There is no author summary for this article yet. Authors can add summaries to their articles on ScienceOpen to make them more accessible to a non-specialist audience.
Abstract
This paper presents a cognitive-energetical framework for the analysis of effects
of stress and high workload on human performance. Following Kahneman's (1973) model,
regulation of goals and actions is assumed to require the operation of a compensatory
control mechanism, which allocates resources dynamically. A two-level compensatory
control model provides the basis for a mechanism of resource allocation through an
effort monitor, sensitive to changes in the level of regulatory activity, coupled
with a supervisory controller which can implement different modes of performance-cost
trade-off. Performance may be protected under stress by the recruitment of further
resources, but only at the expense of increased subjective effort, and behavioural
and physiological costs. Alternatively, stability can be achieved by reducing performance
goals, without further costs. Predictions about patterns of latent decrement under
performance protection are evaluated in relation to the human performance literature.
Even where no primary task decrements may be detected, performance may show disruption
of subsidiary activities or the use of less efficient strategies, as well as increased
psychophysiological activation, strain, and fatigue after-effects. Finally, the paper
discusses implications of the model for the assessment of work strain, with a focus
on individual-level patterns of regulatory activity and coping.