Office of Aerospace Medicine Technical Reports
FAA Office of Aerospace Medicine
Civil Aerospace Medical Institute
Report No: DOT/FAA/AM-82/16
Title and Subtitle: Performance of 40- to 50-year- old subjects on a radar monitoring task: The effects of wearing bifocal glasses and interpolated rest periods on target detection time
Report Date: April 1982
Authors: Thackray RI, Touchstone RM
Abstract: The present study examines the effects of wearing bifocal glasses and interpolated rest periods on the performance of 40- to 50-year-old subjects on a radar monitoring task. The visual display was designed to resemble an air traffic control radar display containing computer-generated alphanumeric symbols.
Forty men and women were divided into four equal-sized groups, with each group consisting of one of the four possible combinations of bifocal/no-bifocal and rest/no-rest conditions. All subjects were tested over a 2-hour session. Rest periods (a 5-minute break every 30 minutes) significantly reduced the performance decrement of 40- to 50-year-old subjects, bringing performance to a level approximating that of 18- to 29-year-old subjects without rest periods. The wearing of bifocal glasses did not contribute to visual strain or somatic discomfort.
Key Words: Air traffic control, Age, Attention, Bifocal glasses, Monitoring, Rest periods, Video display terminals, Vigilance
No. of Pages: 11
Civil Aerospace Medical Institute
Report No: DOT/FAA/AM-82/16
Title and Subtitle: Performance of 40- to 50-year- old subjects on a radar monitoring task: The effects of wearing bifocal glasses and interpolated rest periods on target detection time
Report Date: April 1982
Authors: Thackray RI, Touchstone RM
Abstract: The present study examines the effects of wearing bifocal glasses and interpolated rest periods on the performance of 40- to 50-year-old subjects on a radar monitoring task. The visual display was designed to resemble an air traffic control radar display containing computer-generated alphanumeric symbols.
Forty men and women were divided into four equal-sized groups, with each group consisting of one of the four possible combinations of bifocal/no-bifocal and rest/no-rest conditions. All subjects were tested over a 2-hour session. Rest periods (a 5-minute break every 30 minutes) significantly reduced the performance decrement of 40- to 50-year-old subjects, bringing performance to a level approximating that of 18- to 29-year-old subjects without rest periods. The wearing of bifocal glasses did not contribute to visual strain or somatic discomfort.
Key Words: Air traffic control, Age, Attention, Bifocal glasses, Monitoring, Rest periods, Video display terminals, Vigilance
No. of Pages: 11
Last updated: Friday, June 1, 2012