About
41
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Introduction
I currently apply simple detection tasks to quantify ongoing cognitive workload while operating motor vehicles and utilize models of evidence accumulation to propose mechanisms for performance bottlenecks. This approach can incorporate converging measures of driving performance, physiology, and neuroscience to determine real-world implications for distraction, interaction with technology, and potentially fatigue/underarousal all contributing to crash risk.
Current institution
Additional affiliations
July 2020 - present
Position
- Professor (Assistant)
Description
- Spencer Castro studies the performance limitations of human-machine systems. He focuses on the validity of behavioral and physiological metrics as measures for different aspects of workload, as well as for quantifying the risk of adverse outcomes due to these workload metrics in driving.
October 2019 - July 2020
September 2013 - August 2015
Education
August 2015 - December 2018
September 2013 - August 2015
September 2007 - June 2011
Publications
Publications (41)
Motorists often engage in secondary tasks unrelated to driving that increase cognitive workload, resulting in fatal crashes and injuries. An International Standards Organization method for measuring a driver’s cognitive workload, the detection response task (DRT), correlates well with driving outcomes, but investigation of its putative theoretical...
Objective: A set of 4 driving related tasks were used to evaluate the potential for a modified Detection Response Task (DRT) to simultaneously measure visual and cognitive task demands. Background: The accurate assessment of cognitive and visual tasks demands in driving has become increasingly important. As of yet, no simple, cost effective approac...
With the emergence of vehicle-based technologies that could compete for attention due to visual and cognitive workloads in a driving environment, it is important to accurately assess the various components of potential distractions. Current Detection Response Task (DRT) measurements are sensitive to overall mental workload, but may not be useful fo...
Previous research demonstrates that people increasingly utilize multiple displays along with mobile devices simultaneously, and that this split in attention has detrimental effects on goal-directed behavior. However, few studies have assessed the impact of the physical attributes of mobile devices–including dimensions, weight and screen size–on att...
When the web became popular, people had to develop ways to talk and think about it. In the mid-1990s, we analyzed spatial language in “web talk.” We found that people described pages as places, and search as motion, both passive and active motion. Here we investigate web talk nearly two decades later. Our analysis reveals that some spatial language...
Small multiples are a popular visualization method, displaying different views of a dataset using multiple frames, often with the same scale and axes. However, there is a need to address their potential constraints, especially in the context of human cognitive capacity limits. These limits dictate the maximum information our mind can process at onc...
Small multiples are a popular visualization method, displaying different views of a dataset using multiple frames, often with the same scale and axes. However, there is a need to address their potential constraints, especially in the context of human cognitive capacity limits. These limits dictate the maximum information our mind can process at onc...
With increasing wildfires in the Western U.S., preparing individuals for evacuations has become vital. However, putting people in the presence of actual flames and smoke would be dangerous. Virtual Reality training provides valuable experience without endangering safety. To be optimally effective, a training should be designed by combining best pra...
As the popularity of social media has dramatically increased, it is crucial to understand how individuals process the information from these social media scrolling information feeds. The cognitive fit theory suggests that the perceived fit between the technology (medium) and task influences performance. Therefore, we predict that a social media fee...
As the popularity of social media has dramatically increased, it is crucial to understand how individuals process the information from these social media scrolling information feeds. Most scrolling feed media tend to summarize and chunk information into discrete units. In memory, this approach can improve recall performance by expanding the amount...
The prevalence of inadequate SARS-COV-2 (COVID-19) responses may indicate a lack of trust in forecasts and risk communication. However, no work has empirically tested how multiple forecast visualization choices impact trust and task-based performance. The three studies presented in this paper (N = 1299) examine how visualization choices impact trus...
The prevalence of inadequate SARS-COV-2 (COVID-19) responses may indicate a lack of trust in forecasts and risk communication. However, no work has empirically tested how multiple forecast visualization choices impact trust and task-based performance. The three studies presented in this paper (N = 1299) examine how visualization choices impact trus...
Tillman et al. (2017) used evidence-accumulation modeling to ascertain the effects of a conversation (either with a passenger or on a hands-free cell phone) on a drivers' mental workload. They found that a concurrent conversation increased the response threshold but did not alter the rate of evidence accumulation. However, this earlier research col...
Tillman et al. (2017) used evidence-accumulation modeling to ascertain the effects of a conversation (either with a passenger or on a hands-free cell phone) on a drivers’ mental workload. They found that a concurrent conversation increased the response threshold but did not alter the rate of evidence accumulation. However, this earlier research col...
We examined the hidden costs of intermittent multitasking. Participants performed a pursuit-tracking task (Experiment 1) or drove in a high-fidelity driving simulator (Experiment 2) by itself or while concurrently performing an easy or difficult backwards counting task that periodically started and stopped, creating on-task and off-task multitaskin...
The effects of distraction on responses manifest in three ways: prolonged reaction times, and increased error and response omission rates. However, the latter effect is often ignored or assumed to be due to a separate cognitive process. We investigated omissions occurring in two paradigms that manipulated distraction. One required simple stimulus d...
Human operators often experience large fluctuations in cognitive workload over seconds timescales that can lead to sub-optimal performance, ranging from overload to neglect. Adaptive automation could potentially address this issue, but to do so it needs to be aware of real-time changes in operators’ spare cognitive capacity, so it can provide help...
![Fig. 3. Procedure for the online OSPAN task adapted from [67] and made...](profile/Spencer-Castro/publication/354940647/figure/fig2/AS:1084312392863744@1635531628078/Procedure-for-the-online-OSPAN-task-adapted-from-67-and-made-available-in-the_Q320.jpg)
As uncertainty visualizations for general audiences become increasingly common, designers must understand the full impact of uncertainty communication techniques on viewers' decision processes. Prior work demonstrates mixed performance outcomes with respect to how individuals make decisions using various visual and textual depictions of uncertainty...
As uncertainty visualizations for general audiences become increasingly common, designers must understand the full impact of uncertainty communication techniques on viewers' decision processes. Prior work demonstrates mixed performance outcomes with respect to how individuals make decisions using various visual and textual depictions of uncertainty...
Uncertainty communicators often use visualizations to express the unknowns in data, statistical analyses, and forecasts. Well-designed visualizations can clearly and effectively convey uncertainty, which is vital for ensuring transparency, accuracy, and scientific credibility. However, poorly designed uncertainty visualizations can lead to misunder...
Human operators often experience large fluctuations in cognitive workload over seconds time scales that can lead to sub-optimal performance, ranging from overload to neglect. Adaptive automation could potentially address this issue, but to do so it needs to be aware of real-time changes in operators’ spare cognitive capacity, so it can provide help...
We examined the hidden costs of intermittent multitasking. Participants performed a pursuit-tracking task (Experiment 1) or drove in a high-fidelity driving simulator (Experiment 2) by itself or while concurrently performing an easy or difficult backwards counting task that periodically started and stopped, creating on-task and off-task multitaskin...
According to Kaplan's Theory of Attention Restoration (ART), spending time in a natural environment can restore depleted cognitive resources. If this is true, then nature exposure may modulate the error-related negativity (ERN), a component of the event-related brain potential (ERP) that is related to cognitive control and attentional allocation. A...
Human operators often experience large fluctuations in cognitive workload that can lead to sub-optimal performance, ranging from overload to neglect. Help from automated support systems could potentially address this issue, but to do so the system would ideally need to be aware of real-time changes in operators’ cognitive workload, so it can provid...
Cognitive science has established widely used and validated procedures for evaluating working memory in numerous applied domains, but surprisingly few studies have employed these methodologies to assess claims about the impacts of visualizations on working memory. The lack of information visualization research that uses validated procedures for mea...
Cognitive science has established widely used and validated procedures for evaluating working memory in numerous applied domains, but surprisingly few studies have employed these methodologies to assess claims about the impacts of visualizations on working memory. The lack of information visualization research that uses validated procedures for mea...
People around the world endanger the lives of themselves and others every day by dividing their attention across multiple tasks, such as driving and talking on a cell phone. These dangers result from splitting and overtaxing our limited voluntary attentional efforts. Current tools for measuring attentional effort, also known as cognitive workload,...
Previous research shows that exposure to natural environments can decrease stress and improve performance on tasks measuring attention. We used electroencephalography (EEG) to measure changes in neural activity before, during, and after prolonged exposure to nature. We found midline frontal theta (4-8hz) activity significantly decreased after expos...
Motorists often engage in secondary tasks unrelated to driving that increase cognitive workload, resulting in fatal crashes and injuries. An International Standards Organization (ISO) method for measuring a driver’s cognitive workload, the Detection Response Task (DRT), correlates well with driving outcomes, but investigation of its putative theore...
Mobile devices have become ubiquitous in modern society, dividing our attention between screens of variable sizes and our environment.
Previous research demonstrates that people increasingly utilize multiple displays along with mobile devices simultaneously, and that this split in attention has detrimental effects on goal-directed behavior. However, few studies have assessed the impact of the physical attributes of mobile devices–including dimensions, weight and screen size–on att...
Preliminary work on comparing the ISO DRT to a modified Choice Response Task in its ability to detect workload for a visual search task.
Screen displays today seem to be ubiquitous, varied in appearance, and deployed in many situations. As a result they potentially affect people’s abilities to attend to and perform everyday tasks. It is important to discuss how multiple screen displays affect attention as they become more commonplace. In applied domains, screen displays affect human...
