Effects of Fatigue and Social Environment on Performance: Individual and Team Tasks.
Abstract
The current experiment is the fifth in a series of studies that investigate the effects of fatigue and social environment on task performance. The following topics were studied: (a) Which tasks are most vulnerable to fatigue? (b) To what extent can the presence of another person during task performance compensate fatigue effects? (c) To what extent can 'social loafing' be prevented by giving a group public feedback on all group members' individual performance? D Does feedback motivate even without a bonus? EL Does the type of feedback (individual or group feedback) have to be adjusted to the type of task (individual or interdependent team task)? Subjects, divided into four-person groups, worked 20 hours continuously (five sessions of four hours each) on three individual tasks that differed in cognitive complexity (RTT: Reaction Time Task; MST: Memory Search Task; CMT Contaminant Monitoring Task), and on a team task (TANDEM). The individual tasks were carried out both alone and in presence of another subject. Half of the subjects got (public) feedback on all group members' individual scores, the other half only got a group score. The tasks differed in their sensitivity to fatigue. Performance on the two simplest tasks (RTT and MST) deteriorated most over night, compared with the more complex CMT and the team task. One should realise, however, that during the experiment a rather strong learning effect occurred on both the CMT and the team task. This learning effect might have interfered with the fatigue effects. Nevertheless, it can be concluded that cognitive complex, and therefore maybe also more interesting tasks, are less vulnerable to fatigue than simple tasks. In general, subjects performed better on the individual tasks when they worked in presence of another subjects, as compared to alone. This was especially the case in the last sessions.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jul 07, 1997
- Accession Number
- ADA332384
Entities
People
- A. W. Gaillard
- C. Y. Van Orden
- J. J. Langefeld