MSGID: 1:317/3 6447576f   
   PID: hpt/lnx 1.9.0-cur 2019-01-08   
   TID: hpt/lnx 1.9.0-cur 2019-01-08   
    Fear not the deadlines    
    First-of-its-kind study suggest researchers' stress levels stay the same   
   with or without deadlines    
      
     Date:   
         April 24, 2023   
     Source:   
         University of Houston   
     Summary:   
         New research suggests the stress levels of knowledge workers,   
         such as researchers or journalists, stays the same with or without   
         deadlines.   
      
      
         Facebook Twitter Pinterest LinkedIN Email   
      
   ==========================================================================   
   FULL STORY   
   ==========================================================================   
   Deadlines are part and parcel of modern knowledge work. Journalists must   
   serve their weekly columns, managers must turn in their monthly reports,   
   and researchers must submit their papers and proposals on time. Despite   
   their ubiquity, deadlines conjure up negative feelings and are perceived   
   as challenging events. Accordingly, there has been a trend to do away with   
   deadlines, where possible. For instance, the National Science Foundation   
   (NSF) in the United States introduced no-deadline submissions in some of   
   its funding programs. Critics, however, have been arguing that although   
   deadlines may be painful, they are necessary, because they motivate   
   people to act.   
      
   Researchers from the University of Houston, Texas A&M, and the Polytechnic   
   of Milano set out to address the question at the heart of the matter:   
   "Does knowledge work near deadlines incur higher sympathetic load than   
   knowledge work away from deadlines?" Sympathetic activation is the state   
   of physiological arousal that indicates how much people are "on the tips   
   of their toes," and often leads to stress. This is why its intensity   
   and duration should be kept in check, according to the researchers.   
      
   The first-of-its-kind study published in the Proceedings of the ACM Human   
   Factors in Computing, was led by Ioannis Pavlidis, professor of computer   
   science and director of the Affective and Data Computing Laboratory at UH.   
      
   Per an institutionally approved ethical protocol, 10 consenting   
   researchers were monitored as they worked at the office in the two days   
   leading to a critical deadline, and two other days without an impeding   
   deadline. Miniature cameras were placed at the researchers' university   
   office to unobtrusively record their facial physiology and expressions,   
   as well as their movements throughout the working day. The participants'   
   sympathetic activation was measured every second through quantification   
   of their imaged perinasal perspiration levels.   
      
   Applying advanced data modeling on hundreds of hours of data recordings,   
   the team found that researchers experience high sympathetic activation   
   while working, which speaks to the challenging nature of the research   
   profession.   
      
   Surprisingly, this high sympathetic activation remains about the same   
   with or without deadlines.   
      
   "Research is tough every day," said Pavlidis. "Using a metaphor, if   
   you are under heavy rain all the time, if one day the rain is a little   
   heavier, it would not make much difference to you because you are already   
   wet to the bone.   
      
   This is what our models show with respect to the effect of deadlines on   
   researchers."  The only factors found to exacerbate sympathetic activation   
   were extensive smartphone use and prolific reading/writing. The first   
   factor is a manifestation of the gadget-based addiction trends that   
   have altered human behaviors across the board. The second factor is   
   integral to research work, and thus unavoidable. Thankfully, however,   
   researchers appear to auto-regulate increases in their sympathetic   
   activation by instinctively adjusting the frequency of physical breaks. It   
   was observed that on average, researchers take one physical break every   
   two hours. From this baseline, data analysis showed that for every 50%   
   increase in sympathetic activation, the break frequency nearly doubles,   
   revealing the limits of cognitive work under increasing stress.   
      
   "Our naturalistic study not only brings fresh insights into researchers'   
   behaviors but also challenges some prevailing views about deadlines,"   
   Pavlidis said. "With the recent advances in affective computing, I expect   
   such naturalistic studies to proliferate across domains, challenging   
   misconceptions we hold about a lot of things," added Pavlidis.   
      
   The study was funded by a grant from the National Science Foundation.   
      
       * RELATED_TOPICS   
             o Mind_&_Brain   
                   # Stress # Intelligence # Behavior # Alcoholism # Memory #   
                   Anxiety # Spirituality # Psychology   
       * RELATED_TERMS   
             o What_is_knowledge?  o Scientific_method o Facial_symmetry   
             o Cognition o Self-realization o Intuition_(knowledge) o   
             Intellectual_giftedness o Great_Ape_language   
      
   ==========================================================================   
   Story Source: Materials provided by University_of_Houston. Note: Content   
   may be edited for style and length.   
      
      
   ==========================================================================   
   Journal Reference:   
      1. MD Tanim Hasan, Shaila Zaman, Amanveer Wesley, Panagiotis   
      Tsiamyrtzis,   
         Ioannis Pavlidis. Sympathetic Activation in Deadlines of Deskbound   
         Research - A Study in the Wild. CHI EA '23: Extended Abstracts   
         of the 2023 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems,   
         2023 DOI: 10.1145/3544549.3585585   
   ==========================================================================   
      
   Link to news story:   
   https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2023/04/230424133310.htm   
      
   --- up 1 year, 8 weeks, 10 hours, 50 minutes   
    * Origin: -=> Castle Rock BBS <=- Now Husky HPT Powered! (1:317/3)   
   SEEN-BY: 15/0 106/201 114/705 123/120 153/7715 218/700 226/30 227/114   
   SEEN-BY: 229/110 112 113 307 317 400 426 428 470 664 700 292/854 298/25   
   SEEN-BY: 305/3 317/3 320/219 396/45   
   PATH: 317/3 229/426