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Measuring impaired performance with the NRC "stressalyser"
1National Research Council, Ottawa, Canada.
Applied Ergonomics
|December 1, 1981
Summary
The NRC Stressalyser, a performance tracking tool, effectively detects how factors like sleep loss and alcohol impair skilled performance by measuring reaction time and errors.
Area of Science:
- Cognitive Psychology
- Human Factors Engineering
- Psychomotor Performance
Background:
- Skilled performance is susceptible to various extrinsic factors.
- Accurate measurement of performance impairment is crucial for applied research.
- Existing methods may not capture the nuances of performance degradation.
Purpose of the Study:
- To introduce and validate the NRC Stressalyser as a tool for assessing performance impairment.
- To demonstrate the sensitivity of the Stressalyser to known performance-altering factors.
- To highlight the device's utility in applied settings.
Main Methods:
- Utilized a step-input, subject-paced pursuit tracking task.
- Measured reaction time, movement time, error score, and overshoot score.
- Varied within-task parameters such as directional probability, target distance, and boundary distance.
Main Results:
- Demonstrated that measures like reaction time and error score are sensitive to extrinsic factors.
- Showcased variations in performance metrics under conditions of sleep loss, alcohol, and diazepam.
- Confirmed the device's ability to quantify performance decrements.
Conclusions:
- The NRC Stressalyser is a versatile tool for detecting performance impairment.
- The device's measures effectively reflect the impact of physiological and environmental stressors.
- Applicable to various fields requiring assessment of skilled task performance under stress.