THE EFFECTS OF STRESS FATIGUE ON PERFORMANCE IN A DRIVING DEVICE

FIFTY-FOUR MALE SUBJECTS WERE RANDOMLY DIVIDED INTO THREE EQUAL GROUPS AND TESTED IN A SIMULATED DRIVING DEVICE. TRACKING ERROR, SPEED MAINTENANCE, REACTION TIME, AND VIGILANCE WERE MEASURED. SUBJECTS IN A CONTINGENT SHOCK GROUP RECEIVED AN ELECTRICAL SHOCK BASED ON THEIR PERFORMANCE ON THE VARIOUS TASKS. PRELIMINARY WORK SUGGESTED THAT THIS GROUP HAS A HIGHER LEVEL OF EMOTIONAL AROUSAL THAN THE OTHER TWO GROUPS. SUBJECTS IN A SECOND GROUP RECEIVED RANDOM SHOCK WITH NO RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN SHOCK AND PERFORMANCE. SUBJECTS OF THIRD GROUP, WHICH WAS CONSIDERED THE CONTROL GROUP, RECEIVED NO SHOCK. RESULTS OBTAINED WERE' NO SIGNIFICANT DIFFERENCES IN TRACKING WERE FOUND BETWEEN GROUPS. ANALYSIS OF VARIANCE SHOWED A SIGNIFICANT DIFFERENCE EXISTED BETWEEN TRIALS. THE CONTINGENT SHOCK GROUP HAD SIGNIFICANTLY HIGHER TRACKING ERROR DURING THE LAST TWO HOURS OF THE TASK THAN DURING THE EARLIER HOURS. REACTION TIME WAS SIGNIFICANTLY HIGHER IN THE CONTINGENT GROUP DURING THE LAST TWO HOURS THAN DURING THE SECOND, THIRD, AND FOURTH HOUR OF THE SIX HOUR TEST. DURING HOURS FOUR, FIVE, AND SIX, SIGNIFICANTLY MORE SIGNALS ON THE METER VIGILANCE TASK WERE MISSED BY SUBJECTS IN THE CONTINGENT SHOCK GROUP THAN IN THE RANDOM SHOCK OR CONTROL GROUPS. NO DIFFERENCES BETWEEN GROUPS OR BETWEEN TRIALS WERE FOUND IN A BRAKELIGHT VIGILANCE TASK. SIGNIFICANT DIFFERENCES EXISTED BETWEEN SPEED MAINTENANCE SCORES OF THE CONTINGENT SHOCK GROUP AND THE OTHER TWO GROUPS DURING THE FIFTH AND SIXTH HOUR OF THE SESSION. FINDINGS SUPPORT THE IDEA THAT STRESS BRINGS ABOUT AN EMOTIONAL AROUSAL WHICH MAY INTERFERE WITH PERFORMANCE ON TASKS SUCH AS DRIVING.

• Supplemental Notes:
  • Hpr, Sd-2
• Corporate Authors:

  University of South Dakota, Vermillion

  Vermillion, SD  United States  57069
• Authors:
  • Heimstra, N
  • JONES, H
  • Dekock, A
• Publication Date: 1965-5-18

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Alertness; Crash tests; Driver performance; Drivers; Driving simulators; Electrical equipment; Errors; Fatigue (Physiological condition); Impact tests; Maintenance; Personnel performance; Reaction time; Speed; Stresses; Tracking systems; Vigilance
• Old TRIS Terms: Electric shock; Tracking error
• Subject Areas: Highways; Maintenance and Preservation; Research; Safety and Human Factors;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00222532
• Record Type: Publication
• Files: TRIS
• Created Date: Oct 1 1994 12:00AM