Hi David Carpenter.
These few articles may help your student with some biblio. for her study.
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A vigilance task sensitive to the effects of stimulants, hypnotics, and
environmental stress: The Scanning Visual Vigilance Test
Lieberman_HR, Coffey_B, Kobrick_J
BEHAVIOR RESEARCH METHODS INSTRUMENTS COMPUTERS, 1998,
Vol.30, No.3, pp.416-422
The Scanning Visual Vigilance Test is a variable-length detection test designed to
assess the ability of individuals to maintain visual alertness for sustained periods
of time. The test was designed to be sensitive to changes in vigilance produced
by subtle variations in performance, such as those produced by low doses of
centrally acting food constituents, drugs, or environmental stress. The test has
been shown to be sensitive to the effects of stimulants and sedatives, as well as
cold stress and sleep loss. It requires the subject to continuously scan a video
monitor to detect the occurrence of infrequent stimuli that are difficult to detect.
The number of stimuli correctly detected, false alarms, and reaction times are
recorded. The stimulus is a small rectangle displayed for 2 sec at random
locations on a darker region of a video monitor at random or pseudo-random
times. The brightness of the stimulus can be adjusted for each subject individually
on an automated threshold detection test. Training and test session length are
defined by the experimenter. Hardware requirements are an IBM-compatible
personal computer (286 or higher) with a color or grayscale VGA monitor.
A comparison of the ability of 8-9-year-old children and adults to detect taste
stimuli
James_CE, Laing_DG, Oram_N
PHYSIOLOGY BEHAVIOR, 1997, Vol.62, No.1, pp.193-197
Conflicting data exist in the literature regarding the maturity of the human sense
of taste during childhood and if gender influences gustatory development. To
investigate these 2 questions, taste detection thresholds for the 4 common
tastants sucrose, sodium chloride, citric acid, and caffeine were established for
61 young adults and 68 children aged 8-9 years old, using a paired-comparison
forced-choice procedure. No significant differences were found between the mean
thresholds of women and men, or between those of female children and adults. In
contrast, male children had significantly higher thresholds for all 4 tastants than
adult females, for all tastants except caffeine than adult men, and for sucrose and
sodium chloride than female children. It is concluded that the taste sensitivity of 8-
9-year-old males, although well developed, has not fully matured, and that taste
sensitivity is not affected by gender in young adults.
AGING, CAFFEINE, AND INFORMATION-PROCESSING - AN EVENT-RELATED
POTENTIAL ANALYSIS
LORIST_MM, SNEL_J, MULDER_G, KOK_A
EVOKED POTENTIALS-ELECTROENCEPHALOGRAPHY AND CLINICAL
NEUROPHYSIOLOGY, 1995, Vol.96, No.5, pp.453-467
Structural and energetic processes in information processing were studied in
young and elderly subjects. A visually focussed selective search task was used,
in which subjects had to select relevant information, followed by controlled
memory search processes to locate a target item. Caffeine was used to
manipulate the energetic state of the subjects. During task performance event-
related potentials (ERPs) and reaction time (RT) were recorded. Subjects were 15
young and 15 elderly healthy, non-smoking, moderate caffeine consumers (250-
600 mg/day). Before the experimental sessions they abstained from caffeine for
greater than or equal to 12 h. In the experiment subjects received 250 mg caffeine
or placebo dissolved in decaffeinated coffee. RT data seem to indicate that aging
effects are at least partly due to a shift in the speed-accuracy trade-off. ERP
results provide evidence for decreased levels of energy resources in the elderly.
The identification of relevant information and stimulus evaluation processes were
delayed in the elderly, suggesting an additional effect of aging on structural
processes. Caffeine improved performance and increased the amplitude of the N1,
N2b, and P3b, in both young and old subjects. These results suggest that
caffeine makes more energy resources available for task performance. The effects
of aging on P3b latency were counteracted by caffeine. Other caffeine effects did
not differ significantly between young and elderly subjects.
INFLUENCE OF CAFFEINE ON SELECTIVE ATTENTION IN WELL-RESTED
AND FATIGUED SUBJECTS
LORIST_MM, SNEL_J, KOK_A, MULDER_G
PSYCHOPHYSIOLOGY, 1994, Vol.31, No.6, pp.525-534 Effects of caffeine were
studied in a visual focused selective search task in well-rested and fatigued
subjects. A dose of 200 + 50 mg caffeine or placebo, dissolved in decaffeinated
coffee, was administered in a double-blind and deceptive fashion. The task was to
detect a target letter on one diagonal of a visual display designated as relevant
and ignore stimuli presented on the irrelevant
