Raymond H. Kirby

Individual and Group Performances as Functions of the Team-Training Load

The effects of team training load on both individual-and group-skill performances and training were measured in the laboratory with 10 five-member teams. Each team consisted of a specific five-member combination drawn from a total of 20 undergraduate volunteer male subjects. During the first 48 h of work, subjects were trained to perform the five individual- and one group-performance tasks presented with the Multiple-Task Performance Battery employed in the synthetic-work approach to performance assessment (see Alluisi, 1964; Chiles, Alluisi, and Adams, 1968; Morgan and Alluisi, 1972). Subsequently, trained subjects were combined in different numbers with untrained subjects to provide teamtraining loads (percentages of untrained team members) ranging from 0 to 100% in 20% steps. The five subjects in each of these teams worked together for 48 h over six consecutive days. Both individual and team performance effectiveness was reduced in direct proportion to the percentage of untrained personnel substituted into a trained team. However, neither the individual performances of the trained personnel nor the skill acquisition rates of the untrained personnel were adversely affected by increasing the team-training load.

Use of rhythm in acquisition of a computer-generated tracking task.

This research assessed whether rhythm aids acquisition of motor skills by providing cues for the timing of those skills. Rhythms were presented to participants visually or visually with auditory cues. It was hypothesized that the auditory cues would facilitate recognition and learning of the rhythms. The three timing principles of rhythms were also explored. It was hypothesized that rhythms that satisfied all three timing principles would be more beneficial in learning a skill than rhythms that did not satisfy the principles. Three groups learned three different rhythms by practicing a tracking task. After training, participants attempted to reproduce the tracks from memory. Results suggest that rhythms do help in learning motor skills but different sets of timing principles explain perception of rhythm in different modalities.

Effect of whole-body vibration in combined axes and with noise on subjective evaluation of ride quality

The effects on ratings of ride quality of discomfort produced by complex vibration and noise stimuli were investigated. The initial study examined effects of simultaneous vibration in the vertical and lateral axes in a simulated passenger aircraft. The second study examined the effects of simultaneously presented vertical vibration and noise stimuli. In both studies the components of complex stimuli were found to combine their effects at low levels of stimulation but to act separately at higher levels.

Preference for drinking deionized water over D20in the rat

For 15 days, the daily consumption of deionized water and heavy water was studied in rats exposed to both substances. Although the rats showed no initial preference for either substance, a strong preference for deionized water developed. Retention of this preference was measured 11 days later in an additional 5-day test, and there was no apparent retention decrement 11 days after the original preference test. In the second experiment, an equally strong preference for water was found for rats exposed to 100%, 75%, and 50% concentrations of D20. However, a 25% D20 solution produced a smaller water preference, but significantly greater than controls exposed to 0% D20.

Discrimination between deionized water and D2O in a runway using olfaction in the rat

This experiment tested whether rats could discriminate between D20 and deionized water using olfaction alone or using both gustation and olfaction. These substances were used as cues for the presence of reward or nonreward in a runway and, if perceived, should have resulted in patterned responding. Twenty experimentally naive male albino rats were given 200 trials in a runway under a random-partial-reinforcement schedule. One-half of the rats could use both taste and smell of D20 and deionized water as cues for reward and nonreward, while the other half of the subjects were allowed only to smell these substances. The results showed that, after 100 trials, patterned running developed equally well with smell alone as with both taste and smell as cues. Moreover, D20 and deionized water were equally effective as cues for reward and for nonreward in both smell alone and taste/smell conditions.

Eye-scan behavior in a flight simulation task as a function of level of training

The present study explored eye-scan behavior as a function of level of subject training. Oculometric (eye-scan) measures were recorded from each of ten subjects during training trials on a CRT-based flight simulation task. The task developed for the study incorporated subtasks representative of specific activities performed by pilots, but which could be performed at asymptotic levels within relatively short periods of training. Changes in eye-scan behavior were examined as initially untrained subjects developed skill in the task. Eye-scan predictors of performance on the task were found. Examination of eye-scan in proximity to selected task events revealed differences in the distribution of looks at the instruments as a function of level of training.

Discrimination between heavy water and deionized water using gustation vs. olfaction in humans

This research was conducted to determine whether human subjects could discriminate between D2O and deionized water through tasting the stimuli and in addition to determine whether they could do so through using smell alone. In the first study, the subjects were given 20 trials, 10 trials during which the substances were tasted and an additional 10 trials during which they were smelled. On each trial, the subject was presented with three test tubes, two containing the same substance and one containing the other substance, and the subject’s task was to identify the test tube with the different substance. The results showed that the subjects could discriminate between D2O and deionized water when they tasted the substances, but when they used smell, they performed more poorly than was expected by chance. Replication of the results with the smell condition was attempted, and the subjects did not discriminate differently from that expected by chance. The results of the two studies were interpreted as showing that humans can discriminate between D2O and deionized water and that the receptor used for the discrimination was gustatory rather than olfactory.

Effects of 48 Hours of Continuous Work and Sleep Loss on Work Performance of Males and Females

The effects of extended periods of sleep loss and continuous work on complex human performance in male subjects have been fairly well documented (cf., Alluisi, Coates, & Morgan, 1977; Morgan, Brown, & Alluisi, 1974; Morgan, Brown, Coates, & Alluisi, 1974). However, similar data are unavailable for the female worker. Further, the results of these previous studies have indicated that, for male subjects, the underlying circadian rhythm interacts with the effects of sleep loss and continuous work (Alluisi, et al., 1977). If it can be assumed that the interactive effects of the circadian rhythm are due in part to an underlying physiological cycle, it is reasonable to hypothesize that similar interactive effects would be observed in systematic investigations of the effects of 48 hours of sleep loss and continuous work at various points of the menstrual cycle in females. The purposes of the present series of investigations were, therefore, twofold: (1) To determine the effects of 48 hours of continuous work and sleep loss on complex human performance in female subjects with a goal of providing direct comparisons of male and female performances under identical conditions, and (2) To determine the effects of the menstrual cycle, if any, as it interacts with the effects of sleep loss and continuous work.