Abstract
The effects of moderate workload and 72 h of sleep deprivation were studied using a modified continuous-performance paradigm. Ten subjects were tested hourly on a number of perceptual and cognitive tasks designed to require approximately 30 min to complete, with the remainder of each hour free. As sleep deprivation continued, the average time on task increased at an accelerating rate. The rate of increase differed among tasks, with longer tasks showing greater absolute and relative increases than shorter ones. Such increases confound sleep deprivation and workload effects. In this paper, we compare the advantages and disadvantages of several experimental paradigms; describe details of the present design; and discuss methodological problems associated with separating the interactions of sleep deprivation, workload, and circadian variation with performance.
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Acknowledgement is hereby made of the superior technical support provided in the running of the experiment by Jeffrey Clemans, Darwin Darr, Debra Friedman, Joseph Fritz, Timothy Gawne, Catherine Loveless, Mary Pat May, Lisa Michaels, Mozelle Silvers Parker, Helena Prince, Joel Robertson, Barbara Ross, and Marjorie Taylor. Thanks again are due to Joseph Fritz who, as usual, is responsible for the fine quality of the graphic illustrations. Our deep gratitude is expressed to Teresa Benitez and Sylvia Sachs who with much patience and competence transformed this document from handwriting to legible form. The opinions or assertions contained herein are the private views of the authors and are not to be construed as official or as reflecting the views of the Department of the Army or the Department of Defense (para 4-3, AR 360-5). H Babkoff was supported under a contract awarded by the USA Medical R&D Command (Contract No. DAMD 17-84-M-9502)
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Babkoff, H., Thorne, D.R., Sing, H.C. et al. Dynamic changes in work/rest duty cycles in a study of sleep deprivation. Behavior Research Methods, Instruments, & Computers 17, 604–613 (1985). https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03200972
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03200972