Measuring the Human System

The last few days have been instructive in a lot of ways ..I learnt not to be overconfident .. and that its hardwork not just brains that count..:)Learnt to appreciate criticism learnt how to pick up the pieces and start afresh ..
And the funny part was all this happened while i was trying to investigate human performance ..!!
I learnt that it is impossible to take the "human" part out of the performance.With a human being you are never sure what 2 + 2 will add up to be .. and predictions often fall flat on the face regarding systems where the human element is neglected.
the cricket final .. pakistan had no business losing ..but .. the human element .. the last shot .. the lure of glory .. the dramatic finish of a boundary .. the mathematics dont work .. its the human who upsets the applecart .
when measuring human performance we can use
physiological measures .. like
1.the changes in heart rate.
2.change in blink rates of the eye ..
3.the brain evoked potentials ..
4.the change in electrical conductivity in the skin


Or we can use the fall in performance itself .. but then it would not actually reflect what is the strategy that the person is using to cope with the workload .. not would it give any idea about the various components of the task which are producing the stress.

A logical idea would be to ask the guy how is he doing ..??
even this has its problems as it isnt objective ofcourse and the personality of the guy ..his motivation levels .. his willingness to be truthful about his stress levels would all come into play .

The answer probably lies somewhere in an amalgamation of all these philosophies of measurement whereby a composite picture may be obtained about human performance.

Sound nice .. but a seemingly obvious thing like measuring the heart rate changes .. or technically Heart Rate Variability entails converting a time domain measure .. in beats per minute to frequency domain measure by Fourier Transformation.. and then plotting the rate of change of the change in heart rate..!!!and then at different frequency components the area under the curve with frequency in one axis and amplitude in a logarithmic scale in the other we finally measure the heart rate variability ..

Duh ...what the hell .. everyone knows that the heartbeat goes up when we are under stress..!!! thats true .. but science lies in being able to measure and classify everything and express it in numbers ..not and easy task when you are dealing with humans ..
How much do you love your child ..??
if you cant classify and measure it .. does it not exist in scientific terms ..???
Are there some areas beyond the purview of science or is it just that science hasnt matured to a level where it is possible to turn the scientific eye inwards and look at ourselves with an ability to understand.
Can a machine understand itself ..??
But then is man a machine ..??

When did She last say...??

The alarm rings at 05:30 am...She drags herself out of bed ..groggily switches on the geyser..and fumbles Her way to the kitchen..the coffee pot goes into the microwave .. the shredded vegetables come out of the fridge .. She just has to remember to get some cheese .
By the time the first sandwich is made She wakes Him up ...the dust on the bedside table looks accusingly at Her .. later..!!
The maid is due at 06:15am ...hope she turns up .. the last three days newspapers wait in silent resignation to be consigned to the stack of unread old papers .
He is out of the bathroom ...already on the second news channel of the morning ..what does He watch She wonders .. same dirty old politicians .. crazy filmstars ..ever disappointing sportsmen...whats new anyways ..!!
The clock's ticking .. 0730 am already ..She hasnt even brushed her teeth..what is She going to wear to work today .. the grey suit isnt ironed and the beige one ..looked so good on Her ...but did that old hag have to buy the same one and wear it last week;and she cant even carry it off..!!
She did badly need a manicure ..but She is so tired by the time She gets home at 0830 pm..
There..... its her mother-in-laws phone call ... now is this a time to call..!! She is so busy .. let Him handle it .. anyways what does she have to say besides remind Her ..that the future of the human race depended on Her procreating at the earliest ..!!! who is going to look after it anyway ..good maids are so difficult to come by aren't they ..!!
God the milk boiled over .....that is 10 mins extra work now of cleaning it all up .. now She will miss the 0745 bus .. great .. the boss has been especially bitchy this week ..
There He goes nonchalantly wearing that miserable apology of a tie with his blue Van huesen shirt ..He does need to buy a new set of ties .. well no .. actually He doesnt care either ways . She glances furtively at him .. his sagging waistline mute testimony to the numerous dialed in pizzas and chicken butter masala that have stood in for dinner , yet he is handsome in his own careless way ...she loves him .. she loves him so much.....yet .. when did She last tell Him .. She loved Him ..??

Increased cognitive load decreases psychomotor task performance

Multi tasking though a fine idea that applies well to computers isnt meant to be all that effective in a human system. There exists a direct correlation (obviously) between the level of concentration required and the level of difficulty of the task at hand.
So when in scenarios where more than one individually simple tasks are to be performed simultaneously..then it often equals the cognitive load on the brain of a hugely complex task being performed ..and hence the concentration required greatly increases too.
Now what happens when the trade off between the increasing cognitive load and the increasing attention required fails or breaks down .. we have deterioration of the task being performed at hand ..!!
Theoretically simple .. and obvious .. but then even before Newton ..Apples had been falling off trees for millennia .
So probably it is necessary to study the relationships between the types and levels of cognitive load and their consequent effects on performance detriments.
Theory is fine .. but whats the point of it all...??
Hmmm..maybe i can answer how safe it is for a person to talk on his cell phone while driving ..!!!