Information processing and attention

FIGURE 5—23. Most of the cell bodies for notadrenergic neurons in the brain are located in the brainstem in an area known as the locus coeruleus. This is the headquarters for most of the important notadrenergic pathways mediating behavior and other functions such as cognition, mood, emotions, and movements. Malfunction of the locus coeruleus is hypothesized to underlie disorders in which mood and cognition intersect, such as depression, anxiety, and disorders of attention and information processing. 

Studies have had mixed conclusions about whether negative symptoms are associated with specific visual attention/eye-tracking defects. However, when categorizing participants by the presence or absence of deficit symptoms, correlations are observed. Deficit patients have slow reaction times in tasks of visual attention and information processing (Buchanan et al., 1997 Bustillo et al., 1997). As the parietal lobes have been implicated in attention (Behrmann et al., 2004), this may reflect parietal impairment. 

Cognitive Effiects. Along with the overt psychotic symptoms that characterize schizophrenia, deficits in cognitive function are commonly manifested by impairments in attention, information processing, and memory (14, 701-703). While antipsychotic drugs can ameliorate impaired attention and information processing, their effects on memory... 

In 70 patients with schizophrenia and persistent symptoms or troublesome adverse effects who were assigned to a flexible dosage (40-160 mg/day) in a 12-month open trial of ziprasidone looking for cognitive improvement, there were significant improvements in executive functions, attention, and information processing domains, but the effect sizes were moderate [138 j. 

Significant improvement in performance is seen on many laboratory measures of attention, learning, information processing, short-term memory and vigilance (Elia et al., 1999). 

The common denominator was the patients ability to attend appropriately to a given task. Further, attentional dysfunction, information-processing impairment, and autonomic dysfunction were improved more in the drug-treated group. 

The second part, Driver Characteristics, focuses on four aspects of driver characteristics that have been studied extensively in their relation to safety driver vision, driver information processing, and driver age. Age-wise the two groups that have received most of the attention — though they definitely constitute a minority of all drivers, are the young drivers (typically under 25 years old) and the older drivers (typically 65 years old and older). Because the nature of their crash involvement differs and because they differ greatly in their experience skills, and information processing abilities, they are treated separately in two chapters. 

The fourth part, Driver Temporary Impairments, focuses on the four types of impairments that most researchers associate with the greatest involvement in crashes impairments from alcohol, impairments from (other) drugs, impairments from fatigue, and impairments from distraction and attentional lapses. Unlike the more stable individual differences of personality, gender, age, and visual and information processing abilities, these can change drastically within short intervals (on the order of minutes), and then their effects are often interactive with the person s more stable characteristics. When such interactions have been studied they will be discussed in these chapters. 

The Wickens model suggests that there are finite information-processing or attentional resources available, as represented by the box in Figure 2.2. These resources can be distributed in different ways but cannot be increased. Thus, interpretation of complex or unusual information displayed by the interface will leave fewer resources available for handling the response selection and decision making demands. This provides a theoretical basis for the view of human error described in Section 1.7, which described error as a mismatch between demands and capabilities. 

The content and organization of the displayed information are of critical importance in inferring the state of the process and subsequently evaluating the effects of alternative courses of action. The following factors will determine the demands of the control panel on the attentional and memory resources of the workers. For detailed data on the design of the control panel, the reader is referred to standard ergonomics textbooks (e.g., Salvendy, 1987). 

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