Cognition, Language and Intelligence
Rolland S. Parker in Concussive Brain Trauma, 2016
Alertness is the state of being awake, aware, attentive, and prepared to react. It is within the continuum of sleep-wake fulness. The components of attention include alertness, WM, competitive selective attention (directed), top-down sensitivity control, and bottom-up salience filters (Knudsen, 2007). Alertness (Reynolds et al., 2003) is mediated by a variety of neuromodulatory pathways originating in the brainstem that sends widespread projections into cortical and subcortical regions. Therefore, the level of alertness occurs within a circadian contest, that is, core temperature minimum between 4 and 7 AM, melatonin secretion, the time awake influencing fatigue, and sleep. Mental performance is influenced by wakefulness and rising core temperature. In the latter half of the day, tasks continue to be done well if they require little central processing or memory. Decision making deteriorates before the evening fall in core temperature because of fatigue (Waterhouse, 2007). There is preliminary evidence for pharmacological agents to improve alertness, mental processing speed, and memory (McCullagh & Feinstein, 2005).
ENTRIES A–Z
Philip Winn in Dictionary of Biological Psychology, 2003
A cognitive state of readiness for information processing, which is characterized by a subjective sense of attentiveness and mental energy. Cognitive performance is optimal when alertness is greatest, but there is a cost to the organism in maintaining a state of high alertness and therefore high alertness can be maintained for only a limited time. Alertness is phasic, related to diurnal rhythms, but can be modulated by cognitive factors. Alertness is related to AROUSAL, but can be distinguished from it. Arousal refers to a physiological state that impacts on cognition by its influence on alertness. For example, as the body is aroused by danger in preparation for FIGHT-OR-FLIGHT, the cognitive status is raised to one of high alertness. It is possible, however, to be aroused without increased alertness and, conversely, it is possible to be highly alert but not highly aroused. Alertness is also related to VIGILANCE and MOTOR READINESS. Vigilance and motor readiness describe states of expectation or preparedness for processing specific information or making specific responses, respectively. However, although high alertness is required for vigilance and readiness, the two terms are not synonymous, as not being in a state of vigilance or readiness does not imply a subject is not alert.
Fatigue and countermeasures
Nicholas Green, Steven Gaydos, Hutchison Ewan, Edward Nicol in Handbook of Aviation and Space Medicine, 2019
Typical circadian pattern (see Figure 33.3): Alertness/sleepiness fairly predictable on a stable schedule of daytime wakefulness and night-time sleep: Opening of the ‘sleep gate’ – a period of drowsiness that occurs at standard bedtime.Circadian nadir – the point at which sleepiness becomes almost irresistible at 0200 or 0300 in the morning during night-time work.Alertness generally coincides with physiological changes such as body temperature.Performance effects sometimes lag behind physiological markers.
Alertness and psychomotor performance levels of marine pilots on an irregular work roster
Published in Chronobiology International, 2018
Philippe Boudreau, Sylvain Lafrance, Diane B. Boivin
The work schedule of St. Lawrence marine pilots is very irregular, with main sleep periods occurring generally at night. The present field study adds further evidence to the dual process regulation of alertness. It indicates that both time spent awake and time-of-day interact to modify pilots’ alertness and psychomotor performance levels on their irregular work schedules. Considering the objective TST and the reported sleep per 24 h, no chronic severe sleep restriction was observed. Nevertheless, signs of insomnia and daytime sleepiness were reported by a good proportion of pilots, comparable to those of other studies of shift workers. The majority of pilots appears adjusted to a day-oriented schedule, with some inter-individual variability. An individual’s diurnal nadir in psychomotor performance was correlated with his morningness-eveningness preferences. Consequently, work attribution rules that would integrate individuals’ biological best times for sleeping and working would be likely to reduce the risks associated with psychomotor performance deficits, although this represents a tremendous challenge for the industry. Results of this study suggest fatigue countermeasures that consider both processes and allow workers to minimize the duration of work shifts when ending at night are scientifically based. Such a countermeasure could be theoretically extrapolated to other work environments, although more quantitative recommendations should be based on work specific data.
Developing Attentional Control in High School Football: Two Case Studies
Published in Journal of Sport Psychology in Action, 2019
Terilyn C. Shigeno, E. Earlynn Lauer, Craig A. Wrisberg, Danielle C. DeLisio, Pin-Chen Lin
The second component of the framework deals with attentional processes and their interrelations (Eimer, Nattkemper, Schröger, & Prinz, 1996; Nideffer, 1976). Attentional selectivity refers to the process of identifying performance-relevant information while ignoring other irrelevant information (Williams, Nideffer, Wilson, Sagal, & Peper, 2010). Alertness is associated with emotional arousal, which can influence the width of a performer's attentional field (Easterbrook, 1959). In high-stakes performance situations, increases in arousal can narrow performers' attentional field, limiting their ability to attend to relevant cues. Attentional capacity has also been shown to be limited, influencing the amount of information a person can process at any one time (see Schmidt & Wrisberg, 2008, for a discussion). Taken together, the available literature suggests that these processes, when effectively managed, can enhance the prospects for productive attentional control, which in turn should increase the likelihood of successful performance (Component 3).
Impact of sleep-wake features on fatigue among female shift work nurses
Published in Annals of Medicine, 2023
Xin Zhang, Xuesong Dai, Jing Jiao, Shih-Yu Lee
Workplace stress has been recognized globally as a risk factor affecting the health and safety of workers [8,39]. In the current study, 20.4% of the study participants had abnormal cortisol levels before the day shift and 17.1% after the night shift, indicating they were either too alert to fall asleep after the night shift or not alert enough during the day shift to avoid errors. Longer shift duration (more than 8 h) was significantly associated with impaired morning cortisol levels [8]; therefore, the findings support the need to examine shift patterns and stress-coping strategies to promote nurses’ health and maintain workplace safety. Alertness is essential during work to minimize the risk of accidents and promote healthcare workers’ safety. Compared with nurses who only work day- or night-shifts [5], our study participants have longer reaction times, which suggests that rapid shift work may harm cognition and response and deserves further attention. Therefore, examining workplace stress’s associations with alertness was necessary. The reaction time may indicate the nurse’s ability to provide competent clinical practice. Nursing administrators should design the organizational interventions (e.g. CAR-friendly rotation schedules, individual shift work tolerance, objective measures of vigilance and sleepiness, and a low-risk environment) and personalized guidance for shift nurses to increase their capacity for doing time and task management, especially nurses on 12-hour shift [40].
Related Knowledge Centers
- Attention
- Perception
- Awareness
- Narcolepsy
- Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder
- Chronic Fatigue Syndrome
- Major Depressive Disorder
- ADDison'S Disease
- Sleep Deprivation
- Altered Level of Consciousness