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PSYCHOPHYSIOLOGY
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Project 77 - Sleep, Sleep Deprivation and Arousal
77.1 Criteria for Sleep and Wakefulness (Allison, Ogilvie, Wilkinson)
Physiological criteria for sleep and wakefulness were defined, the referent being the behavioural one of the ability to hear and respond (button press) to a tone occurring every 10-20 sec. Sleep/wake transitions were studied repeatedly in this way during the night for correlation with physiological indices of sleep/wakefulness [647, 646, 645].
A review, under contract, was made of the evidence for poor party-wall sound insulation causing disturbance of sleep [660].
77.2 Shift Work (Allison, Wilkinson)
In a study of two systems for implementing night shift work among nurses, on-site performance testing favoured permanent night work for 3 months against alternating weekly day and night shifts [653]. A literature review also concluded that permanent nightshift working is a better solution than to have day and night shifts rotating rapidly (every 2-3 days) or weekly [650].
The EEG event-related potentials P3 and Nd (processing negativity) were both reduced in amplitude by sleep deprivation during an unprepared RT test, suggesting an activational rather than a cognitively-based interpretation of these components.
Refractoriness in choice serial RT, examined by varying response-to-stirnulus-interval (RSI), was reduced by practice and more choices, but unaffected by sleep deprivation: Single channel and preparatory theories were rejected in favour of one of central refractoriness [651].
Portable performance tests (developed 1980-1985) for assessing arousal: Information about these devices, and software for analysing their output, have been provided for many users. A review of the resulting papers in the field of clinical drug evaluation will be published [657].
Project 78 - Human Performance and Its Psychophysiological Concomitants
Decade effects of age on RT were determined by Wilkinson and Allison in a 5325-subject study based on the public exhibition "Medicines for Man" [653].
A study requiring proof reading showed that text checking on a VDU was worse than on conventional hard copy.
78.1 Polygraphs in the Detection of Deception (Levey)
Preparation of an exhaustive report on the reliability and validity of the polygraph in the detection of deception was undertaken by Levey at the request of the Cabinet Office. The conclusion was that the polygraph is not a reliable tool.
78.2 Stress and Coping (Watts)
A series of studies is being undertaken with external collaborators on the relationship between cognitive and physiological aspects of coping with stress. Preliminary work (with Herbert of the Department of Anatomy) examined the relationship between the cognitive and endocrinological aspects of coping with examination stress. We concluded that such research required stresses that are not only predictable, but also prolonged.
A major multi-disciplinary study is now planned, to be coordinated by Herbert, of physiological and psychological aspects of coping with stressful naval assignments. We believe that this will make a significant contribution to stress research; the sample is relatively homogeneous, the stress is predictable, and sufficiently prolonged to produce significant endocrinological change. Also, the range of disciplines and measures involved is also unusually broad in stress research. Watts' contribution will be mainly on perceptual and cognitive measures of coping which have been developed in a study of stress on an overseas school expedition (with Morley of the Department of Paediatrics). The next task is the analysis of data from this study and refinement of the measures.
78.3 Anaesthesia (Levey)
Studies of orienting and arousal in patients under general anaesthesia (Levey in collaboration with Goldmann, Cambridge University) used psychophysiological measures to examine the effects of anxiety on intra-operative anaesthesia [631] and of awareness of events in the operating theatre [633]. It was concluded that patients would benefit from procedures designed to clarify the information made available to them by hospital staff. Four alternative approaches to the uses of theory in psychophysiological investigations were studied and analysed [636, 635, 637, 638, 639] by inviting short contributions from active workers to a series of journal forums (in collaboration with Martin, Institute of Psychiatry, London). This series continues and should serve to offer a firmer basis on which to integrate psychophysiological methods within the domain of cognitive science.
REFERENCES
A2 - Edited Books
630. Broadbent, D.E., BADDELEY, A.D. and Reason, J. (Eds.) Human Factors in Hazardous Situations. Oxford: Clarendon Press, in press.
B - Refereed Journal Articles
631. Goldmann, L., Ogg, T. and LEVEY, A.B. (1988) Hypnosis and daycare anaesthesia. Anaesthesia, 43, 466-469.
632. Herbert, J., Moore, G.F., de la Riva, C. and WATTS, F.N. (1986) Endocrine responses and examination anxiety. Biological Psychology, 22, 215-226.
633. LEVEY, A.B. and Goldman, L. (1986) Orientating under anaesthesia. Anaesthesia, 44, 1056-1057.
634. LEVEY, A.B. and Martin, I. (1985) Conditioning, evaluations and cognitions: An axis of integration. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 23,167-175.
635. LEVEY, A.B. and Martin, I. (1987) Comments on theorising. Journal of Psychophysiology, 1, 99-100.
636. LEVEY, A.B. and Martin, I. (1987) Theories in psychophysiology: An open forum. Journal of Psychophysiology, 1, 3-7.
637. LEVEY, A.B. and Martin, I. (1987) Theories in psychophysiology: Refining the guidelines. Journal of Psychophysiology, 1, 207-208.
638. LEVEY, A.B. and Martin, I. (1988) Empiricism, theory and science. Journal of Psychophysiology, 2, 3-4.
639. LEVEY, A.B. and Martin, I. (1988) Myth and metaphysics in the domain of Psychophysiology. Journal of Psychophysiology, 2, p.241.
640. LEVEY, A.B. and Martin, I. (1989) Psychophysiology, folk psychology and philosophy. Journal of Psychophysiology, 3, 215-218.
641. LOGIE, R.G. and BADDELEY, A.D. (1985) Cognitive performance during simulated deep-sea diving. Ergonomics, 28, 731-746.
642. Mackay, C.J., Campbell, L., Samuel, A.M., Alderman, K.J., IDZIKOWSKI, C, Wilson, H.K. and Gompertz, D. (1987) Behavioral changes during exposure to 1, 1, 1 -Trichloroethane: Time-course and relationship to blood solvent levels. American Journal of Industrial Medicine, 11, 223-239.
643. Martin, I. and LEVEY, A.B. (1988) Classical conditioning in a cognitive era. Biological Psychology, 27, 153-166.
644. Meade, T.W., Browne, W., Mellows, S., Townsend, J., Webb, J., North, W.R.S., Frank, A.O., Fyfe, I.S., Williams, K.A., Lowe, L.W., Glossop, S., Hills, J., Gumpel, J.M., de Lacey, G.J., Breen, A.C., Tribe, D.L., Cook, R.L., Tomlin, W.W. and BADDELEY, A.D. (1986) Comparison of chiropractic and hospital outpatient management of low back pain: A feasibility study. Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, 40, 12-17.
645. OGILVIE, R.D., McDonagh, D.M., Stone, S.N. and WILKINSON, R.T. (1988) Eye movements and the detection of sleep onset. Psychophysiology, 25, 81-91.
646. OGILVIE, R.D. and WILKINSON, R.T. (1988) Behavioral versus EEG-based monitoring of all-night sleep/wake patterns. Sleep, 11, 139-155.
647. OGILVIE, R.D, WILKINSON, R.T. and ALLISON, S. (1989) The detection of sleep onset: Behavioral, physiological and subjective convergence. Sleep, 12, 458-474.
648. TILLEY, A.J. (1985) Recovery sleep at different times of the night following loss of the last 4 hours of sleep. Sleep, 8, 129-136.
649. TILLEY, A.J., Home, J.A. and ALLISON, S. (1985) Effects of loss of sleep on retrieval from semantic memory at two different times of day. Australian Journal of Psychology, 37, 281-287.
650. WILKINSON, R.T. How fast should the night shift rotate? Ergonomics, in press.
651. WILKINSON, R.T. Response-stimulus interval in choice serial reaction time: Interaction with sleep deprivation, choice, and practice. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, in press.
652. WILKINSON, R.T. and ALLISON, S. (1989) Age and simple reaction time:
Decade differences for 5325 subjects. Journal of Gerontology: Psychological Sciences, 44, 29-35.
653. WILKINSON, R.T., ALLISON, S., Feeney, M. and Kaminska, Z. (1989) Alertness of night nurses: Two shift systems compared. Ergonomics, 32,281-292.
654. WILKINSON, R.T. and ROBINSHAW, H.M. (1987) Proof-reading: VDU and paper text compared for speed, accuracy, and fatigue. Behaviour and Information Technology, 6, 125-133.
C - Invited Chapters and Commentaries
655. LOGIE, R.H., BADDELEY, A.D. and Williams, P.S. (1987) Simulated deep diving and cognitive performance. In J.W.P. Leach (Ed.), Progress in Underwater Science, Vol. 12. Margate, Kent: The Underwater Association, pp.137-158.
656. WILKINSON, R.T. (1986) Human vigilance at the crossroads. Review of J.S. Warm (Ed.), Sustained Attention in Human Performance. Contemporary Psychology, 31, 514-515.
657. WILKINSON, R.T. Criteria for assessing residual behavioural after-effects of analgesics, anaesthetics and tranquillisers. In M. Rosen, I. Lunn and I.D. Klepper (Eds.), Fitness to Work: Effects of Anaesthetics, Drugs and Sedatives. London: Gower Medical, in press.
D - Conference Proceedings E - Technical Reports, Theses and Tests
658. OGILVIE, R.D. (1985) Behavioural and physiological investigations of sleep onset. Unpublished PhD Thesis, University of Cambridge.
659. WILKINSON, R.T. (1985) Noise in the home: The effect of traffic noise upon physiological and subjective assessments of sleep, and upon subsequent performance. C.E.C, Brussels, Contract No. ENV-506-UK(H), Final Report.
660. WILKINSON, R.T. The effects of low level noise in the home. Building Research Establishment (UK), Contract No. 169/5/19, December 1985, in press.
F - Dissemination
661. BADDELEY, A.D. (1987) Diver performance. In R.L. Gregory (Ed.), Oxford Companion to the Mind. Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp.198-199.
662. BADDELEY, A.D. (1987) Nitrogen narcosis. In R.L. Gregory (Ed.), Oxford Companion to the Mind. Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp.563-564.
Other sections in the 1985-1989 report
3. LANGUAGE, SPEECH, READING AND WRITING