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Automation regroups a variety of advanced tools meant to improve performance and decrease human workload. This article was designed to investigate how different automation solutions, engaging different human–machine cooperation modes, interact with expertise. Aircraft pilots (i.e., experts) and nonpilots (i.e., novices) were presented with a set of simplified flight piloting tasks monitored simultaneously using the Open MATB (Open Multiattribute Task Battery) in four different automation conditions (manual, assisted, cooperative, and supervisory control). Experts’ performances at the Open MATB were higher than those of novices. Experts also exhibited a lower level of workload. Apart from function delegation, where no human performance is required, automation solutions benefit experts and novices similarly. Participants were then asked to choose repeatedly between the four automation conditions. Experts and novices exhibited different strategies. Novices spread their choices over the different automation conditions, whereas experts clearly favor cooperative control, the automation solution that enhanced their expertise.

International audience; The present study examined the evolution of the behavioral performance, subjectively perceived difficulty, and hemodynamic activity of the prefrontal cortex as a function of cognitive load during two different cognitive tasks tapping executive functions. Additionally, it investigated therelationships between these behavioral, subjective, and neuroimaging data. Nineteen right-handed young adults (18–22 years) were scanned using continuous-wave functional near-infrared spectroscopy during the performance of n-back and random number generation tasks in three cognitiveload conditions. Four emitter and four receptor optodes were fixed bilaterally over the ventrolateral and dorsolateral prefrontal cortices to record the hemodynamic changes. A self-reported scale measured the perceived difficulty. The findings of this study showed that an increasing cognitive loaddeteriorated the behavioral performance and increased the perceived difficulty. The hemodynamic activity increased parametrically for the three cognitive loads of the random number generation task and in a two-back and three-back compared to a one-back condition. In addition, the hemodynamic activity was specifically greater in the ventrolateral prefrontal cortex than in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex for both cognitive tasks (random number generation and n-back tasks). Finally, the results highlighted some links between cerebral oxygenation and the behavioral performance, but not the subjectively perceived difficulty. Our results suggest that cognitive load affects the executive performance and perceived difficulty and that fNIRS can be used to specify the prefrontal cortex’s implications for executive tasks involving inhibition and working memory updating.

International audience; There has been a considerable amount of research to conceptualize how cognition handle multitasking situations. Despite these efforts, it is still not clear how task parameters shape attentionnal resources allocation. For instance, many research have suggested that difficulty levels could explain these conflicting observations and very few have considered other factors such as task importance. In the present study, twenty participants had to carry out two N-Back tasks simultaneously, each subtask having distinct difficulty (0,1 or 2-Back) and importance (1 or 3 points) levels. Participants's cumulative dwell time were collected to assess their attentional strategies. Results showed that depending on the global level of difficulty (combination of the two levels of difficulty), attentional resources of people were driven either by the subtask difficulty (under low-global-difficulty) or the subtask importance (under high-global-difficulty), in a non-compensatory way. We discussed these results in terms of decision-making heuristics and metacognition.

International audience; Cette étude a pour but d’étudier la supervision de système lors de l’utilisation de deux types de systèmesautomatisés : statique ou adaptatif. Notre objectif est d’étudier ces derniers dans des situations où la fiabilitén’est pas parfaite. Nous avons confronté 80 participants à trois tâches du Multi Attribute Task Battery (MATB).Nous avons manipulé quatre niveaux de fiabilité différentes et deux types de systèmes automatisés. Un systèmeadaptatif avec des sessions de contrôle manuel planifiées, ainsi qu’un système statique, où le contrôle nechangeait jamais. Nos résultats ont montré que les participants ne mettaient pas en place les mêmes stratégiesd’allocations visuelles d’attention selon les niveaux de fiabilité du système. Sous un système statique, lesparticipants passaient plus de temps sur la tâche avec le niveau 0% de fiabilité, que dans le niveau 100% où lasurveillance était réduite. Sous un système adaptatif, le comportement visuel était le même mais moins prononcé.Nos données ont également montré des résultats intéressants dans les sessions manuelles où les différentsniveaux de fiabilité n’entrainent pas le même comportement visuel des participants lorsqu’ils retournent ensupervision de système. Le niveau de fiabilité 56.25% a entrainé plus d’implication visuelle des participantsdurant les sessions automatisées, suivant une session de contrôle manuelle.

International audience; We compared automation monitoring evolution of static or adaptive automation for four different reliability levels over 90 minutes. Previous studies have demonstrated degraded human performance when monitoring automation and that it is possible to mitigate this monitoring performance drop by using adaptive automation. We used the Open Multi-Attribute Task Battery to manipulate two type of automation (static automation without manual take-over sessions and adaptive automation with planned take-over sessions) and four levels of reliability. Participants performed three simultaneous tasks, one of which was automated. Our results suggest that a perfectly reliable or a totally unreliable automation led to different strategies by the participants in terms of visual allocation policy. Under static automation, the time spent looking at the automated task in the 0% reliability level increased over the duration of the experiment; however, the opposite was observed for the 100% reliability level. Although similar, the magnitude of this pattern of results was largely diminished under adaptive automation. For static automation, the reported data also showed a direct link between trust in automation and visual scanning strategies. The more the trust increased, the less the automated task was looked at.

International audience; Previous research has suggested that information and action automation stages do not imply the same consequences for human performance in the supervision of automated systems. Still, only a few studies have simultaneously investigated these stages. When information and action automation are reliable, both can support performance. However, with unreliable aids, the literature has suggested that action automation tends to be more detrimental than information automation. This study aimed to assess the contributions of imperfect information and action automation on attentional allocation and to investigate a potential monitoring inefficiency in a multitasking environment. Participants (n = 96) completed three Multi-Attribute Task Battery (MATB) tasks. A monitoring task was automated with two types of automation (action or information) of four reliabilities each (0%; 56.25%; 87.5%; 100%). Ocular behaviors and performance were assessed. Results show that reliability of information automation influenced visual resource allocation. When information automation was the most reliable, participants spent the least amount of time sampling the monitoring task. Finally, the reliability of action automation triggered no effect on performance or cumulative dwell times. Our results suggest that in complex multitasking situations where information and action automation occurred simultaneously, participants allocated fewer visual resources to automated task with increased information automation reliability. Similarly, their performance was better only with increased information automation.

International audience; The aging process does not progress at the same speed between individuals (Hertzog, Kramer, Wilson, & Lindenberger,2008). The following two categories of factors moderate the speed of aging and explain a large part of the variance in the cognitive performance of individuals throughout the life span: genetic factors and lifestyle factors. Genetic factors are related to genetic polymorphisms that can influence cognitive phenotypes. Lifestyle factors notably include the amount of physical activity (PA) practiced every week throughout a long period (e.g., 1 year) and the dietary habits. This chapter aimsto specify the relationships among the following four variables: aging, inhibitory control, the genetic polymorphism of the brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) gene located at codon 66, and PA.In the second and following section, we focus on inhibitory control and show its crucial role in cognition and daily living. In the third section, we discuss on the unity and diversity of inhibitory processes. In the fourth section, we presentthe two main categories of effortful inhibitory control and their brain substrates. In the fifth section, we address the deleterious effect of aging on this important executive function. In the sixth section, we explain the role of neurotrophins, and more particularly the brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), in brain plasticity and brain health, and present the gene that affects its trafficking and secretion. In the seventh and eighth parts, we review the role of the genetic polymorphism of this gene in cognition during aging. Finally, in the ninth section, we examine the moderating role of physicalactivity and eating behaviors in the relationship between BDNF polymorphism and cognitive aging.

International audience; The Road Freight Transport (RFT) sector is continuously evolving, being confronted with intense competition and growing pressure from customers and suppliers, tight delivery times, and many regulations. All these factors lead the RFT sector to face multiple economic, environmental, and safety challenges. In these companies, the planner has a central position. The tasks of planner include supervising the transport round, keeping contact with the drivers during delivery, providing new instructions when needed, ensuring order follow-up with customers, etc. Such tasks require a high cognitive load which implies difficulties for planners in assessing the consequences of their decisions in terms of economic, environmental, and safety dimensions. In this study, principles of prospective ergonomics have been tested to support the transition from a human-based decision making to a computer-supported decision-making to anticipate the future computer-supported decision-making. We focused on the effect of system transparency and reliability. We confronted six planners with planning problems. We modified information available on planning to provide high and low levels of transparency. Starting from real issues, we also generated reliable and unreliable solutions (for these latter by adding invalid data). For each problem, planners were asked to assess the quality of the proposed solutions and indicators. The results showed than planners give a higher score to reliable scenarios displaying reliable information than to a less reliable scenario in which information is modified. This assessment of scenario is more adequate and easier with high transparency than with low transparency of information.

International audience; The concepts of robustness and resilience are used with increasing frequency from different sectors. The literature review reveals several meanings for each of these terms due probably to specific use in each of the sectors and a progressive adjustment of the definitions across the time. The aims of this article are to identify these definitions and the main similarities and difference between the concepts of resilience and robustness and to propose a classification of them in order to avoid confusions, bad meaning and to provide a better understanding of the subtleties under these concepts. Based on a structured analysis of the literature published in journals of different sectors this paper conceptualizes and comprehensively presents a systematic review of the recent literature on robustness and resilience definitions. Decision-makers and researchers can benefit from our survey since it introduces a structured analysis and recommendations as to which definitions can be used.

International audience; OpenMATB is an open-source variant of the Multi-Attribute Task Battery (MATB) and is available under a free software license. MATB consists of a set of tasks representative of those performed in aircraft piloting. It is used, in particular, to study the effect of automation on decision-making, mental workload, and vigilance. Since the publication of MATB 20 years ago, the subject of automation has grown considerably in importance. After introducing the task battery, this article highlights three main requirements for an up-to-date implementation of MATB. First, there is a need for task customization, to make it possible to change the values, appearance or integrated components (such as rating scales) of the tasks. Second, researchers need software extensibility to enable them to integrate specific features, such as synchronization with psychophysiological devices. Third, to achieve experiment replicability, it is necessary that the source code and the scenario files are easily available and auditable. In the present paper, we explain how these aspects are implemented in OpenMATB by presenting the software architecture and features, while placing special emphasis on the crucial role of the plugin system and the simplicity of the format used in the script files. Finally, we present a number of general trends for the future study of automation in human factors research and ergonomics.

The present study investigated the role of executive functions in the development of two aspects of timing: temporal reproduction and comparison. Children aged 7 and 10 years and young adults were asked to either reproduce target durations (i.e., reproduction task) or judge the similarity of two target durations (i.e., comparison task). These temporal tasks were performed in isolation (single-task condition) or in conjunction (dual-task condition) with an executive task tapping inhibitory control (i.e., Stroop-like interference in animals size task). The results showed that the concurrent executive task degraded temporal performance to a greater extent at the age of 7 years than in older children and adults, and that it had much less influence on temporal comparison than on temporal reproduction. Conversely, regardless of age group, the concurrent timing of stimuli decreased response accuracy in the inhibitory control task in both temporal tasks, but to a greater extent in the comparison than the reproduction task. Furthermore, the dual task condition reduced response time in the executive task, but only in children aged 7 years -and not in older children and adults. Thus, both duration reproduction and comparison relate to executive functions, although the relation is stronger for reproduction. Importantly, timing progress during childhood stems at least partly from more efficient executive functions (more specifically inhibitory control).

International audience; In the present study, participants played a modified ultimatum game simulating a situation of inclusion/exclusion, in which either the participant or a rival could be selected to play as the responder. This selection was made either randomly by a computer (i.e. random pairing mode) or by the proposer (i.e. choice mode), based on physical appearance. Being chosen by the proposer triggered positive reciprocal behavior in participants, who accepted unfair offers more frequently than when they had been selected by the computer. Independently of selection mode, greater P200 amplitudes were found when participants received fair offers than when they received unfair offers and when unfair shares were offered to their rivals rather than to them, suggesting that receiving fair offers or observing a rival's misfortune was rewarding for participants. While participants generally showed more interest in the offers they themselves received (i.e. greater P300 responses to these offers), observing their rivals receive fair shares after the latter had been chosen by the proposer triggered an increase in P300 amplitude likely to ref lect a feeling of envy. This study provides new insights into both the cognitive and affective processes underpinning economic decision making in a context of social inclusion/exclusion.

International audience; A seminal work by Sheridan and Verplank depicted 10 levels of automation, ranging from no automation to an automation that acts completely autonomously without human support. These levels of automation were later complemented with a four-stage model of human information processing. Next, human-machine cooperation centred models and associated cooperation modes were introduced. The objective of the experiment was to test which human-machine theorie describe automation use better. The participants were asked to choose repeatedly between four automation types (i.e. no automation, warning, co-action, function delegation) to complete three multi-attribute task battery tasks. The results showed that the participants favour the selection of automation types offering the best human-machine interactions quality rather that the most effective automation type. Contrary to human-machine cooperation models, technology centred models could not predict accurately automation selection. The most advanced automation was not the most selected.Practitioner Summary: The experiment dealt with how people select different automation types to complete the multi-attribute task battery that emulates recreational aircraft pilot tasks. Automation performance was not the main criteria that explain automation use, as people tend to select an automation type based on the quality of the human-machine cooperation.

International audience; If it can be assumed that positive affect modulates cognitive control, the underlying mechanisms remain unclear. The main aim of this study was to investigate how positive affect influences proactive and reactive modes of control and to explore the temporal dynamic of this influence, in terms of its transient and/or sustained effects. We used the AX-continuous performance task, combined with event-related potentials (ERP) recording. The results showed that positive affect impaired proactive control. More specifically, response preparation was weaker, as highlighted by a decreased contingent negative variation (CNV), prior to the target. As a consequence, conflict detection, as reflected by the N2 component, was decreased under positive affect. The P3a, associated with conflict resolution, remained unaffected by positive emotion, suggesting a lack of reactive control modulation. These effects were diffuse and did not appear on a transient timescale, highlighting the importance of positive emotion's time course for how it influences cognitive control processes.

International audience; We examined the effects of time pressure on duration estimation in a verbal estimation task and a production task. In both temporal tasks, participants had to solve mazes in two conditions of time pressure (with or without), and with three different target durations (30 s, 60 s, and 90 s). In each trial of the verbal estimation task, participants had to estimate in conventional time units (minutes and seconds) the amount of time that had elapsed since they started to solve the maze. In the production task, they had to press a key while solving the maze when they thought that the trial's duration had reached a target value. Results showed that in both tasks, durations were judged longer with time pressure than without it. However, this temporal overestimation under time pressure did not increase with the length of the target duration. These results are discussed within the framework of scalar expectancy theory.

International audience; Positive affect strongly modulates goal-directed behaviors and cognitive control mechanisms. It often results from the presence of a pleasant stimulus in the environment, whether that stimulus appears unpredictably or as a consequence of a particular behavior. The influence of positive affect linked to a random pleasant stimulus differs from the influence of positive affect resulting from performance-contingent pleasant stimuli. However, the mechanisms by which the performance contingency of pleasant stimuli modulates the influence of positive affect on cognitive control mechanisms have not been elucidated. Here, we tested the hypothesis that these differentiated effects are the consequence of the activation of the motivational “wanting” component specifically under performance contingency conditions. To that end, we directly compared the effects on cognitive control of pleasant stimuli (a monetary reward) attributed in a performance contingent manner, and of random pleasant stimuli (positive picture) not related to performance, during an AX-CPT task. Both proactive and reactive modes of control were increased specifically by performance contingency, as reflected by faster reaction times and larger amplitude of the CNV and P3a components. Our findings advance our understanding of the respective effects of affect and motivation, which is of special interest regarding alterations of emotion–motivation interaction found in several psychopathological disorders.

International audience; Automated systems changed the role of the human operator from active controller to supervisor of automated system. This new role comes with several human factors issues, as monitoring inefficiency. Some authors showed that it is possible to mitigate this monitoring performance drop using adaptive automation. Here, we assessed the consequences of a return to manual control with four different levels of automation reliability on eighty students. We compared the effect of the introduction of two manual sessions to exclusively automated sessions (total duration 90 min) using the MATB-II (i.e., intermittent vs permanent automation). Results showed that participants spend more time looking at the automated task in the 0% level reliability compared to 100% level of reliability over the time whatever the automation type. Manuals sessions in intermittent automation group had an impact on the time spend looking at the automated monitoring task.

International audience; Two experimental studies were carried out to investigate whether adding multimedia features in a concept mapping task would improve the quality of the map built by students and promote more effective learning with expository hypertexts. Ninety-Nine undergraduates built a concept map to learn about a topic (water cycle or nitrogen cycle) either with a text-based or with a multimedia presentation of concepts (i.e. concepts were presented as textual labels illustrated with relevant pictures). Multimedia presentation of concepts was expected to foster the construction of a more elaborate concept map, to increase information processing and to improve learning outcome. Results of the two experiments were consistent by showing that multimedia presentation led learners to spend more time building the concept map and to build more coherent maps (i.e. text-based inter-connected concepts). In addition, experiment 2 showed that the multimedia presentation of concepts in concept mapping could also foster deeper exploration of the hypertext. However, learning outcomes were not affected by the learning conditions.

International audience; Automated systems are becoming increasingly prevalent in our societies. Several authors have identified the existence of the complacency phenomenon in supervision tasks, which imply automation execution or industrial computer support. The purpose of this study was to investigate failures of cooperation between human operator and automation. In this paper, we focused on the complacency as a low degree of suspicion towards the proposals of automation, leading to a monitoring deterioration. The main objective was to compare two types of automation, action automation vs information automation, in complacency. We recruited 96 participants to complete three tasks from the Multi-Attribute Task Battery. We found an effect of two types of automation on performance. Detection rate and reaction time were better when failures were reported by information automation than when it was not reported. Eye movements data showed that the automated task was less monitored when the reliability of information was high. We did not find an effect of reliability on NASA TLX score. Finally, we found that information automation can lead to complacency phenomenon. CCS CONCEPTS Human-centered computing-Human computer interaction (HCI)-HCI design and evaluation methods-Laboratory experiments Human-centered computing-Interaction design-Empirical studies in interaction design

ISBN des actes : 979-10-92329-04-9; International audience; Le phénomène de contentement est une conséquence négative pouvant apparaître lorsque nous utilisons un système automatisé. Afin de vérifier si ce phénomène peut également intervenir avec des automates de l'information (i.e interfaces) qui sont de plus en plus présents dans notre quotidien (Smartphone, logiciels d'aide à la décision, etc.), nous avons confronté 96 participants à trois tâches du Multi Attribute Task Battery (MATB). Une tâche de détection de pannes était automatisée selon 2 types d'automate : action (répare automatiquement les pannes) vs. Information (signale les pannes) et selon 4 niveaux de fiabilité (0 ; 56,25; 87,5; 100%). Un effet de la fiabilité de l'automate sur la performance quel que soit le type d'automate a été trouvé. Le taux de détection et le temps de réaction étaient meilleurs lorsque les pannes étaient signalées par l'automate de l'information que lorsqu'elles ne l'étaient pas. Les données eye-tracker ont montré que la tâche automatisée était surveillée moins longtemps lorsque la fiabilité de l'automate de l'information était élevée. Cependant, aucun effet n'a été trouvé pour le score NASA TLX. Ainsi, un automate de l'information peut également engendrer un phénomène de contentement.

International audience

The present study aimed to examine the effects of chronological age and cardiorespiratory fitness (CRF) on cognitive performance and prefrontal cortex activity, and to test the compensation-related utilization of neural circuits hypothesis (CRUNCH). A total of 19 young adults (18&ndash, 22 years) and 37 older ones (60&ndash, 77 years) with a high or low CRF level were recruited to perform a working memory updating task under three different cognitive load conditions. Prefrontal cortex hemodynamic responses were continuously recorded using functional near-infrared spectroscopy, and behavioral performances and perceived difficulty were measured. Results showed that chronological age had deleterious effects on both cognitive performance and prefrontal cortex activation under a higher cognitive load. In older adults, however, higher levels of CRF were related to increased bilateral prefrontal cortex activation patterns that allowed them to sustain better cognitive performances, especially under the highest cognitive load. These results are discussed in the light of the neurocognitive CRUNCH model.

ObjectiveThe objective was to characterize multitask resource reallocation strategies when managing subtasks with various assigned values.BackgroundWhen solving a resource conflict in multitasking, Salvucci and Taatgen predict a globally rational strategy will be followed that favors the most urgent subtask and optimizes global performance. However, Katidioti and Taatgen identified a locally rational strategy that optimizes only a subcomponent of the whole task, leading to detrimental consequences on global performance. Moreover, the question remains open whether expertise would have an impact on the choice of the strategy.MethodWe adopted a multitask environment used for pilot selection with a change in emphasis on two out of four subtasks while all subtasks had to be maintained over a minimum performance. A laboratory eye-tracking study contrasted 20 recently selected pilot students considered as experienced with this task and 15 university students considered as novices.ResultsWhen two subtasks were emphasized, novices focused their resources particularly on one high-value subtask and failed to prevent both low-value subtasks falling below minimum performance. On the contrary, experienced people delayed the processing of one low-value subtask but managed to optimize global performance.ConclusionIn a multitasking environment where some subtasks are emphasized, novices follow a locally rational strategy whereas experienced participants follow a globally rational strategy.ApplicationDuring complex training, trainees are only able to adjust their resource allocation strategy to subtask emphasis changes once they are familiar with the multitasking environment.

International audience; Introduction. Cognitive reserve (CR) was proposed to explain how individual differences in brain function help to cope with the effects of normal aging and neurodegenerative diseases. Education, professional solicitations, and engagement in leisure and physical activities across the lifetime are considered as major determinants of this reserve. Method. Using multiple linear regression analyses, we tested separately in healthy elderly and Parkinson’s disease (PD) populations to what extent cognitive performance in several domains was explained by (a) any of these four environmental lifespan variables; (b) demographic and clinical variables (age, gender, depression score, and, for the PD group, duration of disease and dopaminergic drugs). We also tested for an interaction, if any, between these lifespan variables and brain pathology indexed by global atrophy measured from high-resolution anatomical magnetic resonance imaging. Results. Age was negatively associated with cognitive performance in the PD group. In healthy elderly participants, we observed significant positive associations between cognitive performance and (a) education, (b) leisure activities, and (c) professional solicitation (decisional latitude). Furthermore, participants with greater brain atrophy benefited more from CR. In PD patients, education and professional solicitations contributed to cognitive performance but to a lesser extent than in controls. CR factors modulated the relationship between cognition and brain atrophy only in patients with a slight or moderate brain atrophy. Conclusions. Education is the CR factor that contributed the most to late cognitive functioning in both groups, closely followed by leisure activity in normal aging and professional solicitations in PD. Our results also provide evidence suggesting that the effects of CR does not express similarly in normal aging and PD. From a broader perspective, these results seem to indicate that CR factors the most consistently practiced across lifespan (education and professional solicitation) are those that are the more strongly associated to late cognitive efficiency.

Background While the ability to measure time correctly is crucial for adaptation to the external physical and social environment, to date, research on timing ability and its development in individuals with intellectual disability (ID) is unfortunately remarkably scarce. Aims In the present study, we investigated the ability of individuals with mild ID to estimate durations and the development of this ability from 11 to 19 years, in comparison to typically developing (TD) individuals. Methods and procedures Participants with mild ID and TD participants matched on chronological age completed two temporal tasks: (1) a temporal bisection of auditory stimuli, in which they had to decide whether arbitrary stimulus duration was more similar to the short (200 ms) or the long (800 ms) standard previously learned, and (2) a temporal categorization of familiar actions, in which short, medium or long target durations had to be paired with one of three comparison action durations. Outcomes and results Temporal performance was systematically impaired in participants with mild ID. Moreover, the temporal impairment increased with age in the bisection task but not in the categorization task. Conclusions and implications These findings suggest that the ability to estimate durations develops at a slower pace in individuals with mild ID compared to TD individuals., Psychology; Timing; Time estimation; Familiar duration; Mild intellectual disability; Development

Faced with a growing technological evolution-oriented design and automation, studying the effects of mental workload on human efficiency and adaptability arouses genuine interest. The objective of this manuscript is to evaluate the mental workload and to highlight its effects on efficiency, resulting in a behavioral and physiological adaptability of the operator. More precisely, it is a matter of varying the task demand (for example, the difficulty, the temporal pressure, the complexity) to evaluate and identify the effects on the behavioral and physiological adaptability of operator. Behavioral and physiological adaptability was indexed by performance and pre-ejection period reactivity related to effort mobilization. The first article allowed us to highlight a curvilinear effect of mental workload on behavioral and physiological adaptability, as postulated by Hancock and Szalma (2006). The second article has showed that the temporal pressure could to a certain extent promote behavioral adaptability, especially the implementation of strategy. The third article has demonstrated that the air traffic control complex tasks are likely to activate a performance-effort trade-off resulting both behavioral and physiological adaptability of the operator.The applicative purpose of this thesis is to highlight the importance of human factors in the environments design loop, in order to rethink them and/or to bring in tools of help if necessary, at the most opportune moment and in its form the most convincing, in order to promote an optimal mental workload., Face à une évolution technologique croissante centrée sur la conception et l’automatisation pour plus de performance, étudier les effets de la charge mentale de travail sur l’efficience et l’adaptabilité humaine présente un réel intérêt.L’objectif de ce manuscrit est d’évaluer la charge mentale de travail et de mettre en évidence ses effets sur l’efficience, se traduisant par une adaptabilité comportementale et physiologique de l’opérateur. Plus précisément, il s’agit de faire varier les exigences de la tâche (par exemple, la difficulté, la pression temporelle, la complexité) pour évaluer et identifier les effets engendrés sur l’adaptabilité de l’opérateur. L’adaptabilité comportementale était indexée à la performance avec la mise en place de stratégie et l’adaptabilité physiologique à la mobilisation de l’effort mental avec le score de réactivité de la période de pré-éjection. Le premier chapitre démontre un effet curvilinéaire de la charge mentale de travail sur l’adaptabilité comportementale et physiologique, comme postulé par Hancock et Szalma (2006). Le second chapitre met en évidence que la pression temporelle pouvait dans une certaine mesure favoriser l’adaptabilité comportementale, notamment la mise en place de stratégie. Le troisième chapitre montre que les tâches complexes de contrôle du trafic aérien permettent l’activation du compromis performance-effort se traduisant par une adaptabilité comportementale et physiologique de l’opérateur. Ce manuscrit met en lumière l’importance des facteurs humains dans la boucle de conception des environnements de travail, afin de les repenser et/ou de faire intervenir des outils d’aide si nécessaire, au moment le plus opportun et sous sa forme la plus probante, afin de favoriser une charge mentale optimale.

International audience; Janet (1928) explique que « la mesure du temps c’est au fond la mesure de la durée ». Nous avons choisi de nous centrer sur cette notion qui n’est autre que le temps estimé entre le début et la fin d’un évènement. L’objectif de cette recherche est d’étudier la perception et l’estimation des durées chez des jeunes déficients intellectuels légers âgés de 10 à 14 ans et n’ayant pas de troubles associés. Une tâche de bissection temporelle et une épreuve de catégorisation de durées d’actions familières leur ont été proposées. La première consiste à comparer des durées de stimuli auditifs purement arbitraires et la seconde à catégoriser des actions de la vie quotidienne selon leur durée. Les sujets ont été appariés avec des jeunes tout-venant de même âge chronologique d’une part, et avec des jeunes tout-venant de même niveau d’efficience intellectuelle d’autre part. Conformément à notre hypothèse, les jeunes porteurs de déficience intellectuelle ont pour les deux tâches, des résultats significativement inférieurs à ceux de jeunes non-déficients de même âge chronologique. Cependant, contrairement à ce que nous avions imaginé, ils sont également moins performants dans la bissection temporelle que les enfants non déficients appariés par âge mental. Toutefois, l’étude a été poursuivie cette année par une autre étudiante en orthophonie et en augmentant le nombre de jeunes inclus, les résultats s’en sont trouvés légèrement modifiés : il semblerait que les performances temporelles soient comparables celles des tout-venant appariés par âge mental. Pour la suite de la recherche, il a été décidé cette année de garder le même protocole mais de s’intéresser au développement de la capacité d’estimation des durées chez ces jeunes : leur développement est-il retardé ou atypique ? Afin d’estimer la trajectoire développementale, trois groupes seront créés avec des tranches de 7 – 11 ans ; 12 – 15 ans ; 16 – 21 ans. Nous espérons ainsi que les recherches dans ce domaine ouvriront de larges perspectives pour la prise en charge de ces jeunes et pour de futures études.

National audience

International audience; Road Freight Transport (RFT) companies represent 37,200 companies and roughly 420,000 employees. This sector is confronted by strong competition and growing pressure from customers and suppliers, tight delivery times, exacerbated flexibility, etc. In parallel, they are required to fulfill performance duties in terms of preventing risks of occupational accidents and diseases. In 2016, CNAM statistics reports 70 deaths per year, 3,000,000 work days lost, an average 6 work days lost per employee, an index of frequency (73‰). The planner builds the transport rounds by integrating at best all dimensions (regulation, economic, environmental and prevention of health and safety of their employees). In this context, the Smart Planning project aims to develop a computer system to help create more balanced planning. The purpose of this paper is to present the first results. It proposes, with an ergonomic analysis, to identify the prescribed and tacit constraints manipulated by the planners in two companies. A questionnaire is drawn up to validate and enrich the data on the health and safety dimension.This study is not a business case; it is ergonomic analysis to validate different determinants identified (health and safety) and investigates the assessment of these determinants and their possible consideration during planning.

International audience; A l’heure où le vieillissement de la population devient une préoccupation grandissante, avec ses enjeux économiques, sociétaux, et de politique de santé, les recherches portant sur les possibles facteurs de protection tel que l’activité physique (AP) s’intensifient. Objectifs : La présente étude examine l’impact de la pratique d’une AP au cours de la vie sur les performances cognitives. Plus spécifiquement, il s’agit d’évaluer dans quelle mesure l’effet de l’AP régulière change selon l’âge au cours du vieillissement et diffère selon le type de fonction cognitive considérée. Méthodologie : Plus de 120 participants en bonne santé habituelle âgés de 18 à 82 ans ont participé à l’étude. Ils ont complétés des questionnaires sur leur pratique de l’AP et ont été catégorisés en sédentaires ou actifs selon leur niveau d’activité physique récente (6 derniers mois) et antérieure (tout au long de la vie). Ils ont réalisés diverses tâches cognitives notamment exécutives évaluant l’inhibition, la mise à jour et la flexibilité mentale. Résultats : Les résultats met en évidence un effet positif de l’AP récente sur la cognition. Cependant, cet effet n’est pas le même selon l’âge et le sexe des participants. Cet effet est spécifique au type de processus exécutif impliqué dans les tâches. Enfin, l’activité antérieure ne semble pas influencer les résultats. Conclusion : Cette étude révèle l’importante hétérogénéité qui semble apporter un éclairage nouveau quant à la réflexion sur le rôle d’une AP adaptée dans la prévention des troubles cognitifs.

International audience; In order to implement the human-centric manufacturing and sustainability concepts in industry, an important effort should be done in order to model working conditions for human operators and improve them. Several studies have been conducted for mass production assembly lines where short cycle times make the work content highly repetitive. However, the case of low-volume production with long cycle times and different impacts on human operators has been rarely considered in the literature. In this paper, we develop a model to take into account the associated ergonomic risks in assembly lines with long cycle times. An optimization method is also developed in order to schedule tasks and assign the required tasks to a set of human operators taking into account the existing ergonomic risks.

International audience; Previous studies of time perception in children with attention-deficit-hyperactivity-disorder (ADHD) showed that these children perceive time differently than children without ADHD. The purpose of this study is to compare time perception in children with and without ADHD with a naturalistic time reproduction task. Moreover, we included questionnaires to investigate the subjective experience of time. Hundred and eighty children were tested; half of them had a diagnosis of ADHD and half were matched controls. The time reproduction task included 6 videos displaying 6 different actions. Children were asked to watch the video and reproduce duration of each action presented by either mime it or tapping on a table. Results confirmed temporal impairment in children with ADHD compared to controls; moreover, children without ADHD showed better performance when they were asked to mime the action. Results from the questionnaires also showed differences between children with and without ADHD in particular in younger participants.

International audience; BACKGROUND:Although a number of studies have examined sociodemographic, psychosocial, and environmental determinants of the level of physical activity (PA) for older people, little attention has been paid to the predictive power of cognitive strategies for independently living older adults. However, cognitive strategies have recently been considered to be critical in the management of day-to-day living.METHODS:Data were collected from 243 men and women aged 55 years and older living in France using face-to-face interviews between 2011 and 2013.RESULTS:A stepwise discriminant analysis selected five predictor variables (age, perceived health status, barriers' self-efficacy, internal memory, and attentional control strategies) of the level of PA. The function showed that the rate of correct prediction was 73% for the level of PA. The calculated discriminant function based on the five predictor variables is useful for detecting individuals at high risk of lapses once engaged in regular PA.CONCLUSIONS:This study highlighted the need to consider cognitive functions as a determinant of the level of PA and, more specifically, those cognitive functions related to executive functions (internal memory and attentional control), to facilitate the maintenance of regular PA. These results are discussed in relation to successful aging.

International audience; Executive control can be driven by conscious and unconscious monetary cues. This has raised the exciting question regarding the role of conscious and unconscious reward in the regulation of executive control. Similarities and differences have been uncovered between unconscious and conscious processing of monetary rewards. In the present study, we explored whether individual differences associated with reward sensitivity foster these variations on memory-updating—a core component process of executive control. Participants (N = 60) with low, medium, and high reward sensitivity were selected and performed a numerical memory-updating task. At the beginning of each trial, a high (1 euro) or a low (5 cents) reward was presented subliminally (24 ms) or supraliminally (300 ms). Participants earned the reward by responding correctly. Participants with low reward sensitivity performed better for the high reward only in the subliminal condition. For participants with medium reward sensitivity, performance improved with high reward in both subliminal and supraliminal conditions. When participants had high reward sensitivity scores, the effect of reward was stronger in the supraliminal condition than the subliminal condition. These results show that the distinctive effects of conscious and unconscious rewards on executive performance are modulated by individual differences in reward sensitivity. We discuss this finding with reference to models of conscious/unconscious processing of reward stimuli.

International audience; The assembly process is extremely complex for aircraft and its management requires to address numerous optimization problems related to the assignment of tasks to workstations, staffing problem for each workstation and finally the assignment of tasks to operators at each workstation. This paper treats the latter problem dealing with the assignment of tasks to operators under ergonomic constraints. The problem of optimal tasks scheduling in aircraft assembly line is modelled as Resource-Constrained Project Scheduling Problem (RCPSP). The objective of this research is to assign tasks to operators and to find an optimal schedule of task processing under economic and ergonomic constraints. Two different models to solve this problem are presented and evaluated on an industrial case study.

International audience

International audience; Les systèmes automatisés amènent à de nouvelles répartitions des tâches entre l'opérateur humain et la machine. Comprendre la coopération homme-machine, en incluant les potentielles défaillances de ces systèmes est donc devenu un sujet crucial. Dans cette étude, nous nous concentrons sur une des conséquences négatives possibles de cette coopération : le phénomène de contentement. Ce phénomène a été observé de nombreuses fois dans des situations dynamiques dans lesquelles le système automatisé exécute une action afin de soulager l'opérateur dans son activité. Or, dans les tâches statiques (comme la planification des transports de marchandises), les systèmes automatisés servent plutôt à simplifier et à prétraiter les données pour permettre à l'opérateur humain de prendre lui-même une décision. Nous distinguons donc l’automate de l’exécution et de la signalisation. Plus précisément, le but de cette étude est de comparer le phénomène de contentement selon ces deux types d’automates. Nous avons confronté 96 participants à l’OpenMATB (Open Multi Attribute Task Battery) en variant les types d’automates. Nous avons également manipulé quatre niveaux de fiabilité de l'automate (0 %, 56,25 %, 87,5 %, 100 %). Dans toutes ces conditions, nous avons évalué le contentement à travers le taux de détection des défaillances de l'automate. De plus, un eye tracker est employé pour mieux comprendre les stratégies des opérateurs notamment concernant le partage attentionnel. Les premiers résultats montrent un effet significatif de la signalisation. La bonne signalisation a entraîné une meilleure performance des participants pour détecter les défaillances de l’automate.

ISBN 978-3-319-92284-3 (print), 978-3-319-92285-0 (online); International audience; Automated systems are becoming increasingly prevalent in our environment. This leads to a new tasks repartition between the human operator and automation. Understanding human-machine cooperation including potential failures has become a hot topic. In this study we focus on a possible negative consequence of automation: the complacency phenomenon. This phenomenon has been repeatedly observed in dynamic situations in which automation execute an action in order to relieve the human operator from his/her activity. In static task, automation often serves to simplify/pre-process the data and not to directly make a decision. The goal of automation in a static task (like planning) is to optimize an external representation and allow the human operator to make his choices more easily. The Eye Tracker is used to understand human behaviors and their strategies in these static situations. The purpose of this study is therefore to compare complacency to "action execution" from complacency to "data simplifica-tion". We confronted 96 participants to these two automation types on the Multi Attribute Task Battery. We also manipulated four levels of automation reliability (0%; 56.25%; 87.5%, 100%). In all these conditions we assessed complacency through the detection rate of automation failure. In addition, we used an eye tracker to assess a potential low level of suspicion regarding automation failure.

National audience

International audience; The aim of the present study was to provide descriptive dietary patterns of home-living older adults, and to examine their association with sociodemographic and ‘diet-related’ variables, and health and psychological factors. Dietary patterns were analyzed using separately cluster analysis for men (N = 151, Mage = 72.72, SD = 8.80, range = 56-97) and women (N = 251, Mage = 76.74, SD = 9.95, range = 55-97) in 402 older adults aged 55 years and over. Cluster analyses showed four distinct dietary profiles for each gender. In older men, the four distinct dietary clusters were associated with any differences in sociodemographic and ‘diet-related’ variables, cognitive function, and health and psychological factors. Likewise, in older women, the four distinct dietary clusters were associated with any differences in sociodemographic and ‘diet-related' variables’. However in older women, results showed that the cluster 1 “high fish-fruit-vegetable” was associated with a better cognitive function, a better self-rated health and no depressive symptoms, whereas cluster 3 “moderate ready meals” was associated with cognitive decline, slight depression, and poor perceived health. Results emphasize the interest to take into consideration health and psychological factors associated with dietary patterns to better target the vulnerability of individuals and enable an effective prevention.

International audience; Background: In the elderly, physical activity (PA) enhances cognitive performances, increases brain plasticity and improves brain health. The neurotrophic hypothesis is that the release of brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), which is implicated in brain plasticity and cognition, is triggered by PA because motoneurons secrete BDNF into the bloodstream during exercise. Individual differences in cognitive performance may be explained by individual differences in genetic predisposition. A single nucleotide polymorphism on the BDNF gene, BDNFVal66Met, affects activity-dependent BDNF secretion. This study investigated the influence of the BDNFVal66Met polymorphism on the relationship between PA and controlled inhibition performance in older adults.Methods: A total of 114 healthy elderly volunteers (mean age = 71.53 years old) were evaluated. Participants were genotyped for the BDNFVal66Met polymorphism. We evaluated inhibitory performance using choice reaction times (RT) and error rates from a Simon-like task and estimated their PA using two self-reported questionnaires. We established four groups according to PA level (active vs. inactive) and BDNFVal66Met genotype (Met carriers vs. Val-homozygous). The results were analyzed using ANOVA and ANCOVA, including age, gender and body mass index as covariates.Results: The BDNFVal66Met polymorphism interacted with PA on controlled inhibition performance. More specifically, inactive Val-homozygous participants exhibited a lower inhibition performance than active Val homozygotes and inactive Met carriers; the former had a higher error rate without differences in RT.Conclusion: Differences between individuals on inhibitory performance may be partially understood by the interaction between genetic influence in BDNF secretion and PA level. The results of this study clearly support the neurotrophic hypothesis that BDNF synthesis is an important mechanism underlying the influence of physical activity on brain structure and functions.

International audience; The cognitive neuroscience of aging is a growing and stimulating research area. The development of neuroimaging techniques in the past two decades has considerably increased our understanding of the brain mechanisms that might underlie cognitive performance and resulting changes due to normal aging. Beside traditional metabolic neuroimaging techniques, such as Positron Emission Tomography and functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging, near infrared spectroscopy (NIRS), an optical imaging technique allowing to monitor real-time cerebral blood oxygenation, has gained recent interest in this field. The aim of the present review paper, after briefly presenting the NIRS technique, is to review and to summarize the recent results of neuroimaging studies using this technique in the field of cognitive aging. The reviewed literature shows that, despite low spatial resolution and cerebral depth penetration, this technique provides consistent findings on the reduced hemodynamic activity as a function of chronological age, mainly in the prefrontal cortex. Important moderators of brain hemodynamics, such as cognitive load, subjects’ characteristics and experimental conditions, for which the NIRS technique is sensitive, are discussed. Strengths and weaknesses of functional NIRS in the field of cognitive aging are presented and finally, novel perspectives of research are proposed.

ISBN : 979-10-92329-03-2; International audience

International audience

International audience

International audience; The Skill, Rule, and Knowledge framework is a highly influential framework in HF/E that led to few empirical validations. In this article, we focused on mental workload predictions suggesting that control modes are supposed to produce gradually higher levels of mental workload. Forty-four participants were given a modified MATB-II task. They had to solve different tasks to illustrate skill-based, rule-based, and knowledge-based control modes. The results showed expected workload levels for skill and rule-based control modes. However, the knowledge-based control mode produced both the lowest mental workload but also the lowest performance of the three modes. We interpreted the results in the light of neurophysiologically plausible studies distinguishing engagement and effort (from overall mental workload). We noticed that participants did not fully engage in the knowledge-based control mode, which then limited their effort and ultimately produced a lower performance compared to the other control modes. We argue that conceptual refinement of mental workload based on neurophysiologically plausible theories illustrates the interest of neurosciences in HF/E.; Rasmussen (1979, 1983, 1986) a proposé le modèle cadre des habiletés, règles et connaissances (SRK). Si ce modèle est particulièrement influant dans la communauté des Facteurs Humains et Ergonomie, peu d’études empiriques ont tenté de le mettre à l’épreuve. Dans cet article, nous nous focalisons sur les prédictions de ce modèle envers la charge mentale. Elles suggèrent que le mode de contrôle produit des niveaux distincts et croissants de charge mentale. Pour tester cette prédiction nous avons réalisé une expérience auprès de quarante-quatre participants ayant à résoudre une version modifiée des tâches du MATB-II. Plus précisément, ils devaient réaliser trois tâches différentes illustrant chacune un niveau de contrôle fondé sur les habiletés, les règles ou les connaissances. Des indices physiologiques (cardiaques), des évaluations subjectives de la charge ainsi que des mesures de performance ont été recueillis. Les résultats sont conformes aux prédictions concernant les modes de contrôles liés aux habiletés et aux règles. Néanmoins, lorsque le mode était basé sur les connaissances, les participants obtenaient les moins bonnes performances et percevaient la charge mentale comme étant la plus faible. Nous interprétons ces résultats à la lumière d’études issues des neurosciences et distinguons l’engagement et l’effort. Nous notons que les participants ne se sont pas pleinement engagés dans la tâche, par un effort réduit et une performance plus faible que dans les autres tâches. Nous considérons alors que ce type de raffinement conceptuel de la charge mentale s’appuyant sur les neurosciences souligne l’intérêt de la neuro­ergonomie pour les Facteurs Humains et l’Ergonomie.

International audience

International audience

International audience; The resource constrained project scheduling problem (RCPSP) is a well-known combinatorialoptimisation problem. It was shown by reduction from the 3-partition problem that the decisionvariant of the RCPSP isNP-complete in the strong sense even without precedence constraintsand only one resource [1]. A library of instances PSPLIB was created to compare solutionalgorithms and lower bounds, the most known approaches were presented in parts [2], [3] and [4].

International audience; Although it is very useful in daily life, children have difficulties to estimate durations using conventional time units. The aim of the present study was to examine whether young children aged three, five and eight years and adults are able to categorize familiar actions according to their duration, by using a new task not relying on knowledge of conventional time units. Participants performed a forced-choice categorization task in which short, medium or long target action durations had to be paired with one of three comparison action durations (short, medium or long). Results showed that as age increased so, too, did the percentage of accurate temporal categorizations, while that of temporal categorization errors decreased. Moreover, except at three years, the least frequent error consisted in categorizing a short action as a long one. These results are discussed in the light of event representation theory and the role of experience in temporal cognition.