Citation

Mascord DJ, Heath RA. J. Saf. Res. 1992; 23(1): 19-25.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1992, U.S. National Safety Council, Publisher Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Heart-rate variability, heart-rate inter-beat-interval (IBI) and reaction-time were significant indicators of the effects of fatigue (or boredom) during a lengthy visual tracking task. Seventeen subjects participated in the visual tracking task, which lasted 140 minutes. Heart-rate significantly decreased across the session, while heart-rate variability increased. A significant increase in the average log value of the power contribution for the frequency band 0.08-0.12 Hz of the cardiac frequency signal was found in the final half of the session. Although performance on the primary tracking task did not deteriorate over time, there was a significant increase in mean reaction time on a secondary task that simulated an emergency situation. It was concluded that it may be possible to detect the onset of fatigue before any significant deterioration in operator performance occurs.