Abstract
Demographic ageing in the Western world means that the average age of the working population is increasing. This has major consequences for the labour process. Growing older is linked to physical and cognitive changes which can influence performance of tasks. We are faced with an important challenge: to keep an ageing population healthy and deployable in the long term. One of the
cognitive problems that employee’s experience is mental fatigue. Previous research described that after or during a period of mental workload, problems related to cognitive control arise. To prevent these problems, we aim to find objective methods that could detect mental fatigue in an early stage, that is, before a decline in performance emerges. An experiment was developed to examine what problems arise and how different physiological (i.e. brain activity, muscle activity, hart activity and eye movements) and behavioral (i.e. sitting behavior and keyboard and mouse use) parameters change during a period of mental workload. Results show people make more mistakes after a period of mental workload. Some people seem to change their strategy and are able to correct for their mistakes, while others show a stable decrease in performance over time. Further analyses should point out what patterns in behavior and physiology could be related to the decrease in performance. First results point to backspace use as an indicator of mental fatigue.
cognitive problems that employee’s experience is mental fatigue. Previous research described that after or during a period of mental workload, problems related to cognitive control arise. To prevent these problems, we aim to find objective methods that could detect mental fatigue in an early stage, that is, before a decline in performance emerges. An experiment was developed to examine what problems arise and how different physiological (i.e. brain activity, muscle activity, hart activity and eye movements) and behavioral (i.e. sitting behavior and keyboard and mouse use) parameters change during a period of mental workload. Results show people make more mistakes after a period of mental workload. Some people seem to change their strategy and are able to correct for their mistakes, while others show a stable decrease in performance over time. Further analyses should point out what patterns in behavior and physiology could be related to the decrease in performance. First results point to backspace use as an indicator of mental fatigue.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Publication status | Published - 19-Dec-2015 |
| Event | NVP Winter Conference 2015 - Egmond aan Zee, Egmond aan Zee, Netherlands Duration: 17-Dec-2015 → 19-Dec-2015 |
Conference
| Conference | NVP Winter Conference 2015 |
|---|---|
| Country/Territory | Netherlands |
| City | Egmond aan Zee |
| Period | 17/12/2015 → 19/12/2015 |