Bilingual Cigarette Warning Labels: Effects on Young People's Recall and Attention in Lebanon.

The goal was to determine the effects of bilingual cigarette warning labels on the recall performance and attention of young bilingual Lebanese college students. Forty-eight students were shown English-only, Arabic-only, or bilingual cigarette warning labels in 2020. Participants recalled as many of the labels as they could after the experiment and then two weeks later. Eye tracking was used to determine attention to the label and subjective data were collected. Results showed that bilingual labels did not lead to better recall; participants needed more time to extract data from bilingual labels and first looked at them later in time, although bilingual labels were revisited more. However, participants believed that bilingual labels were better. It appeared that bilingual labels led to clutter rather than helped recall.

Voice messaging while driving: Effects on driving performance and attention.

The aim of this study was to analyze the performance and attentional effects of sending voice messages while driving as compared to calling and texting. To this end, participants were asked to drive a given path while they either receive a phone call, send voice messages, or send text messages on a given cell phone, as well as a control condition. Driving performance, eye tracking, and subjective measures were collected. The results showed that voice messaging, while not as detrimental to driving performance as texting, does lead to similar levels of visual and cognitive distraction as texting and is generally more distracting than calling. Drivers also seem to be unaware of the dangers of voice messaging while driving. This research provides the basis for improved guidelines and legislation and more targeted awareness campaigns that emphasize the dangers of voice messaging while driving on a level with other banned practices.

Eye Tracking to Evaluate the Effects of Interruptions and Workload in a Complex Task.

OBJECTIVE: To use eye tracking to understand the effects of interruptions in different workload conditions as part of a monitoring and change detection task. BACKGROUND: Interruptions are detrimental to performance in complex, multitasking domains. There is a need for better display design techniques that help users overcome interruptions regardless of their workload level. This requires understanding a user's attentional state immediately after an interruption in order to determine what type of display adjustments are most suitable. METHOD: An emergency dispatching simulator was developed with a visual primary task and auditory interruptive task. Two levels of workload were induced by varying the number of emergency vehicles to monitor for changes and the rate of changes to monitor. Eye tracking, performance, and subjective measures (NASA-Task Load Index) were collected and analyzed for 41 participants. RESULTS: As expected, high workload interacted with interruptions to further degrade primary task performance and alter participants' attention allocation immediately after the interruption. Participants in the high workload condition had more narrowed, slower scan patterns immediately after the interruption as compared to before the interruption, as evidenced by lower scanpath length per second and mean saccade amplitude. However, this change was not observed in low workload. CONCLUSION: High workload modulates the effects of interruptions on performance and eye movements. Users in the high workload condition struggle to quickly scan the display in the seconds following an interruption. APPLICATION: The results can provide insight into the type of display adjustments needed right after an interruption in a high-workload environment.

Perceptions on music and noise in the operating room: a cross-sectional study.

Objectives. Noise in operating rooms (ORs) during surgery may affect OR personnel and pose a threat to patient safety. The sources of noise vary depending on the operation. This study aimed to investigate how OR staff perceived noise, whether music was considered noise and what its perceived effects were. Methods. Surgeons, anaesthesiologists, residents and nurses were interviewed. iPads were placed in the ORs to gather noise-level data. Results. Ninety-one interviews were conducted. Most participants (60.5%) reported the presence of noise and 25% the presence of music in the OR. Noise data from iPads registered levels ranging between 59.52 and 85.60 dB(A). χ2 analyses yielded significant results between participants' role and the perceived effects of noise (p = 0.02). Responses to open-ended questions were thematically categorized. Conclusions. Surgeons generally chose the music played in ORs and were likely positively inclined to its effects, while anaesthesiologists and nurses minded the lack of choice and were more likely to consider it as noise.

How do we react to cluttered displays? Evidence from the first seconds of visual search in websites.

Display clutter is known to degrade search performance and lead to differences in eye movement measures in different contexts. The goal of this study was to determine whether these differences in eye movements could be detected in the first few seconds of a search task using a realistic display, both with or without time pressure. Participants were asked to search for image or word targets in 40 website screenshots. Time pressure was introduced for half the trials. Clutter algorithms were used to classify the websites as low- or high-clutter. Performance, subjective, and eye-tracking metrics were collected. Results showed that people's attention allocation within the first 3 s of search is different when viewing high-clutter websites. In particular, people's spread of attention was larger in high-clutter websites. The results can be used to detect whether a person is struggling with clutter early on after they view a display. Practitioner summary: Eye-tracking metrics showed that people react differently to a cluttered website in a variety of conditions. These differences were evident within the first 3 s of the search. The eye-tracking metrics identified can be used to detect people struggling with clutter as soon as they look at a website.

Transitions Between Low and High Levels of Mental Workload can Improve Multitasking Performance.

OCCUPATIONAL APPLICATIONS Complex and dynamic environments including military operations, healthcare, aviation, and driving require operators to transition seamlessly between levels of mental workload. However, little is known about how the rate of an increase in workload impacts multitasking performance, especially in the context of real-world tasks. We evaluated both gradual and sudden workload increases in the dynamic multitasking environment of an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) command and control testbed and compared them to constant workload. Workload transitions were found to improve response time and accuracy compared to when workload was held constant at low or high. These results suggest that workload transitions may allow operators to better regulate mental resources. These findings can also inform the design of operations and technology to assist operators' management of cognitive resources, which include negating the adverse effects of vigilance decrements during low workload periods and data overload during high workload periods.

TECHNICAL ABSTRACT Background High workload and workload transitions can affect performance; however, it is not clear how the rate of transition from low to high workload influences performance in a multitasking setting. Purpose We investigated the effect of workload transition rate on performance in a multitasking environment that is akin to the expectations of operators in complex, data-rich work domains. Method An Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) command and control testbed was used to vary workload between low, high, gradually transitioning from low to high, and suddenly transitioning from low to high. Performance measures consisted of the response time and accuracy of one primary task and three secondary tasks. Analyses compared: (a) performance differences between gradual and sudden increases in workload; (b) performance during the low workload phases of the workload transitions; and (c) performance during the high workload phases of the workload transitions. Results Overall, there were limited performance differences between gradual and sudden workload transitions. However, both types of transitions led to better performance than constant workload, lending some support for the effort regulation explanation which suggests that participants actively evaluated the amount of mental resources necessary to successfully complete a task after a workload transition. Conclusions Gradual and sudden workload transitions benefit primary and secondary task performance, suggesting that the applicability of existing theoretical explanations depend on the context. For example, varying task demands can be a means to assist operators in the appropriate regulation of mental resources in domains with interdependent tasks. These findings can inform occupation and technology design to support task management.

Too much or too little? Investigating the usability of high and low data displays of the same electronic medical record.

The high data density on electronic medical record screens is touted as a major usability issue. However, it may not be a problem if the data is relevant and well-organized. Our objective was to test this assumption using a comprehensive set of measures that assess the three pillars of usability: efficiency (both physical and cognitive), effectiveness, and satisfaction. Physicians were asked to go through a series of tasks using two versions of the same electronic medical record: one where all the display items were separated into tabs (the original display), and one where important display items were grouped logically in one tab (the redesigned display). Results supported the hypothesis that combining relevant data in organized fashion into a smaller location would improve usability. The findings highlight the role of good display organization to mitigate the effects of high data density, as well as the importance of assessing cognitive load as part of usability studies.