EEG-based neural activity for decoding situation awareness at different levels.

Situation awareness (SA) is the ability to perceive, comprehend and project environmental information. Neural activity is closely associated with SA. However, it remains unclear how neural activity represents SA at different levels.

Takeover and non-driving related task performance in conditional automated driving: EEG and behavior Parameters interaction.

In this study, a conditional automated driving scenario is simulated using virtual reality (VR) technology to explore whether office works presented through augmented reality (AR) affect task and takeover performance, and the neural mechanism was revealed. Sixty-four participants were recruited and their electroencephalography (EEG) was used to measure the brain activities. The results indicated that non-driving-related tasks (NDRTs) requiring higher internal attention focus resulted in poorer task and takeover performance.

Watch your step: A pilot study of smartphone use effect on young females' gait performance while walking up and down stairs and escalators.

The increasingly ubiquitous use of smartphones has made distracted walking common, not only on flat ground, but also on stairs. Available information regarding changes in gait performance while walking and using a smartphone in different environments is still lacking. We aimed to investigate the differences in gait behavior and subjective walking confidence while walking up and down stairs and escalators, with and without smartphone use.

Interruption Value Type and Source Matter in Different Phases of an Interruption Process: Emotional/Cognitive Impact and Neural Evidence.

Objective: To examine the effect of interruption value type (utilitarian, hedonic) and source (external, internal) in different phases of an interruption process.

Background: Prior studies on interruption mostly focused on the cognitive outcomes of utilitarian interruptions. Hedonic interruptions are common in life; however, they are not sufficiently explored through research.

Using EEG to investigate the influence of boredom on prospective memory in top-down and bottom-up processing mechanisms for intelligent interaction.

We aimed to investigate the alpha (α) activity in operators experiencing boredom while performing prolonged monitoring and prospective memory tasks using different processing mechanisms. Fifty-four participants underwent electroencephalography (EEG) and were found to have poorer prospective memory performance under top-down conditions. Further, α power and synchronisation were higher during bottom-up than in top-down processes, revealing an inhibition effect of the former.

Do Congruent Auditory Stimuli Facilitate Visual Search in Dynamic Environments? An Experimental Study Based on Multisensory Interaction.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the cue congruency effect of auditory stimuli during visual search in dynamic environments. Twenty-eight participants were recruited to conduct a visual search experiment. The experiment applied auditory stimuli to understand whether they could facilitate visual search in different types of background.

Alpha Oscillations in Parietal and Parietooccipital Explaining How Boredom Matters Prospective Memory.

Intelligent interaction alters previous human-machine task allocation patterns. Human workers will suffer from boredom and inattention, posing a significant challenge for the human-machine interaction loop. This study aims to investigate the relationship between boredom and prospective memory, which is a memory form including the detecting, identifying, and executing functions.

Prevalence of musculoskeletal discomfort among female cabin crew in Taiwan.

Objectives: This study investigated the prevalence of musculoskeletal discomfort among female cabin crew through cabin tasks and demographic factors, including age and seniority.

Methods: This study conducted an online questionnaire survey targeted at female cabin crew in Taiwan and ensured that the sample size was with a statistical power of 0.95.

Regional differences in the effect of interpersonal relationship on trust and trustworthiness in China.

Guanxi, which literally means interpersonal relationship or social connections, plays an important role in achieving business success in China. This study investigates the effect of interpersonal relationship on trust and trustworthiness in four regions in China. Eighty pairs of close friends participated in the experiment: 20 pairs from Beijing, 20 pairs from Guangdong, 20 pairs from Shanghai, and 20 pairs from Chongqing.

Comparing interventions to reduce boredom in a low mental workload environment.

Boredom is a common workplace problem. Previous research has suggested that repetitive and monotonous work tasks may lead to boredom. However, these tasks have been reduced due to increased workplace automation.

Leveraging Walking Performance to Understand Work Fatigue Among Young Adults: Mixed-Methods Study.

Background: Work fatigue negatively impacts personal health in the long term. Prior research has indicated the possibility of leveraging both walking parameters and perceptual measures to assess a person's fatigue status. However, an effective and ubiquitous approach to assessing work fatigue in young adults remains unexplored.

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy-Based Short-Term Abstinence Intervention for Problematic Social Media Use: Improved Well-Being and Underlying Mechanisms.

Problematic social media use is detrimental to users' subjective well-being. Based on cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), we proposed a short-term abstinence intervention to treat this problem. A mixed method study with 65 participants was conducted to examine the effectiveness of this intervention and to reveal the underlying mechanisms of how the intervention influences participants.

General and passenger-relevant factors of work-related musculoskeletal disorders (WMSDs) among Chinese female flight attendants.

Background: A high prevalence of work-related musculoskeletal disorders (WMSDs) has been reported among flight attendants. Identifying the root causes of these disorders may improve the health conditions of flight attendants and further improve flight safety and service quality.

Objective: In this study, we aimed to identify WMSD risk factors for a specific population, namely Chinese female flight attendants.

Development and Preliminary Usability Evaluation of a Somatosensory Square Dance System for Older Chinese Persons: Mixed Methods Study.

Background: Chinese square dancing, known as guangchang wu in Chinese, is a well-known public fitness activity that provides an entertaining way for older Chinese women to improve their flexibility, lower extremity strength, overall coordination, and balance. However, injuries, noise conflicts, and lack of space are challenging aspects of this activity. Somatosensory games (SG) are an increasingly popular physical fitness approach to enhance the selective attention of older persons with indoor engagement and exercises.

A Mobile Phone-Based Gait Assessment App for the Elderly: Development and Evaluation.

Background: Gait disorders are common among older adults. With an increase in the use of technology among older adults, a mobile phone app provides a solution for older adults to self-monitor their gait quality in daily life.

Objective: This study aimed to develop a gait-monitoring mobile phone app (Pocket Gait) and evaluate its acceptability and usability among potential older users.

Cross-modal psychological refractory period in vision, audition, and haptics.

People's parallel-processing ability is limited, as demonstrated by the psychological refractory period (PRP) effect: The reaction time to the second stimulus (RT2) increases as the stimulus onset asynchrony (SOA) between two stimuli decreases. Most theoretical models of PRP are independent of modalities. Previous research on PRP mainly focused on vision and audition as input modalities; tactile stimuli have not been fully explored.

Spatially incongruent sounds affect visual localization in virtual environments.

Distance underestimations along the depth plane are widely found in virtual environments. However, past findings have shown that changes in the visual aspects of virtual reality settings do not lead to more accurate depth estimates. Therefore, we examined if nonvisual stimuli, namely, sounds, could serve as cues that affect observers' depth perception.

Haptic and Auditory-Haptic Attentional Blink in Spatial and Object-Based Tasks.

Dual-task performance depends on both modalities (e.g., vision, audition, haptics) and task types (spatial or object-based), and the order by which different task types are organized.

Are cost-effective technologies feasible to measure gait in older adults? A systematic review of evidence-based literature.

Background: Unrestricted by time and place, innovative technologies seem to provide cost-effective solutions for gait assessment in older adults.

Objective: The objective of this study is to provide an overview of gait assessment for older adults by investigating critical gait characteristics of older adults, discussing advantages and disadvantages of the current gait assessment technologies, as well as device applicability.

Methods: The Preferred Reporting Item for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis (PRISMA) guidelines were followed during the review.

Determining fidelity of mixed prototypes: Effect of media and physical interaction.

Mixed prototyping, combining virtual and physical prototypes, is an emerging method used to aid in usability testing. This study aims to determine when to use a mixed prototype and how to choose its fidelity to validate the usability testing results and reduce the prototyping cost. A 2×2 between-subject experiment was designed to investigate the effects of the media (head-mounted display versus computer monitor) and physical interaction (using a tangible mock-up or not) on the usability evaluation results and other subjective measures.

Influence of semantic cues on hazard-inspection performance: a case in construction safety.

Constant improvement in hazard identification is key to personnel safety in the workplace. Semantic cues have been proposed to simplify knowledge retrieval for site inspectors in building construction. However, the effectiveness of this approach and its internal mechanisms remain unexamined.

Application of smart bracelet to monitor frailty-related gait parameters of older Chinese adults: A preliminary study.

Aim: Smart bracelets are popular today. Based on their built-in motion sensors, they can serve as a cost-effective method of gait assessment in home-based care. Few studies have applied smart bracelets in the gait assessment of older Chinese adults.

Personality factors and safety attitudes predict safety behaviour and accidents in elevator workers.

Elevator accidents happen frequently and cause much loss. Personality factors and safety attitudes have been proved effective in predicting accidents in traffic and the workplace. The present study aimed to explore the effect of personality factors and safety attitudes in elevator accidents.

Factors determining perceptions of fairness in access to hospital outpatient departments in Taiwan.

Objectives To investigate the effects of four factors on perceptions of fairness in access to outpatient services: proportions of walk-in versus scheduled registration, consultation queues, regulations for late patients and particular categories of patients getting better access. Methods A total of 124 young adults were asked to consider nine different scenarios and report their views of the fairness of each one. Results As regards the balance of types of patients, 60% walk-in registration was seen as fair to both walk-in and scheduled patients.

Working memory performance impaired after exposure to acute social stress: The evidence comes from ERPs.

Using event-related potentials (ERPs), we examined the time course of 39 healthy novice drivers during a blocked working memory task (numerical N-back) under acute social stress or control conditions, which were induced by the Trier Social Stress Task (TSST) or control procedure. Subjective measures were used to assess stress manipulation throughout the experiment. An elevated negative effect in response to a stress condition indicated a successful stress induction.