Carew, Dylan E. (2023) Vigilant Attention and the Impact of Feedback Under Moderate Sleep Restriction in Young Adults. Honours thesis, University of Southern Queensland. (Unpublished)
Abstract
Sleep restriction has been found to produce detrimental cognitive effects with pronounced impacts being shown in young adults. Although studies have demonstrated the negative cognitive impact of sleep deprivation, there is a gap in the literature addressing how moderate sleep restriction impacts young adults and if performance feedback can mitigate this effect. This study assessed the impact of feedback (reaction times displayed or not) on a cognitive performance task containing moderate sleep restriction (two-hour sleep restriction protocol) and their impacts on physiological, subjective, and cognitive measures. The participants included 30 young adults aged between 18-25 who were recruited via convenience sampling. Participants completed the Psychomotor Vigilance Test (PVT), Electroencephalogram (EEG), and the Karolinska Sleepiness Scale (KSS) on two different days, while fully alert and whilst sleep-restricted. The findings demonstrated sleep restriction significantly impacted all study variables, including alpha and theta EEG metrics, scores on the KSS, and reaction times and lapses (reaction times > 500 ms) of the PVT. Importantly, participants tested in the sleepy feedback condition contained fewer PVT lapses than the alert non-feedback condition, a vital finding considering participants were able to outperform their alert levels. Furthermore, all measures were found to improve with the inclusion of performance feedback except for EEG theta. This study advances the theory surrounding EEG as a measure of physiological sleep pressure and provides new insights into the use of performance feedback as a method of mitigating deficits created by moderate sleep restriction in young adults.
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| Item Type: | Thesis (Non-Research) (Honours) |
|---|---|
| Item Status: | Live Archive |
| Additional Information: | Current UniSQ staff and students can request access to this thesis. Please email research.repository@unisq.edu.au with a subject line of SEAR thesis request and provide: Name of the thesis requested and Your name and UniSQ email address |
| Faculty/School / Institute/Centre: | Current – Faculty of Health, Engineering and Sciences - School of Psychology and Wellbeing (1 Jan 2022 -) |
| Supervisors: | Chris Watling |
| Date Deposited: | 15 May 2025 02:18 |
| Last Modified: | 15 May 2025 02:18 |
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | sleep restriction, attention, feedback, EEG. |
| Fields of Research (2008): | 17 Psychology and Cognitive Sciences > 1799 Other Psychology and Cognitive Sciences > 179999 Psychology and Cognitive Sciences not elsewhere classified |
| Fields of Research (2020): | 52 PSYCHOLOGY > 5299 Other psychology > 529999 Other psychology not elsewhere classified |
| URI: | https://sear.unisq.edu.au/id/eprint/52197 |
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