Energetics and Human Information Processing

1. Front Matter

   Pages I-XV

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2. Introduction

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 1-1

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   2. Energetical Issues in Research on Human Information Processing

      • G. Robert J. Hockey, Michael G. H. Coles, Anthony W. K. Gaillard

      Pages 3-21

   3. The Concept of Energy in Psychological Theory

      • Michael I. Posner, Mary Klevjord Rothbart

      Pages 23-40

3. Biological Foundations of Energetics

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 41-41

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   2. Computation, Control, and Energetics: A Biological Perspective

      • Jackson Beatty

      Pages 43-52

   3. Energetics and the Self Regulation of Activation

      • Holger Ursin

      Pages 53-70

   4. Psychopharmacological and Neurobiological Aspects of the Energetics of Information Processing

      • T. W. Robbins

      Pages 71-90

   5. The Orienting Response; A Combination of Informational and Energetical Aspects of Brain Function

      • Risto Näätänen

      Pages 91-111

   6. Behavioural Efficiency: A Biological Link Between Informational and Energetic Processes

      • Jasper Brener

      Pages 113-122

   7. Responses to Stress: An Interdisciplinary Approach

      • Martine Timsit-Berthier, Marc Ansseau, Jean-Jacques Legros

      Pages 123-129

   8. On the Relation Between Energy Transformations in the Brain and Mental Activities

      • Cees J. Van den Berg

      Pages 131-135

4. Stress, Effort and Task Performance

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 137-137

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   2. Energetical States Underlying Task Performance

      • A. F. Sanders

      Pages 139-154

   3. Models and Paradigms in the Study of Stress Effects

      • Patrick Rabbitt

      Pages 155-174

   4. The Concept and Measurement of Mental Effort

      • G. Mulder

      Pages 175-198

   5. Do Cardiovascular Changes Indicate Energetic Support of Information Processing?

      • J. Richard Jennings

      Pages 199-216

   6. A State Model for Mental Effort

      • David M. Warburton

      Pages 217-232

   7. An Efficiency Model of Information Processing

      • M. L. Heemstra

      Pages 233-242

   8. Stress and Adaptability

      • P. A. Hancock

      Pages 243-251

The central theme of this book is the role of energetical factors in the regulation of human information processing activity. This is a restatement of one of the classic problems of psychology - that of acc­ ounting for motivational or intensive aspects of behaviour, as opposed to structural or directional aspects. The term "energetics" was first used in the 1930's by Freeman, Duffy and others, following Cannon's energy mobilization view of emotion and motivation. The original concept had a limited life, probably because of its unnecessary focus on relativ­ ely peripheral processes, but it provided the foundations for the con­ cepts of "arousal" and "activation" which became the popular motivational constructs of the 1950's and 1960's. Now, these too are found wanting. The original assumptions of a unitary, non-specific process based on activation of the brain stem reticular formation have been shown to be misleading. Current work in neurobiology has demonstrated evidence of discrete neurotransmitter systems having quite specific information processing functions, and central roles in the regulation of behaviour. Even the venerable curvilinear relationship between motivation and per­ formance (the Yerkes-Dodson law) has been shown to be, at best, an unhelpful oversimplification. On a different front psychophysiologists have found complex patterns in the response of different bodily systems to external stressors and to task demands.

• Emotion
• attention
• behavior
• brain
• cognition
• psychophysiology
• stress management

• Medical Research Council (MRC)/ESRC Social and Applied Psychology Unit, Dept of Psychology, University of Sheffield, Sheffield, UK

  G. Robert J. Hockey

• Institute for Perception TNO, Soesterberg, The Netherlands

  Anthony W. K. Gaillard

• Cognitive Psychophysiology Laboratory Department of Psychology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Champaign, USA

  Michael G. H. Coles

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