Fitness for duty: a 3-minute version of the Psychomotor Vigilance Test predicts fatigue-related declines in luggage-screening performance

To evaluate the ability of a 3-minute Psychomotor Vigilance Test (PVT) to predict fatigue-related performance decrements on a simulated luggage-screening task (SLST). Thirty-six healthy nonprofessional subjects (mean age = 30.8 years, 20 women) participated in a 4-day laboratory protocol including a...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inJournal of occupational and environmental medicine Vol. 53; no. 10; p. 1146
Main Authors Basner, Mathias, Rubinstein, Joshua
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published United States 01.10.2011
Subjects
Adult
Attention
Circadian Rhythm
Decision Making
Fatigue - psychology
Female
Homeostasis
Humans
Male
Predictive Value of Tests
Reaction Time
Sleep Deprivation - psychology
Task Performance and Analysis
Time Factors
Wakefulness
Work - psychology
Young Adult
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Summary:To evaluate the ability of a 3-minute Psychomotor Vigilance Test (PVT) to predict fatigue-related performance decrements on a simulated luggage-screening task (SLST). Thirty-six healthy nonprofessional subjects (mean age = 30.8 years, 20 women) participated in a 4-day laboratory protocol including a 34-hour period of total sleep deprivation with PVT and SLST testing every 2 hours. Eleven and 20 lapses (355-ms threshold) on the PVT optimally divided SLST performance into high-, medium-, and low-performance bouts with significantly decreasing threat detection performance A'. Assignment to the different SLST performance groups replicated homeostatic and circadian patterns during total sleep deprivation. The 3-minute PVT was able to predict performance on a simulated luggage-screening task. Fitness-for-duty feasibility should now be tested in professional screeners and operational environments.
ISSN:1536-5948
DOI:10.1097/JOM.0b013e31822b8356