Short-term exposure with vibration and its effect on attention

BACKGROUND: About 20 to 50 percent of accidents are due to some forms of carelessness and mindedness. Studies suggested that vibration is one of the most important physical factors in human performance when traveling on any sort of vehicles. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of vehicles vibration on cognitive performance (attention and concentration). METHODS: The sample consists of 25 male students who undergone 4 experimental phases: acceleration low vibration (0.53 m/s(2)), medium vibration (0.81 m/s(2)), high vibration (1.12 m/s(2)) and non- exposure to vibration (control phase) according to ISO 2631–1 standard and with fixed frequency between 3 to 7 Hz. Students paired T test was applied to analysis the data, using SPSS software ver. 19. RESULTS: The mean number of correct answers obtained from selective attention test under vibration levels of 0.53 m/s(2) and 0.81 m/s(2) were significantly lower than the condition without vibration. The mean reaction time of divided attention test in three vibration levels was significantly lower than the condition without vibration. Exposing to vibration reduces number of correct answers, selective attention and reaction time. CONCLUSION: In this study, it was found that vibration may disrupt the ability of the participants for sustainability attention. It also changes the precision and speed of humans’ information processing systems.