Examples of Research Experiences and Venues

The nature of this REU is to allow students to work with mentors to develop, organize, and carry out a research study pertaining to the effects of fatigue on performance.  This can be ANY kind of fatigue on ANY kind of performance in military, law enforcement, and medical personnel.  The mentors each have areas of specialization within which students may tailor their research projects.  In addition, various law enforcement agencies, hospitals, emergency agencies, and Hill Air Force Base will serve as venues for data collection for these projects.  The listing of research experiences listed below is not exhaustive.  This is merely an example of the types of research that students and mentors may plan to conduct.

For more specifics on what students have researched in the past, please see the BRIEF OVERVIEW.

For a listing of mentors, please click on the MENTORS listing on the home page.

Dr. Fowler's Areas:

·        Effect of shift-work and fatigue on performance.  Extensive research has been conducted which demonstrates that shift-work and circadian desynchronization leads to deficits in cognitive and physical performance.  However, most of this research reveals that the fatigue effects that contribute to decrements in performance are at least somewhat task specific.  In addition, many shift-work studies have few participants and are not longitudinal in nature.  REU students could utilize the collaboration between the Air Force, medical personnel, local law enforcement agencies, and Weber State to study shift-work’s effects on cognitive and physical performance, vigilance, mood, and interpersonal communication.  Students would have the opportunity to research individual factors that might affect performance, design a research program specific to certain tasks and task demands, and utilize a variety of metrics to assess performance.  The assessment measures available to the REU students are extensive, so students would be able to personalize their research according to their research focus.  

·        Examining sleep propensity in shift-workers.  There are few data available to show when shift-workers actually sleep and how well they sleep.  Data have been published showing sleep propensity as a function of the time of day and night in the laboratory, but field studies with military and law-enforcement personnel are lacking.  As a part of this REU, students may design studies that would compare and contrast, quantitatively, the actual sleep propensity of military and/or law-enforcement shift-workers with data from published sleep propensity studies from laboratories.  Shift-worker sleep data could be collected with a combination of instruments, including a wrist activity monitor, a sleep diary and a sleep questionnaire.  Quantitative comparisons would be made using FAST^TM, Windows software that is under development by the Air Force Research Laboratory to help schedulers predict and prevent fatigue-induced errors in human performance during extended work periods and night work.  Student research in this area would provide much needed field research to help define sleep quality and sleep propensity in law-enforcement and military shift-workers.  Based on this research, future REU studies may be designed to help improve the quality and timing of sleep patterns for shift-workers.

·         Personality Factors and Shift-Work.  Recent research shows that personality factors may affect one’s predisposition toward fatigue (Jiang, et al. 2003).  Military and law-enforcement personnel are often required to work on alternative work schedules or on shift-work, and thus they are exposed to work conditions which might exacerbate fatigue effects.  REU students could study individual personality factors (using the TCI, MMPI-2, or 16-PF) to determine if certain personality characteristics are associated with fatigue effects related to shift-work.  Students may design a study to assess the relationship between personality factors and cognitive or physical performance (using a variety of possible measures; see Table 4) in military and law-enforcement personnel on shift-work.  Future REU students could then use this data to establish a predictive model to test in field studies in subsequent years.  In addition, personality factors could be assessed to see if personality differences exist between shift workers, weekend workers and traditional workers.  Students could assess whether shift-work actually alters personality factors, or if those who work alternative shifts are significantly different than those who work traditional shifts.  Research in this area may help determine which workers will most successfully transition to shift-work.

·         Shift-Work and its effects on Team Performance.  Much research has focused on the effects of shift-work on cognitive and physical performance.  However, team performance may also be affected by shift-work and fatigue, and field studies in this area are rare.  Military and law-enforcement personnel must be able to anticipate and minimize fatigue effects correctly in 24/7 operations.  REU students could evaluate team performance of shift-workers on a variety of measures, including interpersonal communication (face to face, email, etc.), decision making, and social interactions.  Teams of workers could be assessed in numerous conditions and longitudinally.  This would provide the first documented evidence of how teams change under conditions of fatigue and shift-work, and future REU students could establish ways to improve or maintain team performance.

Dr.  Thompson's Areas:

• Melatonin Supplementation and Shifts in Circadian Rhythms.  Research has suggested that melatonin supplementation can alter circadian rhythms, correct jet lag and adjust shift workers’ sleep patterns more efficiently to fit their work and social life schedules.  It would be interesting to evaluate the effects of melatonin supplementation on sleep pattern adjustments and / or the alteration of circadian rhythms to optimize performance in shift workers.

• Fluctuations in Melatonin and Health Impacts:  Fluctuations in melatonin outside of normal circadian variations may have an impact on the physiological health of individuals.  For example, low levels of melatonin have been associated with an increase in breast cancer.  A low ratio of urinary 2-hydroxyestrone to alpha 16-hydroxyestrone is associated with increased breast cancer risk, and melatonin levels affect this ratio.  It would be interesting to evaluate the relationship of melatonin levels and other known physiological predictors of health in shift workers. 

• Energy Expenditure and Time-of-day.  The benefits of exercise are mediated in part by the time of day in which you exercise, due to fluctuations in various physiological variables.  Are there times during the day when calorie burn is different?  Could you minimize effort for the same gain by exercising at different times of day?  Finding the answer to this question may determine when and how to exercise to optimize caloric burn.  Should shift workers exercise before, during or after work to get the greatest calorie burn for the same bout of exercise?

• Metabolic Rate and Cortisol:  The stress response influences cortisol levels.  As cortisol levels increase, metabolic rate changes.  What influences would a metabolic rate to cortisol ratio have on a variety of health markers such as; blood pressure, blood cholesterol, blood sugar, BMI and body composition?  In addition, it would be interesting to establish an average cortisol level to markers of health such as body composition, blood pressure, blood cholesterol, blood sugar and BMI in shift workers.  Students could design research studies which measure cortisol levels in shift workers and associate those with various markers of metabolism.

Interviewer fatigue and the quality of interviews with child witness.  Conducting high quality interviews with children is a challenging task.  However, the quality of an interview with a child can greatly impact the accuracy of the child’s report.  Researchers have consistently demonstrated what characteristics of high versus low quality interviews impact children’s accuracy.  However, limited information is available regarding the effects of fatigue on interviewers’ abilities to conduct high quality interviews.  REU students could evaluate the quality of interviewers with child witnesses as it relates to interviewer fatigue.  As interviewing children is a highly challenging task, this research may demonstrate that interview quality significantly drops when an interviewer questions multiple children in one day. 

The effects of fatigue on the quality of police lineups.  As police officers engage in shift work, their performance in multiple arenas is likely to be influenced by fatigue.  Years of research has been conducted regarding the proper procedures for conducting high quality police lineups.  However, if an officer is tired or working under pressing deadlines, it is possible that the quality of the lineup may be significantly reduced.  Further, we know that the quality of the interview can greatly influence rates of false identification.  Therefore, the importance of high quality lineups is essential to protecting the rights of the innocent.  REU student research could explore the influence of fatigue on the quality of lineups that police conduct.

The use of force and police fatigue.  Police are often working in highly volatile situations.  Further their job requires officers to use force on occasion.  However, ideally police officers will use the lead invasive and aggressive tactic to adequately deal with situations they encounter.  Student research will explore the relationship between the use of force and police fatigue.  This study could determine whether police brutality and excessive force are more likely when police officers are highly fatigued.  Further, students could evaluate rates of citizen’s complaints of police behavior and the relationship to officer fatigue.

The influence of expert testimony regarding the use of fatigue as an interrogation tactic on jury decision making.   Researchers have shown that there are multiple interrogation tactics that may lead to false confessions.  One such technique is questioning the suspect for many hours until he or she is exhausted.  Research has shown that fatigued suspects are more likely to falsely confess to a crime that they did not commit than suspects who are not tired.  However, there is very limited research relating to jurors’ reactions to confessions made after extensive interviewing.  Further, an expert could testify about the problems with extensive interviewing.  Possible student research will explore the impact of expert testimony on jurors’ decision making in cases involving extensive interrogations that lead to the suspect being fatigue.  This research could be conducted using a mock trial paradigm.