The Effects of Sleep Deprivation on Decision Making - Term Paper Example

? Sleep Deprivation Introduction Sleep Deprivation is described as the manipulation that allows the levels of carousals to be manipulated to higher degrees that are not comparable to what one sees or experiences in interventions on experiments that are found in cognitive research. Sleep Deprivation (SD) has become an important impediment to the proper judgment of persons of whom proper judgment is an integral part of the job prescription such jobs as in the aviation industry. It is imperative to note from the onset that sleep deprivation affects a person’s ability to perform tasks that are cognitive in nature with many theories arguing whether it leads to a decline in functioning (Alhola and Polo-Kantola, n.d). This is experienced majorly because being deprived of sleep will affect numerous components of human functioning involved in cognitive processing such as stimuli and other non-decision processes. Sleep deprivation affects the person’s cognitive performance of tasks through reduced attentional arousal and his central processing. Dixit et al (2012) state that being deprived of sleep affects the person to have proper control of his attentional and cognitive functions and may at times lead to detrimental effects in terms of decision making for those in the medical profession. Total and Partial Sleep Deprivation In considering the effects of loss of sleep, there is need to draw a proper distinction between total or partial sleep deprivation in that although both conditions have negative effects in terms of affecting cognitive performance, they are different in terms of mechanisms. Cognitive performance discussed when determining the effects of sleep deprivation include several domains such as attentional functions, working memory and memory classified as long-term. The cognitive performance sleep deprivation effects depends on the task to be performed or the modality it takes such as audio, visual or verbal as well as the task demands on time and role. Research also shows that less or deprivation of sleep ultimately affects the health of a person physically and emotionally that plays a key role in dictating decision-making as sleep deprivation impairs the ability to integrate emotion and cognition to guide judgment. The Impact of Sleep Deprivation on Decision-making Recent findings show that sleep deprivation impairs decision-making that involves the unexpected, innovation, distraction that competes and effective communication and therefore decision-making models adopted must provide the useful perspective on the neuropsychological explanation of the function of sleep (Harrison and Horne, 2000). In discussing decision-making as an operational construct, they argue that higher level decision-making not only demands that there is convergent but rule-based skills of logical, deductive and critical reasoning but also unique and unfamiliar characteristics that requires divergent skills. In evaluating sensitivity to sleep loss in relation to simple versus complex tasks, Harrison and Horne found SD reduces the non-specific arousal levels of the body but does not have any specific effects. The assumption is that under conditions that are both demanding and motivating, sleep deprivation will have the minimal impact on decisions to be made at a high level or those that are complex to make. The studies also show that one night of sleep deprivation can lead to deterioration in the aforementioned skills despite efforts by an individual to perform better and the performance of the task within a short duration. Further, Harrison and Horne (2000) state that sleep deprivation may lead to certain levels of cognitive dysfunctions that may not be readily accounted for in-terms of low-level skills. In the discussion of decision-making as an operational construct, Harrison and Horne argue that high-level decision making that require divergent skills may be affected by sleep deprivation. Sleep deprivation may affect the appreciation of a complex situation while avoiding distractions that require that a person assimilate a large amount of information within a short time. Therefore, in a simulated marketing game after one night of sleep deprivation, studies have shown that participants appreciate less when the situation gets complex and respond by applying more effort to areas that are less important in decision making in relation to the expected outcome (Harrison and Home 2000). Sleep Deprivation affects Human Strategical Thinking and Actions Harrison and Horne (2000) have also found that sleep deprivation affects a person in terms of keeping track of events and developing and updating of strategies. They report that a night of deprived sleep when one is expected to play an active role on conventional planning led to an increased deterioration of such skills and failure by persons to revise the original strategies. Sleep deprivation also affects thinking laterally and being innovative especially when performing cognitive tasks in that when tasks are convergent it is easy for participants to think and innovate. Contrary to this, a person who has undergone about two nights of sleep deprivation has reduced innovative thinking and generation of spontaneous ideas. It has also been proven that sleep deprivation has the effect of controlling mood and uninhibited behavior in that sleep deprivation can enhance the mood of a depressed patient especially if the deprivation was for about four hours. Sleep Loss and Fatigue affects Judgment Baranski (2007) argues that fatigue and loss of sleep affects the confidence in judgment of a person especially the meta-cognitive judgment. In a study amongst about sixty adults who were deprived of sleep for a period of twenty-eight hours who are involved in continuous cognitive work, different results were found. This study found that the participants experienced a lot of fatigue in their daily endeavors due to the loss of sleep that affected their meta-cognitive abilities in different tasks assigned. This is in contrast to the usual or normal indices of showing confidence such as ability to calibrate, make a resolution and levels of confidence. Baranski (2007) further found that human beings can with precision assess their individual cognitive performance only when subjected to one night of sleep on not on the basis of having a subjective estimate of sleepiness. Effects of Sleep Loss on Team Decision-Making: Motivational Loss or Motivational Gain In a later study, Baranski et al (2007) in the work “Effects of Sleep Loss on Team Decision-Making: Motivational Loss or Motivational Gain?” states that sleep loss has got more effect on occupations that are carried out mostly at night for example those that require a lot of vigilance and a component that requires constant monitoring. This work further states that loss of sleep at times affect the performance of occupations that require teamwork as opposed to those that require only an individual effort. In the consideration of the effect of fatigue, that results into the loss of sleep that in turn affects the performance of teams as opposed to individuals, a discussion is made of group motivational gains and group motivational losses. Under the group motivational losses, it is found that individuals tend to lower their efforts when they work in a team as opposed to working alone and because sleep deprivation leads to lower carousal, the performance of a team is greatly negated. Group motivational gains however occur when individuals put in more effort as a group as opposed to when they work as individuals that result in better performances in tasks that require motivation. This study affirms previous effects of fatigue that can be attributed to the loss of sleep that ultimately affects the performance of a team for either the positive or the negative effect. Sleep Deprivation and Motivation The question that is further asked is the role that motivation plays in cognitive performance and whether high motivation can reverse the adverse effect of sleep deprivation. The concept of motivational gains as argued by Baranski et al (2007) can be related to the concept of attentional effort which is a cognitive incentive as argued by Sarter et al (2006). According to Sarter et al (2006), an increase in attention effort does not necessarily show that there is a primary function to perform the task but that there is a motivation to perform. Similarly, Pilcher et al (2011) have also found out that the deprivation of sleep impacts negatively on the performance on cognitive and tasks that require a lot of vigilance. The focus of the study was to examine the effects of sleep deprivation in little quantities and sustained operations on performance of cognitive but demanding tasks while working in a team. This work focuses majorly on tasks that should be performed as a group and how any member of the group being deprived of sleep affects the results. In an assigned cognitive task, participants working with partners in order to maximize on the overall scores, it was found that teamwork worked in favor of increasing the performance over a night of being deprived of sleep. However, their study found that performance on some tasks that are challenging such as decision-making and innovative thinking may be affected by deprivation in sleep. The overall hypothesis is therefore that, working in a team or with a partner helps in maintaining the performance of cognitively demanding tasks. Hurwitz (1998) states that a question that has to be determined or researched upon on risky real-time decision-making is how much the taking of risks can be controlled by the perception of that risk and how its acceptance is controlled. He finds that while real-time risk perception produces estimates of the level of the risk, the risk acceptance involves a myriad of processes that are generated in light of the estimates. Therefore, the influence of perception of risk and its acceptance is important in addressing how the problem of sleep deprivation will affect decision-making in risky instances. He further states that evidence suggests that components that could affect risk perception do deteriorate or go down with increased instances of deprivation of sleep. It is important to note that despite the fact that risk perception deteriorates when a person is deprived of sleep, it is also possible that the same deprivation can affect sleep acceptance. For example, a sleep deprived person in a position of decision-making can accept more risk to surmount the effects of loss of sleep and be more engaged in the work.. Conclusion Sleep deprivation has got an adverse automatic and accurate response that has got an effect in disastrous or devastating errors especially among security officers or emergency respondents. It affects the integration of information, cognitive operation of persons that in most cases require that a decision is made within a split-second. Other negative effects of sleep deprivation on attention and the working memory have been well documented in that apart from impairing a range of cognitive functions, it also has the effect of affecting other functions of the human body and mind. There are factors that aggravate the effects of sleep deprivation such as the age and gender of the person concerned as well as the physiological or environmental factors. References Alhola, P, & Polo-Kantola, P. (n.d.). Sleep deprivation: Impact on cognitive performance. Dove Medical Press. Baranski, J. V. (2007). Fatigue, sleep loss, and confidence in judgment. Journal of Experimental Psychology. Applied, 13, 4, 182-96. Baranski, J. V., Thompson, M. M., Lichacz, F. M., McCann, C., Gil, V., Pasto?, L., & Pigeau, R. A. (2007). Effects of sleep loss on team decision making: motivational loss or motivational gain?. Human Factors, 49, 4, 646-60. Dixit, A., Thawani, R., Goyal, A., & Vaney, N. (2012). Psychomotor performance of medical students: effect of 24 hours of sleep deprivation. Indian Journal of Psychological Medicine, 34, 2, 129-32. Harrison, Y., & Horne, J. A. (2000). The impact of sleep deprivation on decision making: A review. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied, 6, 3, 236-249. Hurwitz, J. B. (1998). Modeling the Effects of Sleep Deprivation on Real-Time Risky Decision Making. Proceedings of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society Annual Meeting, 1, 330-334. Pilcher, J., Vander, W. M., & O'Connell, K. ( 2011). The effects of extended work under sleep deprivation conditions on team-based performance. Ergonomics, 54, 7, 587-596. Sarter, M., Gehring, W. J., & Kozak, R. (2006). More attention must be paid: The neurobiology of attentional effort. Brain Research Reviews, 51, 2, 145-160. Read More