Abstract

Hand grip strength is often considered may predict cognitive functioning and has been established as associates of cognitive performance with individual differences in some particular cross-sectional studies. However, little is known about hand grip strength and cognitive performance in the elderly individuals, and it is not known whether changes in hand grip strength may be associated with preservation/decline in cognitive functioning. We have studied the impact of hand grip strength on cognition function in healthy kitchen workers. Participants (n = 90, age range: 25–40 years) randomly assigned in to two groups according to their nature of work: Group I-Control group (n = 47) - workers recruited for simple work such as dusting, cleaning dining tables and floor. Group II-Study group (n = 43) - workers recruited for firm work such as cooking large quantity of food, kneading dough, rolling chapattis, cut and sauté the vegetables and dish washing. For the analyses, we used at dominant and non- dominant hand, hand grip strength (HGS), reaction time task, sensory disability test (SDT) and cognitive function test (CFT) among both the groups. We observed that visual reaction time (VRT) and auditory reaction time (ART) were significantly improved in dominant hand of study group, when compare to control group, however it was comparable in non-dominant hand among both the groups. In addition to, among all control and study group female workers there was significant positive correlation between VRT & ART and significant negative correlation between at dominant hand HGS & VRT as well as between at dominant hand HGS & ART. We also observed that dominant hand HGS was a significant predictor of VRT and ART and however there was no any significant variation in body mass index (BMI), sensory disability test (SDT) and cognitive function test (CFT) among both groups. We found that muscle strength (as measured by hand grip strength) was associated with improved reaction time. Hence by using a simple muscle strength test, is one way of obtaining useful information for the development of nerve-muscle coordination. Increased handgrip strength would be associated with preservation of cognitive function.

Abstract

Automation has been introduced more and more into the role of air traffic control (ATC). As with many other areas of human activity, automation has the objective of reducing the complexity of the task so that performance is optimised and safer. However, automation can also have negative effects on cognitive processing and the performance of the controllers. In this paper, we present the progress made at AUTOPACE, a European project in which research is carried out to discover what these negative effects are and to propose measures to mitigate them. The fundamental proposal of the project is to analyse, predict, and mitigate these negative effects by assessing the complexity of ATC in relation to the mental workload experienced by the controller. Hence, a highly complex situation will be one with a high mental workload and a low complex situation will be one in which the mental workload is low. Document type: Part of book or chapter of book

Abstract

Part 1: Long and Short Papers; International audience; Prior studies have shown benefits of interactions on mobile devices. Device mobility itself changes the nature of the user experience; interactions on mobile devices may present better support for cognition. To better understand cognitive demands related to mobility, the current study investigated presentations on a mobile device for a three-dimensional construction task. The task imposed considerable cognitive load, particularly in demands for mental rotation; individual differences in spatial ability are known to interact with these demands. This study specifically investigated mobile device orientations and participants’ spatial ability. Subjects with low spatial ability were able to complete the task more effectively when shown the presentation in a favorable orientation. Individuals who saw the presentation in an unfavorable orientation and those of low spatial ability, were differentially disadvantaged. We conclude that mobility can reduce cognitive load by limiting demands for spatial processing relating to reorientation. Document type: Part of book or chapter of book

Abstract

This paper describes a method aiming to support the design of interactive-safety critical systems. The method proposes an original integration of approaches usually considered separately, such as task modelling and distributed cognition. The basic idea is that analysing task performance requires a clear understanding of the information needed to accomplish the task and how to derive such information from both internal cognitive representations and external representations provided by various types of artefacts. We also report on a first application of the method to a case study in the Air Traffic Control (ATC) domain. Document type: Part of book or chapter of book

Abstract

This chapter makes the distinction between the experience of aviation professionals, often quantified in terms of hours of flight time, or flight qualifications, and expertise, as revealed by high proficiency at aviation tasks. Very high proficiency defines the expert. Challenge results because of the difficulty in measuring such proficiency, particularly beyond the student pilot level, and in air traffic control. The chapter also reviews the literature that examines the relation between experience, differences in cognitive ability, and the expertise of aviation professionals as pertains to controlling the aircraft, navigating, and communicating, as well as pertains to non-technical skills manifest by both pilots and air traffic controllers: situation awareness, decision making, task management and crew resource management. It is concluded that experience is only loosely coupled with proficiency in these areas. Document type: Part of book or chapter of book

Abstract

In this research, the effects of culture, cognitions, and emotions on crisis management and prevention are analysed. An agent-based crowd evacuation simulation model was created, named IMPACT, to study the evacuation process from a transport hub. To extend previous research, various socio-cultural, cognitive, and emotional factors were modelled, including: language, gender, familiarity with the environment, emotional contagion, prosocial behaviour, falls, group decision making, and compliance. The IMPACT model was validated against data from an evacuation drill using the existing EXODUS evacuation model. Results show that on all measures, the IMPACT model is within or close to the prescribed boundaries, thereby establishing its validity. Structured simulations with the validated model revealed important findings, including: the effect of doors as bottlenecks, social contagion speeding up evacuation time, falling behaviour not affecting evacuation time significantly, and travelling in groups being more beneficial for evacuation time than travelling alone. This research has important practical applications for crowd management professionals, including transport hub operators, first responders, and risk assessors.

Abstract

Traffic congestion continues to be a persistent problem throughout the world. As vehicle-to-vehicle communication develops, there is an opportunity of using cooperation among close proximity vehicles to tackle the congestion problem. The intuition is that if vehicles could cooperate opportunistically when they come close enough to each other, they could, in effect, spread themselves out among alternative routes so that vehicles do not all jam up on the same roads. Our previous work proposed a decentralized multiagent based vehicular congestion management algorithm entitled Congestion Avoidance and Route Allocation using Virtual Agent Negotiation (CARAVAN), wherein the vehicles acting as intelligent agents perform cooperative route allocation using inter-vehicular communication. This paper focuses on evaluating the practical applicability of this approach by testing its robustness and performance (in terms of travel time reduction), across variations in: (a) environmental parameters such as road network topology and configuration; (b) algorithmic parameters such as vehicle agent preferences and route cost/preference multipliers; and (c) agent-related parameters such as equipped/non-equipped vehicles and compliant/non-compliant agents. Overall, the results demonstrate the adaptability and robustness of the decentralized cooperative vehicles approach to providing global travel time reduction using simple local coordination strategies. Document type: Article

Abstract

Elderly people are major consumers of the media, especially of television, which combines conventional commercials with advertising formats included in the programme that do not break its continuity, unconventional advertising (UA). The aim of this study is to analyse how elderly adults, compared with young people, attend and process the information that appears on screen simultaneously (program and advertising). The study involved 30 elderly adults and 30 young adults. Attention to the TV screen (in terms of attention capture, heat maps and eye fixations) was analysed using the eye tracker technology. Content recognition, the level of psychological reactance to UA and channel-hopping behaviour were also analysed. The results show that the level of attention among the elderly does not differ from that of young people and depends on the integrated content. Recognition by the elderly is lower than among young people when the UA is of a high or medium level of intrusiveness. The psychological reactance of elderly adults is lower than that of young adults but both groups show the same behaviour in terms of loyalty to the television programme. The general conclusion is that cognitive ageing does not affect the capacity for attention to integrated content as much as it affects information processing skills.

Abstract

Television produces a homogeneization effect which in turn makes everything seem and worth the same. It creates a passive and bored viewer, in short, a consumer. This discourse does not encourage him to be involved in any decoding operation; therefore, it does not embrace him as a subject. However, it would be healthy to think of the teen audience and their relationship with mass culture, not as a lost generation because of their global non-stop consumerism, but rather as young viewers of complex audiovisual texts which also imply the use of complex codes and languages, thus creating a system that makes them active viewers.