Fatigue Research
From MindModelingWiki
[edit] Summary
A goal of cognitive modeling is to accurately explain human cognition. However most cognitive models currently do capture fatigued human behavior. Understanding how sleep or lack of sleep effects how the processes of the mind function at a very detailed and fundamental level effects the accuracy of most cognitive research over a larger domain of human performance.
Why is fatigue research important?
Many huge catastrophes have been attributed to human operator fatigue (10-20% of fatal automobile accidents). Fatigued behavior is very similar to drunk behavior, slow reaction time, decision impairment, etc. This isn't an explicit application of the research as planned now, but I could envision cars were intelligent enough to understand fatigued human behavior to realize when a person is falling asleep and responding by turning on the radio and suggesting they pull over. In any case, applications will follow, the science has to be done first.
