Display is the most important things to get information in particularly for Tourism Park. A good display will increase effectiveness and efficiency in reading as well as alleviate uncertainty on information. Thus the design should be clear and able to identify easily about the real environment. This paper develop design of display which can result in expeditious response in human information processing. Empirical study was conducted to determine reaction time as the physiological parameter of human respond by using a software developed with Java. Two categories of information used were accessibilities and public facilities. A case study is Pindul Cave Tourism where 12 male and 8 female was participated in this experiment. The result shows that response time to process the information of alternative design was 1.16 second to 1.30 second. Furthermore, design by using combination of text and symbol was easier to understand than text or symbol with 0.2 second of lapse time. There were significant differences in reaction time among colour combinations which white for background and black for object with 91% of contras value has longer time then with 74% of contras value of green for background and red for object. While the design by using large size was not more effective than other size for information display.

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OBJECTIVE: The overarching goal is to convey the concept of science of security and the contributions that a scientifically based, human factors approach can make to this interdisciplinary field. BACKGROUND: Rather than a piecemeal approach to solving cybersecurity problems as they arise, the U.S. government is mounting a systematic effort to develop an approach grounded in science. Because humans play a central role in security measures, research on security-related decisions and actions grounded in principles of human information-processing and decision-making is crucial to this interdisciplinary effort. METHOD: We describe the science of security and the role that human factors can play in it, and use two examples of research in cybersecurity--detection of phishing attacks and selection of mobile applications--to illustrate the contribution of a scientific, human factors approach. RESULTS: In these research areas, we show that systematic information-processing analyses of the decisions that users make and the actions they take provide a basis for integrating the human component of security science. CONCLUSION: Human factors specialists should utilize their foundation in the science of applied information processing and decision making to contribute to the science of cybersecurity.

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BACKGROUND: The public typically believes psychotherapy to be more effective than pharmacotherapy for depression treatments. This is not consistent with current scientific evidence, which shows that both types of treatment are about equally effective. OBJECTIVE: The study investigates whether this bias towards psychotherapy guides online information search and whether the bias can be reduced by explicitly providing expert information (in a blog entry) and by providing tag clouds that implicitly reveal experts' evaluations. METHODS: A total of 174 participants completed a fully automated Web-based study after we invited them via mailing lists. First, participants read two blog posts by experts that either challenged or supported the bias towards psychotherapy. Subsequently, participants searched for information about depression treatment in an online environment that provided more experts' blog posts about the effectiveness of treatments based on alleged research findings. These blogs were organized in a tag cloud; both psychotherapy tags and pharmacotherapy tags were popular. We measured tag and blog post selection, efficacy ratings of the presented treatments, and participants' treatment recommendation after information search. RESULTS: Participants demonstrated a clear bias towards psychotherapy (mean 4.53, SD 1.99) compared to pharmacotherapy (mean 2.73, SD 2.41; t173=7.67, P<.001, d=0.81) when rating treatment efficacy prior to the experiment. Accordingly, participants exhibited biased information search and evaluation. This bias was significantly reduced, however, when participants were exposed to tag clouds with challenging popular tags. Participants facing popular tags challenging their bias (n=61) showed significantly less biased tag selection (F2,168=10.61, P<.001, partial eta squared=0.112), blog post selection (F2,168=6.55, P=.002, partial eta squared=0.072), and treatment efficacy ratings (F2,168=8.48, P<.001, partial eta squared=0.092), compared to bias-supporting tag clouds (n=56) and balanced tag clouds (n=57). Challenging (n=93) explicit expert information as presented in blog posts, compared to supporting expert information (n=81), decreased the bias in information search with regard to blog post selection (F1,168=4.32, P=.04, partial eta squared=0.025). No significant effects were found for treatment recommendation (Ps>.33). CONCLUSIONS: We conclude that the psychotherapy bias is most effectively attenuated-and even eliminated-when popular tags implicitly point to blog posts that challenge the widespread view. Explicit expert information (in a blog entry) was less successful in reducing biased information search and evaluation. Since tag clouds have the potential to counter biased information processing, we recommend their insertion.

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When using tools effects in body space and distant space often do not correspond. Findings so far demonstrated that in this case visual feedback has more impact on action control than proprioceptive feedback. The present study varies the dimensional overlap between visual and proprioceptive action effects and investigates its impact on aftereffects in motor responses. In two experiments participants perform linear hand movements on a covered digitizer tablet to produce ∩-shaped cursor trajectories on the display. The shape of hand motion and cursor motion (linear vs. curved) is dissimilar and therefore does not overlap. In one condition the length of hand amplitude and visual target distance is similar and constant while the length of the cursor path is dissimilar and varies. In another condition the length of the hand amplitude varies while the lengths of visual target distance (similar or dissimilar) and cursor path (dissimilar) are constant. First, we found that aftereffects depended on the relation between hand path length and visual target distance, and not on the relation between hand and cursor path length. Second, increasing contextual interference did not reveal larger aftereffects. Finally, data exploration demonstrated a considerable benefit from gain repetitions across trials when compared to gain switches. In conclusion, dimensional overlap between visual and proprioceptive action effects modulates human information processing in visually controlled actions. However, adjustment of the internal model seems to occur very fast for this kind of simple linear transformation, so that the impact of prior visual feedback is fleeting.