An Exploratory Study into the Use of Psychology Participant Panels in Psychology Departments in the United Kingdom

Psychology Participant Pools (PPP) are known to be used within psychology departments in the United Kingdom as a way to promote understanding of psychological research and as a means to aid students and researchers to collect data. However, there is currently no information regarding the different practices undertaken in each department. This article represents a first exploration in this endeavour by asking representatives from these departments to complete a survey. General findings revealed that the number of studies conducted were either under 20 or over 40, Level 4 students had to obtain slightly more credits than Level 5 students, a range of activities were observed for those participants who did not obtain all their credits, and the PPP was more often than not tied to a research methods module. Despite receiving responses from around only a third of departments, the results revealed a wide range of behaviours across the departments. We feel that these are useful for departments who wish to establish, or update, their own PPP, but also recognise that a larger study is required to more accurately capture the use of PPPs in the United Kingdom

Pip and Pop: When auditory alarms facilitate visual change detection in dynamic settings

Dynamic and complex command and control situations often require the timely recognition of changes in the environment in order to detect potentially malicious actions. Change detection can be challenging within a continually evolving scene, and particularly under multitasking conditions whereby attention is necessarily divided between several subtasks. On-screen tools can assist with detection (e.g., providing a visual record of changes, ensuring that none are overlooked), however, in a high workload environment, this may result in information overload to the detriment of the primary task. One alternative is to exploit the auditory modality as a means to support visual change detection. In the current study, we use a naval air-warfare simulation, and introduce an auditory alarm to coincide with critical visual changes (in aircraft speed/direction) on the radar. We found that participants detected a greater percentage of visual changes and were significantly quicker to detect these changes when they were accompanied by an auditory alarm than when they were not. Furthermore, participants reported that mental demand was lower in the auditory alarm condition, and this was reflected in reduced classification omissions on the primary task. Results are discussed in relation to Wickens’ multiple resource theory of attention and indicate the potential for using the auditory modality to facilitate visual change detection

Distraction Control Processes in Free Recall: Costs and Benefits to Performance

How is semantic memory influenced by individual differences under conditions of distraction? This question was addressed by observing how visual target words—drawn from a single category—were recalled whilst ignoring spoken distracter words that were either members of the same, or members of a different (single) category. Distracter words were presented either synchronously or asynchronously with target words. Recall performance was correlated with participants’ working memory capacity (WMC), which was taken to be an index of the capacity for distracter inhibition. Distraction was greater from semantically similar words and distraction was greater when the words were presented synchronously. WMC was related to disruption only with synchronous, not asynchronous, presentation. Subsequent experiments found more distracter inhibition – as measured by subsequent negative priming of distracters – amongst individuals with higher WMC but this may be dependent on targets and distracters being comparable category exemplars: With less dominant category members as distracters, target recall was impaired – relative to control – only amongst individuals with low WMC. The results demonstrate distracter inhibition occurring only in conditions where target-distracter selection is challenging. Inhibition incurs costs to subsequent performance, but there is an immediate price for not inhibiting

Emerging perspectives on distraction and task interruptions: metacognition, cognitive control and facilitation - part I

Modern technology allows for the control of learning and work environments to an unprecedented degree. Therefore, the focus of research shifts from how learning and work performance are passively affected by environmental factors to how people actively shape their own learning and work experiences. This includes task-irrelevant stimuli and task interruptions. For instance, modern headphones allow one to switch between two modes: Active noise cancelling eliminates all background sounds while acoustic transparency allows certain signals to pass through the headphones, creating a customisable audio space. Modern devices also allow us to plan certain task interruptions (for example, by email alerts) in advance. This gives users unprecedented autonomy over their learning and work environments. However, increased control does not necessarily imply that these environments are free of distraction and interruptions. In fact, quite the opposite is true: Modern-day digital learning and work environments are full of distractions and interruptions. With users’ increased control over their learning and work environments, new research questions arise that emphasise the active role of the individual in shaping their own learning and work experiences: Are people capable of distinguishing between harmful and helpful task-irrelevant stimuli and activities? Can the harmful aspects of distractions and interruptions be brought under cognitive control? Are distraction and task interruptions always harmful or are they sometimes helpful? Within this Special Issue, we primarily focus on the following emerging trends in distraction and attention

Gaze-Aware Cognitive Assistant for Multiscreen Surveillance

Surveillance operators must scan multiple camera feeds to ensure timely detection of incidents; however, variability in scanning behavior can lead to untimely/failed detection of critical information in feeds that were neglected for a long period. Us-ing an eye tracker to monitor screen fixations we can calculate (in real-time) the time elapsed since the last scan of each particular feed, allowing the setting-up of targeted countermeasures contingent on operator oculomotor behavior. One ave-nue is to provide operators with timely alerts to modulate the scan pattern to avoid attentional tunneling and inattentional blindness. We test such an adaptive solution within a major event surveillance simulation and preliminary results show that operator scan behavior can be modulated, although further investigation is re-quired to determine warning frequency and modality to optimize the balance be-tween saliency and workload increase. Future work will focus on adding a real-time vigilance detection and countermeasure capability

Momentary lapse of control: A cognitive continuum approach to understanding and mitigating perseveration in human error

Everyday complex and stressful real-life situations can overwhelm the human brain to an extent that the person is no longer able to accurately evaluate the situation and persists in irrational actions or strategies. Safety analyses reveal that such perseverative behavior is exhibited by operators in many critical domains, which can lead to potentially fatal incidents. There are neuroimaging evidences of changes in healthy brain functioning when engaged in non-adaptive behaviors that are akin to executive deficits such as perseveration shown in patients with brain lesion. In this respect, we suggest a cognitive continuum whereby stressors can render the healthy brain temporarily impaired. We show that the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex is a key structure for executive and attentional control whereby any transient (stressors, neurostimulation) or permanent (lesion) impairment compromises adaptive behavior. Using this neuropsychological insight, we discuss solutions involving training, neurostimulation, and the design of cognitive countermeasures for mitigating perseveration

The Benefits and the Costs of Using Auditory Warning Messages in Dynamic Decision Making Settings

The failure to notice critical changes in both visual and auditory scenes may have important consequences for performance in complex dynamic environments, especially those related to security such as aviation, surveillance during major events, and command and control of emergency response. Previous work has shown that a significant number of situation changes remain undetected by operators in such environments. In the current study, we examined the impact of using auditory warning messages to support the detection of critical situation changes and to a broader extent the decision making required by the environment. Twenty-two participants performed a radar operator task involving multiple subtasks while detecting critical task-related events that were cued by a specific type of audio message. Results showed that about 22% of the critical changes remained undetected by participants, a percentage similar to that found in previous work using visual cues to support change detection. However, we found that audio messages tended to bias threat evaluation towards perceiving objects as more threatening than they were in reality. Such findings revealed both benefits and costs associated with using audio messages to support change detection in complex dynamic environments

A cognitive prosthesis for complex decision-making

While simple heuristics can be ecologically rational and effective in naturalistic decision making contexts, complex situations require analytical decision making strategies, hypothesis-testing and learning. Sub-optimal decision strategies – using simplified as opposed to analytic decision rules – have been reported in domains such as healthcare, military operational planning, and government policy making. We investigate the potential of a computational toolkit called “IMAGE” to improve decision-making by developing structural knowledge and increasing understanding of complex situations. IMAGE is tested within the context of a complex military convoy management task through (a) interactive simulations, and (b) visualization and knowledge representation capabilities. We assess the usefulness of two versions of IMAGE (desktop and immersive) compared to a baseline. Results suggest that the prosthesis helped analysts in making better decisions, but failed to increase their structural knowledge about the situation once the cognitive prosthesis is removed

Prevalence and onset of comorbidities in the CDKL5 disorder differ from Rett syndrome

Background: Initially described as an early onset seizure variant of Rett syndrome, the CDKL5 disorder is now considered as an independent entity. However, little is currently known about the full spectrum of comorbidities that affect these patients and available literature is limited to small case series. This study aimed to use a large international sample to examine the prevalence in this disorder of comorbidities of epilepsy, gastrointestinal problems including feeding difficulties, sleep and respiratory problems and scoliosis and their relationships with age and genotype. Prevalence and onset were also compared with those occurring in Rett syndrome. Methods: Data for the CDKL5 disorder and Rett syndrome were sourced from the International CDKL5 Disorder Database (ICDD), InterRett and the Australian Rett syndrome Database (ARSD). Logistic regression (multivariate and univariate) was used to analyse the relationships between age group, mutation type and the prevalence of various comorbidities. Binary longitudinal data from the ARSD and the equivalent cross-sectional data from ICDD were examined using generalized linear models with generalized estimating equations. The Kaplan-Meier method was used to estimate the failure function for the two disorders and the log-rank test was used to compare the two functions. Results: The likelihood of experiencing epilepsy, GI problems, respiratory problems, and scoliosis in the CDKL5 disorder increased with age and males were more vulnerable to respiratory and sleep problems than females. We did not identify any statistically significant relationships between mutation group and prevalence of comorbidities. Epilepsy, GI problems and sleep abnormalities were more common in the CDKL5 disorder than in Rett syndrome whilst scoliosis and respiratory problems were less prevalent. Conclusion: This study captured a much clearer picture of the CDKL5 disorder than previously possible using the largest sample available to date. There were differences in the presentation of clinical features occurring in the CDKL5 disorder and in Rett syndrome, reinforcing the concept that CDKL5 is an independent disorder with its own distinctive characteristics

Reducing the environmental impact of surgery on a global scale: systematic review and co-prioritization with healthcare workers in 132 countries

Abstract Background Healthcare cannot achieve net-zero carbon without addressing operating theatres. The aim of this study was to prioritize feasible interventions to reduce the environmental impact of operating theatres. Methods This study adopted a four-phase Delphi consensus co-prioritization methodology. In phase 1, a systematic review of published interventions and global consultation of perioperative healthcare professionals were used to longlist interventions. In phase 2, iterative thematic analysis consolidated comparable interventions into a shortlist. In phase 3, the shortlist was co-prioritized based on patient and clinician views on acceptability, feasibility, and safety. In phase 4, ranked lists of interventions were presented by their relevance to high-income countries and low–middle-income countries. Results In phase 1, 43 interventions were identified, which had low uptake in practice according to 3042 professionals globally. In phase 2, a shortlist of 15 intervention domains was generated. In phase 3, interventions were deemed acceptable for more than 90 per cent of patients except for reducing general anaesthesia (84 per cent) and re-sterilization of ‘single-use’ consumables (86 per cent). In phase 4, the top three shortlisted interventions for high-income countries were: introducing recycling; reducing use of anaesthetic gases; and appropriate clinical waste processing. In phase 4, the top three shortlisted interventions for low–middle-income countries were: introducing reusable surgical devices; reducing use of consumables; and reducing the use of general anaesthesia. Conclusion This is a step toward environmentally sustainable operating environments with actionable interventions applicable to both high– and low–middle–income countries