Psychophysiological responses to changes in workload during simulated air traffic control.

In this investigation, eight Air Force air traffic controllers (ATCs) performed three scenarios on TRACON (Terminal Radar Approach Control), a computer-based air traffic control (ATC) simulation. Two scenarios were used each with three levels of difficulty. One scenario varied traffic volume by manipulating the number of aircraft to be handled and the second scenario varied traffic complexity by manipulating arriving to departing flight ratios, pilot skill and mixture of aircraft types. A third scenario, overload, required subjects to handle a larger number of aircraft in a limited amount of time. The effects of the manipulations on controller workload were assessed using performance, subjective (TLX), and physiological (EEG, eye blink, heart rate, respiration, saccade) measures. Significant main effects of difficulty level were found for TRACON performance, TLX, eye blink, respiration and EEG measures. Only the EEG was associated with main effects for the type of traffic. The results provide support for the differential sensitivity of a variety of workload measures in complex tasks, underscore the importance of traffic complexity in ATC workload, and support the utility of TRACON as a tool for studies of ATC workload.

Personality and family-environment predictors of self-reported eating attitudes and behaviors.

We assessed the contributions of personality and family environment to variations in self-reported eating attitudes and behaviors. Female college undergraduates (N = 137) completed the NEO Personality Inventory (NEO-PI; Costa & McCrae, 1985), Family Environment Scale (Moos & Moos, 1986), Eating Disorder Inventory (EDI; Garner & Olmsted, 1984), and revised Eating Attitudes Test (EAT-26; Garner, Olmsted, Bohr, & Garfinkel, 1982). Correlation and multiple regression analyses showed that among the personality variables, NEO-PI Neuroticism and Extraversion made the largest unique contributions to the EDI subscales and EAT-26. The family-environment measures made significant contributions to those, EDI subscales that are reflective of broader emotional and interpersonal problems, rather than eating disorders per se. Suppression effects were found for NEO-PI Extraversion and Neuroticism, underscoring the need for researchers to assess comprehensive sets of etiologic factors--and associations among them--to properly interpret complex predictor/criterion relationships.

Confirmatory factor analysis of the Interpersonal Support Evaluation List.

Cohen and Hoberman (1983) designed the Interpersonal Support Evaluation List (ISEL) to measure the perceived availability of four relatively independent social support resources and thus to provide tests of stress-buffering hypotheses. The utility of the ISEL for such tests requires evidence that it actually measures distinct functional support dimensions. A confirmatory factor analysis of the ISEL for 133 college students showed that a four-factor model provided a reasonable fit to the data, but the large correlations among the four factors were strongly suggestive of a general, second-order social support factor. However, scoring the ISEL as a unidimensional measure only would result in the loss of unique information contained in the four subscales. Researchers should therefore follow Cohen and Hoberman's procedure of analyzing ISEL subscale scores and the total score.