Monitoring Cognitive and Emotional Processes Through Pupil and Cardiac Response During Dynamic Versus Logical Task

The paper deals with the links between physiological measurements and cognitive and emotional functioning. As long as the operator is a key agent in charge of complex systems, the definition of metrics able to predict his performance is a great challenge. The measurement of the physiological state is a very promising way but a very acute comprehension is required; in particular few studies compare autonomous nervous system reactivity according to specific cognitive processes during task performance and task related psychological stress is often ignored. We compared physiological parameters recorded on 24 healthy subjects facing two neuropsychological tasks: a dynamic task that require problem solving in a world that continually evolves over time and a logical task representative of cognitive processes performed by operators facing everyday problem solving. Results showed that the mean pupil diameter change was higher during the dynamic task; conversely, the heart rate was more elevated during the logical task. Finally, the systolic blood pressure seemed to be strongly sensitive to psychological stress. A better taking into account of the precise influence of a given cognitive activity and both workload and related task-induced psychological stress during task performance is a promising way to better monitor operators in complex working situations to detect mental overload or pejorative stress factor of error

Getting more than they realized they needed: a qualitative study of women's experience of group prenatal care

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Pregnant women in Canada have traditionally received prenatal care individually from their physicians, with some women attending prenatal education classes. Group prenatal care is a departure from these practices providing a forum for women to experience medical care and child birth education simultaneously and in a group setting. Although other qualitative studies have described the experience of group prenatal care, this is the first which sought to understand the central meaning or core of the experience. The purpose of this study was to understand the central meaning of the experience of group prenatal care for women who participated in CenteringPregnancy through a maternity clinic in Calgary, Canada.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>The study used a phenomenological approach. Twelve women participated postpartum in a one-on-one interview and/or a group validation session between June 2009 and July 2010.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Six themes emerged: (1) "getting more in one place at one time"; (2) "feeling supported"; (3) "learning and gaining meaningful information"; (4) "not feeling alone in the experience"; (5) "connecting"; and (6) "actively participating and taking on ownership of care". These themes contributed to the core phenomenon of women "getting more than they realized they needed". The active sharing among those in the group allowed women to have both their known and subconscious needs met.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Women's experience of group prenatal care reflected strong elements of social support in that women had different types of needs met and felt supported. The findings also broadened the understanding of some aspects of social support beyond current theories. In a contemporary North American society, the results of this study indicate that women gain from group prenatal care in terms of empowerment, efficiency, social support and education in ways not routinely available through individual care. This model of care could play a key role in addressing women's needs and improving health outcomes.</p

Construction of air traffic controller’s decision network using error-related potential

Electroencephalography based brain computer interface has enabled communication of human’s intention to a computer directly from the brain by decoding signatures that relay the intention information. Error-related potential has been adopted as a signature for natural communication and performance monitoring, among others. In this work, we investigate the use of error-related potential as an input channel to transfer human preference of a strategical advisory to a computer. Air traffic control task was used as a case study to make an empirical inquiry of error-related potential for higher level cognitive tasks (i.e. situation awareness in air traffic control tasks). The experimental task requires the subjects to monitor and assess air traffic scenarios presented on a simulated environment that provides conflict resolution advisories. The task is known to be highly mental demanding as it requires continuous situation awareness of the traffic. An interface and experimental protocol were developed for this experiment to validate that error-related potential can be used a new channel for preference. The implementation of the complete design was described together with the experimental evidence of error-related potential. According to the results, we found error-related potential that is in line with existing literature. We also discussed how the preliminary findings of this work can be used as an integral part of an intelligent conflict resolution advisory system that can learn from human preference and duplicate the decision making.Accepted versionThis research has been partially supported under Air Traffic Management Research Institute (NTU-CAAS) Grant No. M4062429.052

An eye catcher in the ATC domain: Influence of Multiple Remote Tower Operations on distribution of eye movements.

The future of Remote Tower Operations is focusing on the development and implementation of the Multiple Remote Tower Concept (MRTO) which allows for monitoring and controlling several aerodromes in parallel. While Single Remote Tower Operations have already become reality, the implementation of MRTO poses a significant change in Air Traffic Control Officers’ (ATCOs) workflow, especially in terms of work situations, responsibilities and challenges. Even though, MRTO brings along the potential to reduce the risk for human error due to boredom and also helps financially stabilize smaller airports, it might increase the workload. Yet the changes to workload of an ATCO have to be carefully addressed and analyzed. The ATCOs’ cognitive workload is connected to the ability to maintain a stable picture of the situation. This picture is generated from all the information gathered in monitoring the MRTO workstation. In order to analyze the influence that MRTO has on ATCOs’ process of gathering information, we collected eye tracking data from different experiments that varied in traffic and workplace designs. In addition to the eye tracking we used the subjective rating scale ISA, to measure the perceived workload. Only professional ATCOs participated in our real time simulation study. This paper concentrates on the analysis of gaze distribution and gaze pattern while handling simulated traffic. The analysis concentrated on, first, the influence of the workplace design on the information gathering process and second, the measurements of workload by eye tracking and perceived workload. The results present eye tracking behavior of the participants in a descriptive manner because statistical conditions for inferential statistics are not met. The discussion shows the impact of MRTO on the ATCOs’ workflow in comparison to single remote or conventional tower environments