Steven Kass - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

Papers by Steven Kass

Public reporting burden for the collection of information is estimated to average 1 hour per resp... more Public reporting burden for the collection of information is estimated to average 1 hour per response, including the time for reviewing instructions, searching existing data sources, gathering and maintaining the data needed, and completing and reviewing the collection of information. Send comments regarding this burden estimate or any other aspect of this collection of information, including suggestions for reducing this burden, to Washington Headquarters Services, Directorate for Information Operations and Reports, 1215 Jefferson Davis Highway, Suite 1204, Arlington VA 22202-4302. Respondents should be aware that notwithstanding any other provision of law, no person shall be subject to a penalty for failing to comply with a collection of information if it does not display a currently valid OMB control number.

Brain and Cognition, 2009

Biological rhythms play a prominent role in the modulation of human physiology and behavior. [Smi... more Biological rhythms play a prominent role in the modulation of human physiology and behavior. [Smith, K., Valentino, D., & Arruda, J. (2003). Rhythmic oscillations in the performance of a sustained attention task. Journal of Clinical and Experimental Neuropsychology, 25, 561-570] suggested that sustained human performance may systematically fluctuate in a cyclic manner with periods of 1.5 min and 5.2 min. The current series of investigations sought to manipulate those periodicities by altering task difficulty, administering caffeine, and testing on a more ecologically valid task. Strong evidence of a 1.5 min periodicity was found across studies. Most participants did not demonstrate the 5.2 min periodicity. Moreover, the 1.5 min periodicity was resistant to task manipulations and appeared in similar levels across conditions in all three experiments. These rhythms may be indicative of an endogenous system that modulates sustained attention in humans. Evidence supporting this idea and implications of the research are discussed.

psychologicalscience.org

APS 20th Annual Convention: May 22-25, 2008. ...

Journal of the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, 2011

Boredom is one of the most common complaints among university students, with studies suggesting i... more Boredom is one of the most common complaints among university students, with studies suggesting its link to poor grades, drop out, and behavioral problems. Principles borrowed from industrial-organizational psychology may help prevent boredom and enrich the classroom experience. In the current study, we applied the core dimensions of the job characteristics model to the university classroom. In a survey of 293 students, significant relationships emerged between the five core dimensions (i.e., skill variety, task identity, task significance, autonomy, and feedback) and various affective (e.g., satisfaction) and behavioral (e.g., absenteeism) outcomes. Boredom proneness was found to be significantly and negatively related to course grade and measures of satisfaction. We conclude with suggestions for enriching the classroom experience.

Transportation Research Record, 1992

Proceedings of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society Annual Meeting

This paper discusses the effects of tactile cueing on performance in a fixed base simulated helic... more This paper discusses the effects of tactile cueing on performance in a fixed base simulated helicopter hover task. Sixteens active-duty military helicopter pilots participated in a repeated measures two minute stationary hover test. Participants performed the hover task under four treatment conditions; tactile cueing (on/off) and secondary arithmetic task (on/ofT). Following each 2-minute hover, participants reported subjective situation awareness using the five point China Lake Situation Awareness Scale (CLSA). Total time on target improved with tactile cueing with a significant task by display interaction. Performance on the arithmetic task remained consistent across conditions and no significant change was seen on CLSA scores between the tactile/no tactile conditions. Results demonstrate that tactile cues can be used to improve performance in spatial tasks, such as hovering a helicopter, especially in the presence of distracting secondary workload tasks. The lack of a significant difference in SA scores may be more related to the pilots' overall high confidence in their SA, despite their variation in performance, and highlights some of the difficulties encountered when attempting to measure SA.

Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing, 2016

Ergonomics, Jan 29, 2016

In this study, we examined how spatially informative auditory and tactile cues affected participa... more In this study, we examined how spatially informative auditory and tactile cues affected participants' performance on a visual search task while they simultaneously performed a secondary auditory task. Visual search task performance was assessed via reaction time and accuracy. Tactile and auditory cues provided the approximate location of the visual target within the search display. The inclusion of tactile and auditory cues improved performance in comparison to the no-cue baseline conditions. In comparison to the no-cue conditions, both tactile and auditory cues resulted in faster response times in the visual search only (single task) and visual-auditory (dual-task) conditions. However, the effectiveness of auditory and tactile cueing for visual task accuracy was shown to be dependent on task-type condition. Crossmodal cueing remains a viable strategy for improving task performance without increasing attentional load within a singular sensory modality. Practitioner Summary: Cros...

Change detection across disruptions of visual scenes is typically studied using brief durations o... more Change detection across disruptions of visual scenes is typically studied using brief durations of the interstimulus interval (ISI) (i.e., up to 300 ms). We investigated change detection across durations that approximate longer, voluntary glances away from a visual scene (i.e., 500-2,000 ms), which are often actualized in driving situations. Experiment 1 found that in nondriving scenarios, change detection performance, as measured by accuracy and response time, decreased as ISI increased. Experiment 2 found that in driving scenarios, change detection for plausible changes also decreased as the ISI increased, but there was no similar decrease in performance for implausible changes. Both Experiments 1 and 2 showed that the necessary number of exposures to the change decreased as ISIs approximated voluntary glances, suggesting that change detection strategies may be modified at longer ISI durations.

Accident Analysis and Prevention, May 31, 2010

The current study investigated the relationship between drivers&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;a... more The current study investigated the relationship between drivers&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;#39; abilities in various cognitive and psychomotor domains and their driving performance. The goal was to identify test measures that could be used to develop a fitness-for-driving test battery, particularly for older drivers. Licensed drivers over 40 years of age (M=65.56 years, SD=13.02) were recruited from university leisure courses (n=18) and drivers under 40 (M=22.20 years, SD=3.79) were recruited from undergraduate and graduate courses (n=44). Participants were given a battery of standard neuropsychological tests used to assess ability in the domains of cognitive processing speed, psychomotor functioning, visuospatial performance, sustained attention, and executive functioning. Participants&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;#39; driving ability was assessed in a simulator with data collected in three categories of driving performance: (a) driver control maintenance behaviors, (b) accidents and violations, and (c) attention and reaction time. Younger participants outperformed older participants in 4 out of the 5 domains of neuropsychological testing (all but sustained attention). Age differences were found in simulator driving accidents and violations and driving performance was significantly correlated with neuropsychological test performance. The results are discussed in terms of the potential to use these tests to assess older drivers seeking license renewal or for selecting professional drivers for the transportation industry.

PsycEXTRA Dataset, 2000

Spatial disorientation (SD) is an important contributor to aviation mishaps. Misleading accelerat... more Spatial disorientation (SD) is an important contributor to aviation mishaps. Misleading acceleration stimuli during flight are one of the main causes of SD. SD is associated with a loss of situation awareness (LSA) and the commission of dangerous errors, yet little is known concerning the specific interactions among SD, LSA, and human error. While SD is likely to be an important contributor to LSA and human error, the interaction is complicated because acceleration stimuli to the vestibular organs degrade a person's well-being and performance even when spatial disorientation (SD) is not experienced. This paper points out theoretical gaps in knowledge concerning LSA, SD of vestibular origin, and vestibular effects other than SD. The authors argue for a wider consideration of the ways in which vestibular acceleration stimuli contribute to unsafe conditions for vehicle operators. While vestibular acceleration stimuli can elicit SD, they can also challenge psychomotor performance, visual performance, and certain aspects of cognition. A complete approach to the study of acceleration-induced human error and LSA should assess these various decrements in human functioning simultaneously, so the relative contribution of each decrement to the commission of error can be understood and the interactions among the decrements described.

Neuroscience, 2015

Various psychophysiological and subjective measures were taken to assess the best index of cognit... more Various psychophysiological and subjective measures were taken to assess the best index of cognitive workload to substitute for electroencephalography (EEG). Participants were 12 male and 12 female undergraduate and graduate students from The University of West Florida. A satellite management decision-training task, developed at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, was used in a 3(Cognitive Workload: high, medium, and low) x 2(Collision-Warning Presentation Mode: visual and visual + audio) withinparticipants factorial design. As predicted, nearly all the psychophysiological and subjective measures differed significantly (p < .01 or p < .05) with level of cognitive workload. However, significant effects were usually not found for types of presentation mode or for interactions of presentation mode with cognitive workload. The study nevertheless demonstrated that certain psychophysiological measures-i.e., HR and EMG-could replace, and apparently improve upon, EEG as a meaningful measure of cognitive workload. Moreover HR and EMG are likely to be (a) less subject to measurement artifacts, (b) at least as useful for real-time adaptive automation, and (c) more amenable to the downsizing of equipment for use in mobile situations.

Transportation Research Part F: Traffic Psychology and Behaviour, 2007

This study examined the impact of cell phone conversation on situation awareness and performance ... more This study examined the impact of cell phone conversation on situation awareness and performance of novice and experienced drivers. Driving performance and situation awareness among novice drivers ages 14–16 (n= 25) and experienced drivers ages 21–52 (n= 26) were assessed using a driving simulator. Performance was measured by the number of driving infractions committed: speeding, collisions, pedestrians struck, stop signs missed, and centerline and road edge crossings. Situation awareness was assessed through a ...

Accident Analysis & Prevention, 2010

Military medicine, 2016

Identifying Department of Defense (DoD) occupations affected by injuries to the head and sensory ... more Identifying Department of Defense (DoD) occupations affected by injuries to the head and sensory systems. We explored the Defense Medical Epidemiology Database to identify occupations with the highest incidence of injured personnel, then ranked how frequently they occurred in a top 10 list for each of four injury categories (head/brain, visual, auditory, vestibular) encompassing 25 injury codes. Across all four categories, the most affected occupations were identified, among which we chose three Army combat-related military occupational specialties (MOSs) for detailed study. We identified skills needed to perform these MOSs and explored whether MOS-critical deficits could be expected following the injuries. Some DoD occupations are more likely to suffer from these injuries, including Infantry, Combat Operations Control, Artillery/Gunnery, Motor Vehicle Operator, Combat Engineering, and Armor/Amphibious. Within these DoD occupations, we explored three Army combatant MOSs: Infantry (1...