1. The after-effects of night work on short-term memory performance
- Author
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M. van Dormolen, O van der Meer, and T.F. Meijman
- Subjects
Adult ,Male ,medicine.medical_specialty ,Memoria ,Personnel Staffing and Scheduling ,Poison control ,Physical Therapy, Sports Therapy and Rehabilitation ,Human Factors and Ergonomics ,Physical exercise ,Work Schedule Tolerance ,Audiology ,Suicide prevention ,Occupational safety and health ,Circadian Rhythm ,Memory, Short-Term ,Injury prevention ,Exercise Test ,Physical therapy ,medicine ,Humans ,Psychology ,Baseline (configuration management) ,Fatigue - Abstract
The aim of this study was to assess the after-effects of night work on mental performance. Twenty experienced shift workers were examined in a baseline condition and during recovery after a night shift period. For control purposes eight other workers were studied in a similar baseline condition and during recovery after a non-night shift period. The subjects performed memory search tasks before and after a bicycle ergometer test. Cycling had different effects on mental performance, leaving the speed and accuracy of the reactions unchanged in the baseline and the non-night-recovery condition, while decreasing the mental performance in the night-recovery condition. Also in this condition a higher level mental effort investment was measured. These results suggest an incomplete recovery on the first fully undisturbed day-off (32 h) after a period of night work, manifesting itself in a deterioration of the efficiency of the information processing.
- Published
- 1993
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