Ergonomics Blog – Leibniz Research Centre for Working Environments and Human Factors

PhD project: Attentional selection within working memory

Written by Marlene Rösner

My PhD project investigates how the brain handles visual information that lost its relevance after it was encoded into working memory.

Thorsten Plewan-Blombach appointed professor

Written by Eva Mühle

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.

Photo: Tiger Lily/Pexels

PhD project: Mobile neuroergonomics

Written by Julian Elias Reiser

Most of us probably know the situation that we tried to navigate through a crowded space, let’s say a shopping street on a Saturday afternoon, and ended up forgetting some of our shopping list items, because we had to evade several obstacles in our way. This phenomenon is called cognitive-motor interference. It is due to the capacity limit of human cognitive resources that can be allocated to all the different processes our brain is calculating at any point in time.

New research laboratory: Work research at IfADo strikes out in a new direction

Written by Verena Kemmler

The IfADo research is on the move: with a Gait Real-Time Analysis Interactive Lab (GRAIL). In it, the gait movement of the entire body can be analyzed in three dimensions in a virtual environment. The laboratory enables researchers to analyze phenomena of human information processing while moving. “The GRAIL allows us new and realistic research approaches“, says Prof. Dr. Gerhard Rinkenauer.

Special Issue: Current Perspectives on Neuroergonomics

Written by Edmund Wascher

The journal Brain Sciences (ISSN 2076-3425; IF=2.786) is currently running a Special Issue entitled Current Perspectives on Neuroergonomics. We are serving as the Guest Editors for this issue.

Gerhard Rinkenauer: Associate Professor

Written by Verena Kemmler

Gerhard Rinkenauer has recently been appointed “Associate Professor” at the Faculty of Education, Psychology and Sociology at the TU Dortmund University. At IfADo, he has been researching the interface between man and technology since 2005. Besides, he has been a lecturer at the TU Dortmund University in the Department of Psychology since 2008.

Photo by kaboompics on pixabay

How mind wandering is reflected in the brain

Written by Verena Kemmler

It doesn’t matter whether you are already thinking about the end of the day at work or are compiling a shopping list in your head while driving: Everybody wanders with the thoughts. But this can not only reduce your own performance. It can also be dangerous in high-risk work. IfADo psychologist Dr. Stefan Arnau investigated the phenomenon in a recent study in collaboration with researchers of the Heidelberg University. The measurement of alpha power in the brain is therefore a good indicator of thought aberrations.

Virtual Working Memory Symposium

Written by Laura-Isabelle Klatt

The emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic continues to bring forth alternative formats for researchers across the globe to connect. Based on the observation that early career researchers, who are even more dependent on conferences and in-person meetings for networking opportunities, Edward Ester (Florida Atlantic University) and Jarrod Lewis-Peacock (University of Texas at Austin) set out to organize a virtual working memory symposium as a venue for trainees to present their work.

Photo by ElisaRiva on pixabay

New PhD project: EEG correlates of cognitive resource allocation

Written by Nathalie Liegel

Have you ever

been blind to the environment around you as you were so much focused on a difficult or engaging task?
written a text in 2 hours for which you normally need 5 days?
not been able to receive the full attention of your best friend anymore the moment she/he became a parent?

Encoding probability in the brain?

Written by Edmund Wascher

The so-called P300 (or P3b) is the most prominent component in the event-related potential of the EEG. Since decades it is the main psychophysiological measure of processing of task relevant information. Numerous studies in this time have proposed that the amplitude of the P300 is, among others, modulated by the probability of a stimulus. In this recent publication we demonstrate this assumption has to be questioned.