Relation between Multiple Markers of Work-Related Fatigue.

Background: Work-related fatigue has a strong impact on performance and safety but so far, no agreed upon method exists to detect and quantify it. It has been suggested that work-related fatigue cannot be quantified with just one test alone, possibly because fatigue is not a uniform construct. The purpose of this study is therefore to measure work-related fatigue with multiple tests and then to determine the underlying factorial structure.

The effects of priming with age stereotypes on a PC-based mail-sorting task.

Objective: This study examines whether unconscious priming of attitudes towards older age might change the self-efficacy of older employees, and thus modify their performance at work.

Methods: Three age- and gender-matched groups of 20 participants were primed with positive, negative or no age stereotypes by means of the scrambled sentence task, and were then transferred to a cognitively demanding PC-based mail-sorting task.

Results: Participants' accuracy on the latter task was significantly higher in the positively primed group than in the unprimed group, and was significantly lower in the negatively primed group than in the unprimed group, except for one parameter.

Body Sway as a Possible Indicator of Fatigue in Clerical Workers.

Background: Fatigue has a strong impact on workers' performance and safety, but expedient methods for assessing fatigue on the job are not yet available. Studies discuss posturography as an indicator of fatigue, but further evidence for its use in the workplace is needed. The purpose of the study is to examine whether posturography is a suitable indicator of fatigue in clerical workers.

On the relationship between subjective and objective measures of fatigue.

Objective: Objective and subjective methods have been used in the past to assess workplace fatigue, but little is known about correlations between them. We examine correlations between subjective and objective measures, including measures collected in a workplace scenario.

Methods: 15 young and 17 older participants were assessed before and after work with four types of fatigue measure: objective physical (posturography), objective mental (psychomotor vigilance task), subjective physical and mental (self-assessment), objective and subjective realistic (oculomotor behaviour, observer-rated facial expression, typing performance).