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Objective: This study explored the impact of in-vehicle messages relative to roadside messages to alert drivers to events within a simulated work zone, in order to determine if these messages can improve driving performance within the work zone. Background: Safety risks in work zones are usually mitigated by design standards and clear signage to communicate work zone information to drivers. Due to distraction and other driving task demands, these signs are not always noticed by motorists, nor are they always followed when they are noticed. Method: The driving simulation tested drivers in two different types of work zones, shoulder work, and lane closure. Participants drove through these work zones three times, each with different messaging interfaces to communicate hazardous events to the driver. The interfaces included a roadside, portable changeable message sign, a smartphone presenting only auditory messages, and a smartphone presenting audio-visual messages. Results: There was significantly better driving performance on key metrics including lane deviation for the in-vehicle message conditions relative to the roadside signs. Furthermore, drivers directed visual attention toward the roadway for the in-vehicle message conditions relative to the roadside sign condition. Conclusion: The results indicate that in-vehicle messaging could provide benefits to primary task performance in driving if the message content is appropriately designed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: The objective of this review was to spotlight specific methods for people working from home to apply restorative environment research to improve productivity and mental health during shelter-in-place. Background: The COVID-19 pandemic has led to sheltering-in-place and telework. While necessary, these strategies may lead to negative consequences such as social isolation and worse performance. However, nature environments have been shown to have a variety of positive effects in several different settings, including improved attention, positive affect, and increased job satisfaction, and these may be translated to the home workspace setting. Method: This provides a narrative review of the environmental psychology literature, describing articles involving nature in a task performance or stress context and how it has been applied. It then moves on to discuss how these findings could possibly be applied in the context of workers during the COVID-19 pandemic. Results: Although beneficial results are mixed, the review found a variety of relatively simple and cost-effective methods that could assist workers during the COVID-19 pandemic, including taking a break in nature and implementing nature in the workspace. Application: The application of restorative environment research could be an efficient way of mitigating the negative psychological effects due to at-home sheltering and telework in order to combat COVID-19. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: The aim of this study is to replicate Berto's (2005) heavily cited work on attention restoration. Background: Nature interventions have gained increased interest for improving performance of attentionally demanding tasks. Berto (2005) indicated that viewing digital nature images could improve performance on a subsequent response inhibition task, the sustained attention to response task (SART). However, experimental design and statistical concerns about her experiments as well as failure to support her findings across multiple unpublished studies in our laboratory provided rationale for this replication study. Method: Twenty participants were each assigned to one of three digital image conditions: nature, urban, and control. Participants performed the SART before and after digital image exposure. Results: SART performance metrics (total correct target responses, mean response time, and transformed d ′) were analyzed using 2 (SART) × 3 (image interventions) mixed design ANOVAs. The results failed to replicate Berto (2005). Conclusion: Possible reasons for not replicating Berto (2005) are discussed, including (1) sample differences, (2) different testing environments and procedures, (3) insufficient attentional depletion, and (4) individual differences. Applications: Research needs to determine the effectiveness of such interventions, the specific attention tasks that might benefit, and the individual difference variables relevant for attention restoration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: To measure contributing attentional processes, particularly that of executive attention, to two iterations of the abbreviated vigilance task.Background: Joel Warm was at the forefront of vigilance research for decades, and resource theory is currently the dominant explanation for the vigilance decrement. The underlying mechanisms contributing to both overall performance and the decrement are only partly understood.Method: Seventy-eight participants answered questionnaires about their attentional skills and stress state, performed the Attention Network Test and two blocks of the 12-min abbreviated vigilance task, with a brief break between the two vigils during which they viewed images intended to affect performance. Changes in oxygenated hemoglobin were measured with functional near-infrared imaging.Results: Expected patterns were observed for both iterations of the abbreviated vigilance task, with performance declining after the first 2 min. Manipulations intended to evaluate whether executive processes contributed to vigilance performance failed to observe an effect. Other factors, particularly orienting and alerting attentional networks, task engagement, and subclinical ADHD symptomology were associated with performance. Significant factors for the first and second vigilance blocks were different.Conclusion: We suggest that (a) cognitive control is not a predominant factor, at least for the abbreviated vigilance task, and (b) attentional mechanisms and stress states affecting performance on the abbreviated vigilance task change over time.Application: Potential applications of this research include the use of breaks for sustained attention tasks involving high sensory load, and implications for the use of the abbreviated vigilance task as a proxy for general vigilance processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses a study for determining the impact of sideways visuomotor rotations between 90#00B0; and 180#00B0; on novice performance in a laparoscopic simulator. Topics discussed include use of visuomotor rotations in a laparoscopic surgical environment; contribution of perceptual-motor distortions inherent in the laparoscopic environment to the laparoscopic skills, and assessment of the impact of visuomotor rotations on performance of a straight-line pointing task.

Objective: The aim of this study was to identify the critical decisions surgeons need to make regarding laparoscopic surgery, the information these decisions are based on, the strategies employed by surgeons to reach their objectives, and the difficulties experienced by novices.Background: Laparoscopic training focuses on the development of technical skills. However, successful surgical outcomes are also dependent on appropriate decisions made during surgery, which are influenced by critical cues and the use of appropriate strategies. Novices might not be as adept at cue detection and strategy use.Method: Participants were eight attending surgeons. The authors employed task-analytic techniques to identify critical decisions inherent in laparoscopy and the cues, strategies, and novice traps associated with these decisions.Results: The authors used decision requirements tables to organize the data into the key decisions made during the preoperative, operative, and postoperative phases as well as the cues, strategies, and novice traps associated with these decisions. Key decisions identified for the preoperative phase included but were not limited to the decision of performing a laparoscopic versus open surgery, necessity to review the literature, practicing the procedure, and trocar placement. Some key decisions identified for the operative phase included converting to open surgery, performing angiograms, cutting tissue or organs, and reevaluation of the approach. Only one key decision was identified for the postoperative phrase: whether the surgeon's technique needs to be evaluated and revised.Conclusion: The laparoscopic environment requires complex decision making, and novices are prone to errors in their decisions.Application: The information elicited in this study is applicable to laparoscopic training. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]