Sleep Deprivation in Adolescent Tardiness - Research Paper Example

School Workload and Sleep Deprivation in Adolescent Tardiness [Your No experimental research was available about the effects of school workload and sleep deprivation on adolescent tardiness, which this study will attempt for the first time. Adolescent students (age 13 to 17 year old) enrolled in a university will be recruited for this study and grouped into eight groups with varying levels of variable manipulation. Data gathering is within a 1-week span, while responses will be accepted until the last day of the month. Discriminant analysis and logistic regression will determine the findings of this study. Limitations of this study are the dependency at participants’ honesty, inability to directly manipulate the participants’ daily workload and sleep time, inability to manipulate “time of school” as sub-variable of school workload, and the inconclusiveness on the effects of increasing school workload to adolescent tardiness. Further larger-scale researches on school workload and sleep deprivation in committing tardiness is being aimed by this study. School Workload and Sleep Deprivation in Adolescent Tardiness No experimental research so far was conducted on the effects of school workload and sleep deprivation in tardiness. However, two experimental literatures, plus three supporting non-experimental studies, will be used by this study to serve as guides in formulating the design of this study to be conducted for the first time. The experimental study Sustaining Female Helicopter Pilot Performance with Dexedrine during Sleep Deprivation (Caldwell, Caldwell & Crowley, 1997) investigated the effects of a stimulant drug dextroamphetamine on the flight stimulator performance of sleep-deprived female aviators. The sample participants were exposed to 40-hour sleep deprivation, but the experimental group received the drug while the control received a placebo. The independent variable is the drug administration while the dependent variables are the performance, level of alertness and mood of the participants. They found out that the experimental group is able to sustain performance, alertness and mood than the control group. This study provides a good background information on the effects of sleep deprivation that the drug is hypothesized to eliminate: poor performance, lower level of alertness and lower mood. This study provides a hypothesis that sleep deprivation affects student’s performance, which includes tendencies of being tardy. Another experimental study, The impact of Cross-Training and Workload on Team Functioning: A Replication and Extension of Initial Findings (Cannon-Bowers et al, 1998). Other than cross-training, they examined the effects of workload on US Navy team functioning. The independent variable, aside from cross-training, is the workload while the dependent variable is the team functioning. The study heavily examined the effects of cross-training but not on workload, but suggests that workload influences the effectiveness of cross-training on team functioning. The findings of this study do not thoroughly elaborate the effects of workload on team functioning without consideration of cross-training. However, this study might give a hint that workload, combined with sleep deprivation, may have a heightened or lower influence on tardiness than from workload or sleep deprivation alone (synergistic effect) which can be tested by the factorial design of this study. Since the aforementioned experimental studies provide little help in defining the independent and dependent variables of this study, three additional non-experimental researches will be included: Student’s Study Time and Their Homework Problem (Zuzanek 2008) provides a measurable description of “school workload”. This literature explored the differences of school workloads among the students from nine different countries based from CATUS study (Comparative Study of Adolescent Time Use), the change of workloads within 10-20 years span, the effects of homework and the use of time, the implications of homework to academics, and the effects on the “sense of time pressure”, “feelings of stress” and “emotional well-being”. Among the multiple methodologies presented that is useful for this study is the differences of school workloads from different countries. The independent variable “workload” was treated by the author synonymously with “school related time” which is the sum of “time at school”, “homework on school days” and “travel time to and from school. Based from this study, we can quantify the independent variable for this study, school workload, as the time spent by an adolescent in class, plus the time spent in doing homework during school days, plus the time of travel from and to school. Therefore, manipulating at least one of the three will have a direct influence in the school workload. Differences in Reported Sleep Need Among Adolescents (Mercer, Merritt & Cowell, 1998) compared the differences between the students who reports that they needed more sleep and the students who reports to be having sufficient sleep. Those who needs more sleep has an ideal sleep time of 9.2 hours while those who get sufficient sleep needs only 8.3 hours. The difference between their ideal sleep time was about 1 hour, but those who reported to be needing more sleep needs 2 hours more than their ideal waking hours. Those who reported to be needing more sleep will be sleep deprived if they will be having the same sleeping time as those who get sufficient sleep. Through this data, sleep deprivation can be induced both to students who need more sleep and the students who will get sufficient sleep. The independent variable, sleep deprivation, is either sleep deprived (+ SD) or not sleep deprived (- NSD). This study will not perform the same methodology as Mercer, Merritt & Cowell (1998) in classifying students as this study will not consider the subjective reports of student’s sleep need. To decrease the sleep time of those who get sufficient sleep (8.3 hours – ? hours) would induce sleep deprivation of both groups. However, the students who reported to be needing more sleep will be more sleep deprived than those who reported to be having sufficient sleep if they will rise up the same time. It is therefore needed to quantify the rate of sleep deprivation. If the ideal sleep time of those who needs more sleep is 9.2 hours and they need 2 hour more to be sufficiently slept, reduction of 22% of sleep time is assumed to induce sleep deprivation. The methodology for this study is to be further explored in the Methods section. Unfortunately, there are no studies conducting an experiment on how a variables affects occurrences of tardiness. However, truancy, defined as “absence from school, unexcused by the student’s parents”, is closely related with tardiness, the former in terms of days, while the latter is in terms of minutes or hours but not more than a day. Psychosocial Aspects of Truancy in Early Adolescence (Nielsen & Gerber, 1979) investigated the aspects of truancy among the selected 33 truants within those individuals, their families, their peers, and their school teachers and administrators. What is interesting with this study is the methodology on determination of the variable “truancy”, which can be quantified in terms of number of absences from school. Since we are interested on gathering quantitative rather than qualitative data, two of four data collection methods reveal quantitative data, through school system data on the frequency of truancy, and the attendance records of the sample truants. Truants was differentiated from non-truants by occurrence of at least one incidence of truancy in an academic year. Thus, this method of data collection can also be applied in quantifying tardiness, through school system data on the frequency of tardiness, and the attendance records of the sample participants. It is hypothesized that school workload has a strong and positive significance in adolescent tardiness. The time of travel to and from school has a direct influence to school workload, and must interact with tardiness. The time for a student to arrive at school depends on the time of travel of student to school, and increasing the time of travel, a precursor of school workload, would make tardiness more likely. On the other hand, sleep deprivation has a moderate and positive significance to adolescent tardiness. Total sleep time is influenced both by the time of getting to sleep and waking up, but the significant effect is on the time of waking up, which when delayed will likely to cause tardiness. Method Participants The target population by this study are adolescent students (ages 13 to 17 years old) enrolled in academic institutions. However, the accessible populations for this research are the adolescent students enrolled in Pennsylvania State University. The inclusion criteria are: age 13-17 years old, enrolled in Pennsylvania State University, and enrolled for the academic year 2011-2012. The sampling frame will be gathered from the roster of enrolled students at the University Registrar. To have sufficient time in gathering this data, the study will begin its implementation after the first month of the academic year. From the list of the accessible population, where all enrolled students of academic year 2011-2012, who are at their age 13 to 17 years, are gathered, the next step is to obtain the sample. After the review and approval of the Human Subjects Committee, all students on the list will be receiving a letter of invitation, with the researcher’s contact details, through the University Registrar. The second month of the academic year will be the waiting time for the responses from the students who wish to participate. After the last day of the second month, the recruitment will be closed. Research Design A factorial design will be used by this study to determine the effects of school workload and sleep deprivation (independent variables) on adolescent tardiness (dependent variable). School workload has two sub-variables that can be manipulated. There are a total of three factorials that are possible for this study (2 x 3). The total groups that are possible to be manipulated are 8 (23 = 8). Measures School workload is an interval measure of “school-related time” composed of three components: “time at school”, “time spent on homework during school days” and “travel time”. It is expressed in number of hours (to be converted to decimal system). Measuring the total school-related time is computed by: School Workload = [ (Time of arrival to school) – (Time of departure from home) ] + [ (Time of arrival at home) – (Time of departure from school) ] + [ (Time of completing homework) – (Time of starting homework) ] Sleep deprivation is a nominal measure which separates the sleep deprived (+ SD) from not sleep deprived (- SD). A participant will only have a status of positively sleep deprived if the total time of bed is less than or equal to the Time for SD (number of hours needed to induce sleep deprivation). Total time of bed is computed by subtracting the time of getting to bed (the day before) to time of waking up from bed. Tardiness is a nominal measure. A participant to have at least one incident of tardiness will classify him/her as (+) tardiness while those who have no incident of tardiness will have (-) tardiness. See Table 1 for a summary of the measures to be used in this study. Procedure An interested student will be oriented to the study and will receive an informed consent, signed by the student, the parents or guardians, and the dean. The questionnaire will also be distributed immediately during the second month. However, the tool to be additionally distributed depends on the group where the student will be assigned. Each participant will be assigned a number, sorted from the first respondent to the last. The sample size is not yet determined since the expected response rate is expected to be low (about 50 participants). It is also anticipated that respondents would back out from the study. Therefore, the sample size will only be determined after the third month of implementation of the research. Before the implementation phase, the number of the sample participants will be randomly picked using lottery method (simple random sampling).The first number will be assigned to group A, then the second to group B, and so forth. The design assigns groups A, C, E and G as the experimental group for sleep deprivation while group B, D, F and H are the controls. On the other hand, groups C, D, E , F, G and H are the experimental group for school workload while groups A and B are controls. Only group B is the ultimate control group (will not receive any manipulation). Table 2 shows the group assignments in terms of school workload and sleep deprivation manipulation. School workload is an interval measure of “school-related time” composed of three components: “time at school”, “time spent on homework during school days” and “travel time”. However, it is almost impossible to manipulate the standardized curriculum to modify “time of school”. “Time spent on homework during school days” can be increased by increasing the task required by the homework (i.e. impose the inclusion of relevant literatures to the current homework to increase the time), or decreased by providing tips and hints in doing homework quicker. “Travel time” can be increased by directing the participant to take the longer route or not to take a vehicular transport (the latter is not recommended), while can be decreased by taking the shorter route or riding a vehicular transport. These manipulations can take serious ethical issues when enforced directly. Therefore, this research will attempt to manipulate the variables in a more ethical way. Therefore, those in experimental group has shorter “time spent on homework during school days” and/or “travel time” than the control group. A possible means of manipulating “time spent on homework during school days” is to provide guidelines in doing homework that the participants should follow, taking into consideration the ethical principles of beneficence (doing benefit) and non-malefiscence (not doing harm). It is more beneficial and less harmful for a student to complete his homework quicker than to prolong its process. It is also beneficial and less harmful for the student to be able to reach school sooner. Thus, instead of increasing school workload, this study will use manipulation to lower it. Therefore, two additional tools shall be used by these studies that are aimed to indirectly manipulate the experimental group in terms of school workload. The tool “Tips on Doing Homework Fast” is designed to lessen the time spent of a student in doing homework. To ascertain compliance, the respondent must put a check mark if complied with the items written therein, and a cross mark if he/she does not. Another tool in manipulating travel time is “Tips on Getting to Pennsylvania State University” wherein the student is expected to get to school faster when considered. Sleep deprivation is a nominal measure which separates the sleep deprived (+ SD) from not sleep deprived (- SD). Sleep deprivation does not have to be as long as 40 hours like in the study of Caldwell, Caldwell & Crowley (1997). Determination of sleep deprivation for this study is based from the study of Mercer, Merritt & Cowell (1998). Students whose mean ideal sleep time is 9.2 hours reported that they need 2 hour to have sufficient sleep. Here, such students will be sleep deprived if they slept only 7.2 hours or less, which is almost 22% reduction of sleep time. If those students who reported to have a mean ideal sleep time of 8.3 will be sleep deprived if they will be able to sleep for only 6.5 hours. Therefore, manipulating the experimental group by reducing their sleep time by 22% is sufficient to induce sleep deprivation. How students will obtain a sleep deprived state will be determined first by the number of hours needed to induce sleep deprivation (Time for SD) based from their ideal sleep time. In the questionnaire, their ideal sleep time will be asked (how many hours of sleep they need to have sufficient sleep). For example, if their ideal sleep time is 9 hours, 22% will be reduced to obtain the number of hours needed to induce sleep deprivation (9 hours – 22% = 7.02 hours). For the entire duration of the study, the participant needs to sleep for only 7.02 hours or less for the entire duration of the study. For example, in Day 1, he slept at 10:00 PM. If he usually wakes up at 7:00 AM, he must set his alarm clock at 5:00 AM. If he is able to get up according to the number of hours needed to induce sleep deprivation, he will put a check mark on the questionnaire’s sleep compliance row, while a cross mark if not (including the episodes of pressing the snooze button and getting back to bed again). Data gathering is within a 1-week span, from July 2-9, 2011, while the questionnaires must be handed on or before July 31, 2011 (see Appendix I). All respondents will be assigned a control number instead of names to maintain confidentiality. First respondent will have a control number of S001. The succeeding respondent will have the control number “S002”, “S003”, and so forth. The group designation by the researcher is based on the method of randomly assigning the participants to their respective groups. The “ideal sleep time” of the participant is his/her subjective preference of the sleep needed to get sufficient sleep. The “Time for SD”, expressed in number of hours, will be computed by the researcher by subtracting 22% from the ideal sleep time. For all cells that ask for time, the exact time should be written (e.g. 7:01 AM). Group-based rows must be completed based from the group assigned. The survey questionnaire must be submitted on or before July 31, 2011. All questionnaires submitted after July 31 will not be included in the study. The last data to be gathered is tardiness, which is the occurrence of at least 1 incidence of tardiness for the duration of the study. Therefore, it is a nominal measure. Data of tardiness will be gathered from the school system data on the frequency of tardiness, and the attendance records of the sample participants. A participant to have at least one incident of tardiness will classify him/her as (+) tardiness while those who have no incident of tardiness will have (-) tardiness. However, participants in the experimental group might not comply to the manipulation of independent variables. Some considerations are: those who are sleep deprived must have a mean time of bed of less than or equal to time for SD (number of hours needed to induce sleep deprivation). If the mean time of bed of those who are expected to be sleep deprived is greater than the time for SD, that participant must be excluded from the study. However, this treatment cannot be assessed for school workload since there is no ideal “time spent on homework during school days” and “travel time” that is true for all students. For example, a medical student might have greater time spent on homework than a fine arts student. This poses as a limitation of this study, as only compliance to sleep deprivation manipulation can be accurately determined. Mean time of bed = (summation of total time of bed for the week during school days) / (total school days) The sample researcher’s data sheet on Appendix 2 can be used as a tool in eliminating participants with suspicious non-compliance to sleep deprivation manipulation (place in the “Remarks” section whether the participant is eliminated from the study). Those who will be able to complete the survey questionnaire, without suspicious non-compliance of those assigned to experimental groups, will get their stipend ($10). Results and Data Analyses This statistical analysis will determine what among the group is more likely to manifest tardiness. Since there are more than two independent variables, one is interval and one is nominal, and the dependent variable is nominal, no other statistical test are applicable other than discriminant analysis and logistic regression. Discriminant analysis will classify what among the groups are likely to make adolescent students tardy and those groups that won’t likely to be tardy. Logistic regression will be used to test the relationship between two independent variables (school workload vs. sleep deprivation) and predict the probability of tardiness (odd ratio or OR). There are a total of 8 groups, each with their respective manipulations of variables (while only group B remains as a control group for both variables. Discussion This study will determine whether school workload and/or sleep deprivation has an effect on adolescents’ tendency of being tardy. Through discriminant analysis, we can predict what among those groups will likely make a student tardy, and by analysis of each resulting group, it is possible to predict what among the independent variables is related to tardiness, and also if these variables must interact to produce the same results. Since school workload has two sub-variables that can be manipulated (“time spent on homework during school days” and “travel time”), this study will also predict if doing quicker homework can cause tardiness without prolonging travel time, or both quickening must be achieved to cause tardiness. Depending on the odds ratio, the discussion section will have different findings: Group A highest OR: Adolescents that are sleep deprived will likely be tardy regardless of school workload reduction. Group B highest OR: Adolescents whose school workloads are reduced and those that are not sleep deprived will likely be tardy. Group C highest OR: Adolescents that are sleep deprived and having a quicker time spent on doing homework will likely be tardy regardless of travel time. Group D highest OR: Adolescents having a quicker time spent on doing homework will likely be tardy regardless of travel time and sleep deprivation. Group E highest OR: Adolescents that are sleep deprived and having a quicker time spent on going to and from school will likely be tardy regardless of time spent on doing homework. Group F highest OR: Adolescents having a quicker time spent on going to and from school will likely be tardy regardless of time spent on doing homework and sleep deprivation. Group G highest OR: Adolescent students who are sleep deprived, have shorter time doing the homework and have shorter time going to and from school will make them tardy. Group H highest OR: Adolescent students who have shorter time doing the homework and have shorter time going to and from school will make them tardy regardless of sleep deprivation. A notable limitation of this study is the lack of direct manipulation of the variables (e.g. mandating the schedule of the participants, setting a specific time of waking up and sleeping, etc.). All manipulations are indirectly applied (e.g. giving the participant tips on doing homework fast and assuming that the participant complies). Limited resources (including time) cannot facilitate direct monitoring of compliance (e.g. personal stay at home, CCTV camera monitoring). There is no certainty of compliance of participants to the study, but they are expected to be honest in filling up the survey questionnaire. Another limitation is the inability to manipulate “time of school” for the variable “school workload” since it is almost impossible to manipulate the school curriculum. Last important limitation to consider is that this study does not study the effects of greater school workload on adolescent tardiness, but rather, how lesser school workload does. It is not conclusive that increasing workload has an effect on student tardiness. The study of Caldwell, Caldwell & Crowley (1997) suggests that sleep deprivation has an impact on performance while the study of Cannon-Bowers et al (1998) suggests an interaction of workload and another variable to affect performance. Since tardiness is an aspect of poor performance, this study will confirm if the hypotheses are true, whether if school workload has a strong and positive significance in adolescent tardiness, and whether if sleep deprivation has a moderate and positive significance to adolescent tardiness. References Caldwell, J., Caldwell, J., & Crowley, J. (1997). Sustaining female helicopter pilot performance with dexedrine during sleep deprivation. International Journal of Aviation Psychology, 7, 1, 15-36. Cannon-Bowers, J, Salas, E., Blickensderfer, E. & Bowers, C. (1998). The impact of cross-training and workload on team functioning: A replication and extension of initial findings. Human Factors, 40, 1, 92-101. Mercer, P., Merritt, S. & Cowell, J. (1998). Differences in reported sleep need among adolescents. Journal of Adolescent Health, 23, 259-263. Nielsen, A. & Gerber, D. (1979). Psychosocial aspects of truancy in early adolescence. Adolescence, 14, 54, 313-326. Zuzanek, J. (2009). Students’ study time and their “homework problem”. Social Indicators Research, 93, 1, 111-115. Table 1 Summary of Variables and Measures to be Used in this Study Variable Measurement Type of Measure Expected Data School Workload Time of school + Homework time during school days + Time of travel to and from school Interval Time of school (in hours) Homework time during school days (in hours) Time of travel to and from school (in hours) Sleep Deprivation Sleep Deprived: Ideal number of hours of sleep minus 22% Nominal Sleep Deprived (+ SD) Not Sleep Deprived (- SD) Tardiness Tardiness: At least one incidence of tardiness in an academic year Nominal (+) Tardiness (-) Tardiness Table 2 Group Assignments for this Study (+) Sleep Deprivation (-) Sleep Deprivation No School Workload Manipulation Group A Group B Manipulated time spent on homework during school days Group C Group D Manipulated travel time Group E Group F Manipulated time spent on homework during school days and travel time Group G Group H Appendix 1: Sample Survey Questionnaire SURVEY QUESTIONNAIRE This survey questionnaire assesses your daily school workload and sleep needs of adolescent students (age 13 to 17 years old). Answers remain confidential, assuring your privacy. Submit this questionnaire to the researcher on or before July 31, 2011 and claim your stipend, provided that full compliance to the study was met. Thank you for your cooperation. To be filled up by the researcher Control Number Group Total School Days Time for SD (to be filled up by the researcher) Demographic Information Age Gender Course Ideal number of hours of sleep (in hours and minutes) (e.g. 8 hours, 30 minutes) Survey Questionnaire Instructions: Answer the questions honestly. Put the exact time when asked for the time (e.g. 7:01 AM). If you don’t have any classes for that day, put “N/A” in the respective cells of “time of departure from home”, “Time of departure from school” and “Time of arrival at home”. For the time of starting and completing homework, if you don’t have homework for that day, put an “N/A” in the respective cells. Date Sunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday July 3 July 4 July 5 July 6 July 7 July 8 July 9 Time of waking up from bed Time of departure from home Time of arrival to school Time of departure from school Time of arrival at home Time of starting homework Time of completing homework Time of getting to bed Groups A, C, E & G only Did you wake up from bed according to the researcher’s instructions? (mark “/” if complied, “X” if not complied) Groups C, D, G & H only Did you follow the instructions from the tool “Tips on Doing Homework Fast” for that day? (mark “/” if complied, “X” if not complied. If you don’t have homework for the day, put also an “X” mark). Groups E, F, G & H only Did you follow the instructions from the tool “Tips on Getting to Pennsylvania State University” for that day? (mark “/” if complied, “X” if not complied. Appendix 2: Sample Researcher’s Data Sheet RESEARCHER’S DATA SHEET Control Number Group Mean School Workload (hours) Mean Sleep Time (hours) Time for SD (hours) Tardiness (+/-) Remarks Appendix III: Tool for Groups C, D, G & H Tips on Doing Homework Fast Partly copied from source without permission: eHow.com (n.d.). How to Do Your Homework Fast. Retrieved April 17, 2011, from http://www.ehow.com/how_4707929_do-homework-fast.html#ixzz1K7qJGQko Guidelines Compliance 1. Eliminate all distractions (e.g. cell phone, internet not for researching, music, TV, magazines, and other people. 2. Eliminate all distractions (e.g. cell phone, internet not for researching, music, TV, magazines, and other people. 3. Eliminate all distractions (e.g. cell phone, internet not for researching, music, TV, magazines, and other people. 4. Estimate time to complete homework and aim a goal of homework completion time. Try to do it within that time or even before that time. 5. Plan a reward for yourself if you made it to your goal, write it and place it on a visible spot. 6. Have plenty of work space. 7. Do not daydream. 8. Skim pages you are reading and mark key words. 9. If writing an essay, make a numbered outline instead of bullet points and sub-categories. 10. Finish the homework quick and get the reward you planned. Appendix IV: Tool for Groups E, F, G & H Tips on Getting to Pennsylvania State University Source: Ritter, F. & Ritter, C. (2009). An unofficial guide to living in state College: a narrative for new state collegians and visitors. Retrieved April 17, 2011, from http://www.frankritter.com/guide. Guidelines Compliance 1. Use a map in going to the University. 2. Take the shortest route to the University. 3. Take a bus, train, taxi, car, or bicycle. 4. Do not take the route at Breezewoord to take US-30 to Everett and route PA-26 since this route is slower. 5. If riding a bicycle, be careful. Copies of Abstracts for Review Psychosocial Aspects of Truancy in Early Adolescence (Nielsen & Gerber, 1979): The authors studied truancy in junior high school students, largely by structured interviews of 33 truants. Truancy at this age was commonly associated with significant difficulties at home, at school and with peers. Two modal types of truants were delineated: "authority defying" and "peer phobic." The school environment, including the response to truancy and the transition to the junior high, was found to play a critical role in creating and aggravating truancy. The authors discuss the findings with respect to strategies for prevention and remediation. Student’s Study Time and Their Homework Problem (Zuzanek 2008): [NO ABSTRACT]. North American parents and writers concerned with adolescents’ well-being have repeatedly pointed to the “homework problem” as underlying adolescent stress, disruption of family relationships, and questionable academic results. Publications such as Kralovec and Buell’s (2000) “The end of homework”, Kohn’s (2006) “The Homework Myth. Why our kids are getting too much of a bad thing”, and Bennett and Kalish’s (2006) ‘The case against homework” have highlighted these concerns. These assertions are countered by arguments that homework enhances learning and is needed for building good work habits (see Cooper et al, 2006), often summarized “How can we compete with the Japanese and Koreans, if our kids don’t do homework.”…. Differences in Reported Sleep Need Among Adolescents (Mercer, Merritt & Cowell, 1998): Increased lifestyle demands and reduced sleep are reported to result in daytime sleepiness and impaired functioning for teenagers. A sample of 612 freshman urban high school students completed a questionnaire describing their sleep patterns and problems, along with sociodemographic information, daily activities, pubertal development, depressive mood, and morning-evening preference. About 63% of the respondents felt they needed more sleep on weeknights (MS group), experienced sleepiness that interfered with their schoolwork, and had problems with sleeping. The other group reported they got sufficient sleep on weeknights (SS group) and did not experience sleepiness problems to the same degree. However, both had similar weeknight sleep and daily activity patterns. The MS group reported an ideal sleep time of 9.2 h, about 2 h more than they were getting and 1 h more than the SS group ideal, and had a higher preference for later bed and waking times. In our sample, individual differences in biologic sleep need and quality of sleep may be emerging as early as 14 years of age. Sustaining Female Helicopter Pilot Performance with Dexedrine during Sleep Deprivation (Caldwell, Caldwell & Crowley, 1997): To investigate the efficacy of Dexedrine for maintaining the performance of sleep deprived female aviators, 6 female UH-60 pilots were exposed to 2 40-hr sleep deprivation periods during which they alternately received Dexedrine (3 10mg doses) or placebo. Dexedrine improved 6 of 9 flight simulator maneuvers and enhanced general levels of alertness as measured by EEG and Profile of Mood States assessments. The results from a cognitive test were negligible and inconsistent, probably because of the short test duration. Overall, it appeared that Dexedrine effectively sustained the performance, alertness, and mood of female UH-60 pilots despite short-term sleep loss. There were no problematic side effects. The impact of Cross-Training and Workload on Team Functioning: A Replication and Extension of Initial Findings (Cannon-Bowers et al, 1998). [NO ABSTRACT]. Introduction: The role of teams in organizational functioning has recently been increasing (see Guzzo & Salas, 1995), and developing and maintaining high performance in teams has been a primary goal for many researchers and practitioners (e.g., Cannon-Bowers, Tannenbaum, Salas, & Volpe, 1995; Hackman, 1990; Salas, Cannon-Bowers, & Johnston, 1997). An overriding question guiding much of this research is "How can we turn a team of experts into an expert team?" Answers to this question have begun to emerge (Salas et al., 1997), with theoretically driven team training strategies as the subject of empirical study. One of these strategies - task-related cross-training - was the subject of the current investigation…. Read More