The aim was to investigate differences between morning and evening types in the performance variations during the day of four different tasks: visual search, logic reasoning, spatial reasoning, mathematical reasoning. Twelve morning-, 24 intermediate-, and 12 evening-types took part in six consecutive experimental sessions from 8 a.m. to 11 p.m. at intervals of 3 h, during which they had to carry out the four types of tasks, give an evaluation of their own cognitive efficiency and subjective alertness, and record body temperature. Significantly different circadian trends between morning and evening types emerged only in the visual search task. In the reasoning tasks no significant differences were observed in the whole day, as if tasks requiring a high operational load involved a cognitive and motivational engagement which can compensate, in normal day-night conditions, the efficiency decrease due to alertness changes. The results obtained on self-evaluation efficiency suggest an efficacy intervention of metacognitive processes of performance monitoring for complex tasks only. Different diurnal activation of the left-hemisphere between morning and evening types was posited. © 2002 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Cognitive efficiency and circadian typologies: A diurnal study
Natale V.
;Alzani A.;Cicogna P. C.
2003
Abstract
The aim was to investigate differences between morning and evening types in the performance variations during the day of four different tasks: visual search, logic reasoning, spatial reasoning, mathematical reasoning. Twelve morning-, 24 intermediate-, and 12 evening-types took part in six consecutive experimental sessions from 8 a.m. to 11 p.m. at intervals of 3 h, during which they had to carry out the four types of tasks, give an evaluation of their own cognitive efficiency and subjective alertness, and record body temperature. Significantly different circadian trends between morning and evening types emerged only in the visual search task. In the reasoning tasks no significant differences were observed in the whole day, as if tasks requiring a high operational load involved a cognitive and motivational engagement which can compensate, in normal day-night conditions, the efficiency decrease due to alertness changes. The results obtained on self-evaluation efficiency suggest an efficacy intervention of metacognitive processes of performance monitoring for complex tasks only. Different diurnal activation of the left-hemisphere between morning and evening types was posited. © 2002 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
