Human performance modeling (HPM) is often used to investigate systems during all phases of development. HPM was used to investigate function allocation in crews for future combat vehicles. The tasks required by the operators centered around three primary functions, commanding, gunning, and driving. In initial investigations, the driver appeared to be the crew member with the highest workload. Validation of the driver workload model (DWM) is necessary for confidence in the ability of the model to predict workload. Validation would provide mathematical proof that workload of driving is high and that additional tasks impact the performance. This study consisted of two experiments. The purpose of each experiment was to measure performance and workload while driving and attending to an auditory secondary task. The first experiment was performed with a human performance model. The second experiment replicated the same conditions in a human-in-the-loop driving simulator. The results of the two experiments were then correlated to determine if the model could predict performance and workload changes. The results of the investigation indicate that there is some impact of an auditory task on driving. The model is a good predictor of mental workload changes with auditory secondary tasks. However, predictions of the impact on performance from secondary auditory tasks were not demonstrated in the simulator study. Frequency of the distraction was more influential in the changes of performance and workload than the demand of the distraction, at least under the conditions tested in this study. While the workload numbers correlate with simulator numbers, using the model would require a better understanding of what the workload changes would mean in terms of performance measures. / Master of Science

The problem of this study was to determine what effect purpose, background and distractions have on the effectiveness of the listening act.

The use of computers equipped with Internet access by students during face-to-face (F2F) class sessions is perceived as academically beneficial by a growing number of students and faculty members in universities across the United States. Nevertheless, some researchers suggest unstructured computer use detached from the immediate class content may negatively influence student participation, increase distraction levels, minimize recall of recently presented information, and decrease student engagement. This study investigates graduate students' beliefs about computer use with Internet access during graduate face-to-face lecture classes in which computer use is neither mandated nor integrated in the class and the effect of such use on student recall. Methods include a 44-item questionnaire to investigate graduate students' beliefs about computers and two experiments to investigate the influence of computer use during a lecture on students' memory recall. One experimental group (open laptop) used computers during a lecture while the other (closed laptop) did not. Both groups were given the same memory recall test after the lectures, and the resulting scores were analyzed. Two weeks later, a second phase of the experiment was implemented in which laptop groups were reversed. Results from the first experiment indicated no statistically significant difference in recall scores between the open laptop group (M = 54.90, SD = 19.65) and the closed laptop group (M = 42.86, SD = 16.68); t (29) = -1.82, p = .08 (two tailed). Conversely, the second experiment revealed statistically significant differences in scores between the open laptop (M = 39.67, SD = 15.97) and the closed laptop group (M = 59.29, SD = 26.88); t (20.89) = 2.37, p = .03 (two tailed). The magnitude of the difference in mean scores (mean difference = 19.62, 95% CI: 2.39 to 36.85) was large (eta squared = 0.17). Multiple regression analysis suggests two factors accounted for 10% of the variance in recall scores: (1) students' beliefs about distractions from computer use, and (2) beliefs about the influence of computer use on memory recall. Based on survey findings, participants (N=116) viewed computers and Internet access in graduate classes as helpful academic tools, but distractions from computer use were major sources of concern for students who used computers in graduate classes and those who did not. Additionally, participants believed academic productivity would increase if instructors integrated computer use appropriately in the curricula. Results of the survey and experiments suggest unstructured computer use with Internet access in the graduate classroom is strongly correlated with increased student distractions and decreased memory recall. Thus, restricting unstructured computer use is likely to increase existing memory recall levels, and increasing unstructured computer use is likely to reduce memory recall. Recommendations include changes in the way students use computers, pedagogical shifts, computer integration strategies, modified seating arrangements, increased accountability, and improved interaction between instructors and students.

<p><strong>Purpose:</strong></p><p>The purpose of the thesis is to, through an ethnographic case study, understand 20-25 year olds‘ multitasking habits when watching TV and to create a framework of the distractions identified for media consumption.</p><p><strong>Background:</strong></p><p>The changes in technology and the new possibilities of consuming media creates a need to understand how people in the ages of 20-25 consume media. Advertising on TV is, in Swe-den, the marketing channel that companies spend the largest amount of money on. Most of the statistics regarding viewing rates are collected in a way that might not give totally accu-rate picture of the actual TV viewing of the consumers. Therefore, it is necessary to do an in-depth study of the media consumption habits of this group.</p><p><strong>Method:</strong></p><p>The study will be conducted, through an ethnographic case study where the researchers ob-serve a sample of four people in the target group during 10 sessions. Each session will be two hours long, and during, the researchers will observe the group‘s media consumption habits when watching TV. The observers will also look at the multitasking habits of the group, what media and distractions are combined while watching TV.</p><p><strong>Conclusions:</strong></p><p>The researchers conclude that multitasking is a common occurrence in the target groups media consumption. The authors have identified four categories that distracts the viewer‘s focus from TV commercials. The first three are distractions being, social, media and non-media distractions. The fourth category is technical avoidance, where people tend to switch channels or mute the sound in order to avoid commercials. Further, an important factor af-fecting the level of multitasking was whether the TV viewing was planned or unplanned. It was observed that this had an effect on the level of commercial avoidance when watching TV. Finally, four different models have been created as a framework to help marketers un-derstand the consumers behavior.</p> / <p><strong>Syfte: </strong></p><p>Syftet med avhandlingen är att, genom en etnografisk fallstudie, förstå 20-25 åringars multi-tasking vanor när de tittar på TV och att modeller för distraktioner som identifierats för mediekonsumtion.</p><p><strong>Bakgrund: </strong></p><p>De tekniska förändringarna och de nya möjligheterna för på vilka sätt media kan konsume-ras skapar ett behov av att förstå hur människor i åldrarna 20-25 konsumerar media. Re-klam på TV är i Sverige den marknadsföringskanal som företagen spenderar mest pengar på. De mesta av statistiken om tittarsiffror samlas på ett sätt som inte kan ge helt korrekt bild av det faktiska TV-tittande för konsumenterna, och därför är det nödvändigt att göra en fördjupad studie av mediekonsumtion vanorna för denna grupp.</p><p><strong>Metod: </strong></p><p>Studien kommer att genomföras genom en etnografisk fallstudie, där forskarna observerar ett urval av fyra personer i målgruppen under 10 separata tillfällen i objektets hem. Detta för att skapa en så naturlig miljö som möjligt. Varje observation kommer att vara i två timmar och under dessa observationer kommer forskarna studera objektens mediekonsum-tion vanor när de tittar på TV. Författarna kommer även att observera gruppens multita-sking vanor under TV tittandet, tillsammans med vilka media och distraktioner som kom-bineras i detta sammanhang.</p><p><strong>Slutsats: </strong></p><p>Författarna drar slutsatsen att multitasking är en vanlig företeelse i målgruppens mediekon-sumtion. Fyra kategorier är identifierade som distraherar tittarens fokus från TV reklam. De tre första kategorierna distraktioner nämligen social, media och övriga distraktioner. Den fjärde kategorin är tekniska åtgärder för att undvika reklam. En viktig faktor som på-verkar nivån av multitasking var om TV-tittandet var planerat eller oplanerat, och det kon-staterades att detta hade inverkan på nivån av kommersiell undvikelse när de tittade på TV. Författarna har skapat fyra modeller som kan användas för att underlätta för marknadsföra-re att förstå och nå denna målgrupp.</p>

Purpose: The purpose of the thesis is to, through an ethnographic case study, understand 20-25 year olds‘ multitasking habits when watching TV and to create a framework of the distractions identified for media consumption. Background: The changes in technology and the new possibilities of consuming media creates a need to understand how people in the ages of 20-25 consume media. Advertising on TV is, in Swe-den, the marketing channel that companies spend the largest amount of money on. Most of the statistics regarding viewing rates are collected in a way that might not give totally accu-rate picture of the actual TV viewing of the consumers. Therefore, it is necessary to do an in-depth study of the media consumption habits of this group. Method: The study will be conducted, through an ethnographic case study where the researchers ob-serve a sample of four people in the target group during 10 sessions. Each session will be two hours long, and during, the researchers will observe the group‘s media consumption habits when watching TV. The observers will also look at the multitasking habits of the group, what media and distractions are combined while watching TV. Conclusions: The researchers conclude that multitasking is a common occurrence in the target groups media consumption. The authors have identified four categories that distracts the viewer‘s focus from TV commercials. The first three are distractions being, social, media and non-media distractions. The fourth category is technical avoidance, where people tend to switch channels or mute the sound in order to avoid commercials. Further, an important factor af-fecting the level of multitasking was whether the TV viewing was planned or unplanned. It was observed that this had an effect on the level of commercial avoidance when watching TV. Finally, four different models have been created as a framework to help marketers un-derstand the consumers behavior. / Syfte: Syftet med avhandlingen är att, genom en etnografisk fallstudie, förstå 20-25 åringars multi-tasking vanor när de tittar på TV och att modeller för distraktioner som identifierats för mediekonsumtion. Bakgrund: De tekniska förändringarna och de nya möjligheterna för på vilka sätt media kan konsume-ras skapar ett behov av att förstå hur människor i åldrarna 20-25 konsumerar media. Re-klam på TV är i Sverige den marknadsföringskanal som företagen spenderar mest pengar på. De mesta av statistiken om tittarsiffror samlas på ett sätt som inte kan ge helt korrekt bild av det faktiska TV-tittande för konsumenterna, och därför är det nödvändigt att göra en fördjupad studie av mediekonsumtion vanorna för denna grupp. Metod: Studien kommer att genomföras genom en etnografisk fallstudie, där forskarna observerar ett urval av fyra personer i målgruppen under 10 separata tillfällen i objektets hem. Detta för att skapa en så naturlig miljö som möjligt. Varje observation kommer att vara i två timmar och under dessa observationer kommer forskarna studera objektens mediekonsum-tion vanor när de tittar på TV. Författarna kommer även att observera gruppens multita-sking vanor under TV tittandet, tillsammans med vilka media och distraktioner som kom-bineras i detta sammanhang. Slutsats: Författarna drar slutsatsen att multitasking är en vanlig företeelse i målgruppens mediekon-sumtion. Fyra kategorier är identifierade som distraherar tittarens fokus från TV reklam. De tre första kategorierna distraktioner nämligen social, media och övriga distraktioner. Den fjärde kategorin är tekniska åtgärder för att undvika reklam. En viktig faktor som på-verkar nivån av multitasking var om TV-tittandet var planerat eller oplanerat, och det kon-staterades att detta hade inverkan på nivån av kommersiell undvikelse när de tittade på TV. Författarna har skapat fyra modeller som kan användas för att underlätta för marknadsföra-re att förstå och nå denna målgrupp.

abstract: Driving a vehicle is a complex task that typically requires several physical interactions and mental tasks. Inattentive driving takes a driver’s attention away from the primary task of driving, which can endanger the safety of driver, passenger(s), as well as pedestrians. According to several traffic safety administration organizations, distracted and inattentive driving are the primary causes of vehicle crashes or near crashes. In this research, a novel approach to detect and mitigate various levels of driving distractions is proposed. This novel approach consists of two main phases: i.) Proposing a system to detect various levels of driver distractions (low, medium, and high) using a machine learning techniques. ii.) Mitigating the effects of driver distractions through the integration of the distracted driving detection algorithm and the existing vehicle safety systems. In phase- 1, vehicle data were collected from an advanced driving simulator and a visual based sensor (webcam) for face monitoring. In addition, data were processed using a machine learning algorithm and a head pose analysis package in MATLAB. Then the model was trained and validated to detect different human operator distraction levels. In phase 2, the detected level of distraction, time to collision (TTC), lane position (LP), and steering entropy (SE) were used as an input to feed the vehicle safety controller that provides an appropriate action to maintain and/or mitigate vehicle safety status. The integrated detection algorithm and vehicle safety controller were then prototyped using MATLAB/SIMULINK for validation. A complete vehicle power train model including the driver’s interaction was replicated, and the outcome from the detection algorithm was fed into the vehicle safety controller. The results show that the vehicle safety system controller reacted and mitigated the vehicle safety status-in closed loop real-time fashion. The simulation results show that the proposed approach is efficient, accurate, and adaptable to dynamic changes resulting from the driver, as well as the vehicle system. This novel approach was applied in order to mitigate the impact of visual and cognitive distractions on the driver performance. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Applied Psychology 2017

Doctor of Philosophy / Department of Civil Engineering / Sunanda Dissanayake / Young drivers are over-represented in crashes when compared to other age group drivers. Distracted driving is one of the major causes of traffic crashes by young drivers. The objective of this study was to assess the hazards of distracted driving among teenage (15–20 year old) and young-adult (21–26 year old) drivers in Kansas. This study used five years of crash data from the Kansas Crash and Analysis Reporting System (KCARS) database from 2011 to 2015. A multinomial logit modeling was used to identify the odds that a driver with a certain type of distraction would be involved in one of the three most common crash types: rear-end, angular, and single-vehicle crashes. Furthermore, ordered logistic modeling was used to analyze the crash data to identify the odds of more severe injuries for teenage and young-adult distracted drivers and their passengers involved in crashes. Survey data was used to develop a structural equation model (SEM) to define the relationship among young drivers’ characteristics (e.g., participants’ socioeconomic and demographic status), attitudes, and behaviors associated with distracted driving and cell phone use while driving. Preliminary analysis showed that more than 12% of the total young drivers’ crashes were distraction-affected crashes. According to the multinomial logit model results, most distraction types for teenage and young-adult drivers are related to rear-end or angular collisions. However, when distracted by cell phones at night, teenage drivers had a greater probability of being involved in single-vehicle crashes. In addition, when teenage drivers drove with their peers as front-seat passengers and were distracted in/on vehicle or by other electronic devices, they were more likely to be involved in single-vehicle crashes. Young-adult drivers distracted in/on vehicle or by cell phones under different conditions such as while driving old or sport utility vehicles, on curved roads, or at intersections, they were more likely to be involved in single-vehicle or angular crashes. Whereas, when they were inattentive during the weekend, rear-end collisions were the most likely collision type. According to the results of the ordered logistic model, teenage and young-adult drivers were more likely to be severely injured in cell phone-related crashes. More specifically, female teenage drivers had a greater probability of being severely injured than male teenage drivers when they were distracted by a cell phone, inside the vehicle, or were inattentive. Young-adult drivers that were distracted on road construction work zones by a cell phone or inside the vehicle, they and their passengers had a greater likelihood of sustaining a severe injury. The SEM results revealed that teenage drivers are more prone than young-adult drivers to drive while distracted and are less likely to support the Kansas laws that ban cell phone use while driving. Also, the model results showed that young drivers who have been involved in crashes or near-crashes during the previous year are more likely to drive while distracted. These results indicate that distractions create threats to the lives of young Kansas drivers, their passengers, and other road users.

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to explore the experiences of registered nurses when practicing ubiety. SPECIFIC AIMS: The specific aims of the study were to: Describe the attributes of the nurse, the care environment, and the person-centered processes nurses needed to possess in order to immerse themselves physically, cognitively, and spiritually into caring for one patient at a time in midst of distractions Explore possible patient-related and nurse-related outcomes when caring for one patient at a time in amidst distractions DESIGN: Qualitative descriptive study guided with the Person-Centered Nursing (PCN) Theory by McCormack and McCance, (2006). A purposive sampling technique was used. RESULTS: 13 nurses, who were nominated to receive the Daisy Award were recruited. One overarching theme: Practicing Ubiety—Making the patient the star of that minute, and 5 subthemes emerged: anticipating and managing distractions, putting my whole self in, self-preservation, my nursing identity, favorable practice environment. In addition, patient-related and nurse-related outcomes were identified. CONCLUSION: Ubiety is a concept that is practiced by expert nurses. Results add to existing knowledge about the characteristics of exemplar nurses who practice person-centered nursing care. The importance of anticipating patient needs as a way to deal with distractions and working with nurses to individualize self-preservation strategies are emphasized.

The present thesis focuses on the relationship between cognitive distractions and female ability to achieve orgasm and female sexual function. The theoretical part summarises current knowledge about female sexual response, the ability to achieve orgasm and explains the concept of cognitive distractions in the context of the spectatoring theory and cognitive interference. The empirical part is split into two phases. First one describes the process of creation, pilot measurements and psychometric evaluation of own measuring tool, Cognitive distractions questionnaire (Dotazník kognitivních distraktorů, DKD). It presents three independent subscales - sexual behavior (DKD-S), negative body image (DKD- B) and bad timing (DKD-C). All subscales were evauated via confirmatory factorial analysis and showed good reliability. The second phase was designed as an explorative correlation study. It focused on finding a relationship between distractions of each subscale of DKD and female ability to achieve orgasm, which was measured with Female Sexual Function Index (FSFI, Rosen et al., 2000). Data was collected via a snowball method with an online questionnaire. Sample consisted of 352 women in the age between 18 and 56 years. Spearman correlation indicated a negative relationship between distractions of sexual...

Out-of-vehicle distractions were identified as contributing factors to about 29.4 % of all crashes that were reported between the years 1995 to 1999 (Stutts J. K., 2005; Stutts J. R., 2001).These crash statistics are from a decade ago. With the increase of cars, pedestrians, shops,vendors, billboards and signs over the last decade it can be safely assumed that the driving environment is more complex now and has greater potential for external driver distraction. Given this, it is important to know the effects of out-of-vehicle distraction on drivers’ ability to drive safely in their presence. With this in mind, a driving simulator study was conducted that compared younger novice and older experienced drivers on their ability to maintain their attention on the forward roadway, anticipate potential hazards and maintain vehicle control while performing an out-of-vehicle tasks. The results of the experiment indicate that both age groups took equally long glances away from the forward roadway at the out-of-vehicle task and that these long glances away from the forward roadway had a negative effects on the hazard anticipation performance of both age groups. In addition, these long glances away from the forward roadway did have a significantly negative impact on the lane maintainence ability of younger drivers as compared to their experienced counterparts but these long glances away from the forward roadway did not seem to affect the speed maintainence abilities of either group. No matter what the vehicle measures indicate, it is clear that both age groups are at elevated risk of crashing when they are attending to tasks that are outside the vehicle.