Best Presentation Award for Nikita Rajendra Sharma, Jai Prakash Kushvah und Gerhard Rinkenauer

June 24, 2022

At the 16th International Conference on Traffic and Transportation Psychology in Montreal, Canada, Nikita Rajendra Sharma, Jai Prakash Kushvah and Gerhard Rinkenauer from the Ergonomics Department received the Best Presentation Award for their presentation “Assessing the Impact of Additional Information during Motor Preparation in Lane Change Task”. In it, the researchers deal with the effects of additional information during motor preparation for a lane change while driving a car.

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Hugo Geiger Award for Dr. Jessica Schwarz

March 30, 2022

Every year, the Free State of Bavaria and the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft award the Hugo Geiger Prize to honour young scientists for outstanding doctoral achievements in the field of applied research. This year, the third place goes to Jessica Schwarz for her doctorate on the topic of “Multifactorial real-time diagnosis of the user state in adaptive human-machine interaction”. IfADo researcher Prof. Dr. Gerhard Rinkenauer supervised Jessica Schwarz’s doctorate.

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Daniel Schneider gives inaugural lecture at Ruhr-Universität Bochum

Jan 31, 2022

Since mid-January, Daniel Schneider, head of the Information Processing Group, has been authorised to teach neuropsychology at the RUB. In his habilitation thesis with the topic “Attentional control functions in perception and memory: EEG correlates of target selection and distractor inhibition re-define the (retroactive) focusing of attention”, he dealt with attention processes in perception and memory. In his inaugural lecture, Daniel Schneider spoke about working memory as a system for remembering the past and as a “premem

New research project on work interruptions started

Jan 26, 2022

The phone rings, a colleague knocks on the door and every new email announces itself with a signal tone – while you are working on a text that urgently needs to go out today. Along with time and performance pressure, interruptions are one of the greatest stress factors in modern working environments. Yet little is known about the cognitive processes that play a role in coping with work interruptions. These are the focus of the newly funded DFG project “Investigations on the influence of interruptions on attentional and working memory performance in younger and older adults using EEG methodology”, which recently started.

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IfADo part of the new Leibniz Research Alliance Resilient Ageing

Jan 24, 2022

How can people remain healthy into old age and continue to take part in the life of society? In view of demographic trends, this is a highly relevant challenge in terms of health science and socioeconomics. Until now, ageing research in Germany has concentrated on understanding and treating diseases associated with ageing. By contrast, the Leibniz Research Alliance on Resilient Ageing takes a health-oriented view, pursuing a paradigm shift towards researching mechanisms that will allow people to remain as functionally healthy as possible, despite advancing ageing processes, so that they can continue to play a part in life physically, mentally and socially into old age. In doing so, it is pursuing a paradigm shift towards investigating mechanisms of how people remain functionally healthy enough to participate in life physically, psychologically and socially into old age despite progressive ageing processes.

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New EEG evaluations show how attentional focusing works after interruptions in working memory

Nov 29, 2021

Interruptions at work often lead to a deterioration in performance in the original task. This performance deficit usually manifests itself in a delay in resuming the actual task. With the help of EEG measurements, researchers at the Leibniz Research Centre for Working Environment and Human Factors in Dortmund (IfADo) have now analysed working memory processes when switching between different tasks in more detail. They were able to show that interruptions lead to more errors, longer reaction times and more inaccurate working memory content.

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New research project analyses the effect of cardiac activity on conflict processing under stress

Nov 24, 2021

Under stress, people often react instinctively and without thinking twice – actions are almost automatic. Researchers at the Leibniz Research Centre for Working Environment and Human Factors in Dortmund (IfADo) want to study in more detail what influence heart activity has on cognitive reaction. The research project “Effects of Stress on Conflict Processing: The Role of Cardioafferent Signals” will run for three years and is funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG).

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Study analyses: How stressed are rescue workers?

In cooperation with the University of Lübeck, the University of Bremen, the Ruhr University Bochum, the MSH Medical School Hamburg and the Arbeiter-Samariter-Bund (ASB – the Workers’ Samaritan Federation) Dortmund, the Leibniz Research Centre for Working Environment and Human Factors in Dortmund (IfADo) has conducted a study to investigate how stressed rescue workers are. The focus was particularly on their own perception of stress and the physical examination of stress. The results of the study have now been published.

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Thorsten Plewan-Blombach appointed professor

Thorsten Plewan-Blombach was appointed professor of psychology in the department of “Business & Media” at the Fresenius University of Applied Sciences at the end of July. Thorsten Plewan-Blombach has been working as a PostDoc in the IfADo research department “ergonomics” for eight years. He is investigating basic concepts of perception and attention as well as human-machine interaction with a focus on digital assistance systems in workplaces.

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