Wirtz
Fakultäten » Philosophische Fakultät » Psychologisches Institut » Klinische Psychologie und Psychotherapie » Prof. Dr. Ulrike Ehlert » Wirtz
Completed research project
| Title / Titel | Stress and airport security: The effects of psychosocial stress on detection performance of X-ray screeners | ||||||||
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| Abstract (PDF, 14 KB) | |||||||||
| Summary / Zusammenfassung | Aviation security is based to a great extent on the screener personnels performance in the detection of threatening objects when visually inspecting X-ray images of passenger bags. Typical situational components like time pressure, impatient passengers, or waiting crowds are likely to induce psychosocial stress in the screening persons. The planned project sets out to evaluate the effects of psychosocial stress and stress-induced hormone secretion on the visual inspection performance of X-ray screeners. 50 apparently healthy young men without previous experience in X-ray threat screening are randomly assigned into a stress and a waiting group. The stress group is confronted with a psychosocial stress test combining public speaking and mental arithmetics in front of an audience. Before and after the stress-task, (or waiting phase in the control group, respectively) subjects have to identify forbidden weapons like knifes or guns in a computer-based object recognition test (ORT) presenting passenger bag X-ray images. We measure cortisol and alpha-amylase in saliva several times before and after the stressor as well as during the object recognition testing. The continous assessment of heart rate completes physiological testing. Moreover, we assessed visual inspection performance as indicated by discrimination indices of threat detection (d’, A’, c, B’’). |
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| Publications / Publikationen | Hardmeier, D., Hofer, F., & Schwaninger, A. (2005). The object recognition test (ORT) – a reliable tool for measuring visual abilities needed in x-ray screening. IEEE ICCST Proceedings, 39, 189-192.Schwaninger, A., Hardmeier, D., & Hofer, F. (2005). Aviation security screeners visual abilities & visual knowledge measurement. IEEE Aerospace and Electronic Systems, 20(6), 29-35. | ||||||||
| Keywords / Suchbegriffe | Airport security, object recognition, stress, cortisol, stress reactivity, heart rate, threat detection | ||||||||
| Project leadership and contacts / Projektleitung und Kontakte |
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| Other links to external web pages | http://www.psychologie.uzh.ch/vicoreg | ||||||||
| Funding source(s) / Unterstützt durch |
No project-specific funding |
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| In collaboration with / In Zusammenarbeit mit |
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| Duration of Project / Projektdauer | Jul 2005 to Dec 2007 |