I like to define my primary research program as the psychophysiology of attention in human performance. I am interested in uncovering and ultimately explaining and predicting the psychological/physiological reactions that occur while we are attending to task-relevant or affective stimuli. The human factors/ergonomic applications of my research are in the assessment and prediction of mental workload. As a consequence of this applied aspect of my research, I am also interested in how the psychological/physiological relations may change with changes in background state such as during emotional stress and physiological challenge. My secondary research interest is in how the psychological/physiological relations may change across the life-span. My work is mostly concerned with cardiovascular physiological variables, but I also use EEG and event-related brain potentials.
Listed below are the references for my research. The papers for which an abstract can be viewed are highlighted.
PUBLICATIONS
Journal Articles
Backs, R. W., Lenneman, J. K., & Sicard, J. L. (1999). The use of autonomic components to improve cardiovascular assessment of mental workload in flight simulation. The International Journal of Aviation Psychology, 9, 33-47.
Backs, R. W. (1998). A comparison of factor analytic methods of obtaining cardiovascular autonomic components for the assessment of mental workload. Ergonomics, 41, 733-745.
Backs, R. W. (1997). Psychophysiological aspects of
selective and divided attention during continuous manual
tracking. Acta Psychologica, 96,
167-191.
Backs, R. W., & Walrath, L. C. (1995). Ocular measures of redundancy
gain during visual search of color symbolic displays.
Ergonomics, 38, 1831-1840.
Backs, R. W. (1995). Going
beyond heart rate: Modes of autonomic control in the
cardiovascular assessment of mental workload. The
International Journal of Aviation Psychology, 5,
25-48.
Backs, R. W., Ryan, A. M., & Wilson, G. F. (1994). Psychophysiological measures of workload during continuous manual performance. Human Factors, 36, 514-531.
Backs, R. W., & Seljos, K. A. (1994).
Metabolic and
cardiorespiratory measures of mental effort: The effects
of level of difficulty in a working memory task. International
Journal of Psychophysiology, 16, 57-68.
Backs, R. W., & Walrath, L. C. (1992). Eye movement and pupillary
response indices of mental workload during visual search
of symbolic displays. Applied Ergonomics, 23,
243-254.
Satterfield, J. H., Schell, A. M., Nicholas, T., &
Backs, R. W. (1988). Topographic study of auditory
event-related potentials in normal boys and boys with
attention deficit disorder with hyperactivity. Psychophysiology,
25, 591-606.
Satterfield, J. H., Schell, A. M., &
Backs, R. W. (1987). Longitudinal study of AERPs in
hyperactive and normal children: Relationship to
antisocial behavior. Electroencephalography and
Clinical Neurophysiology, 67, 531-536.
Backs, R. W., & Grings, W. W. (1985). Effects of UCS
probability on the contingent negative variation and
electrodermal response during long ISI conditioning. Psychophysiology,
22, 268-275.
Satterfield, J. H., Schell, A. M., Backs,
R. W., & Hidaka, K. C. (1984). A cross-sectional and
longitudinal study of age effects on electrophysiological
measures in hyperactive and normal children. Biological
Psychiatry, 19, 973-990.
Book
Backs, R. W., & Boucsein, W. (Eds.). (2000). Engineering
Psychophysiology: Issues and Applications.
Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
Book Chapters
Backs, R. W. (2001). An autonomic space approach
to the psychophysiological assessment of mental workload.
In. P. A. Hancock, & P. A. Desmond (Eds.), Stress,
Workload, and Fatigue.
Boucsein, W., & Backs, R. W. (2000). Engineering
psychophysiology as a discipline: Historical and
theoretical aspects. In Backs, R. W., & Boucsein, W.
(Eds.), Engineering Psychophysiology: Issues and
Applications. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
Lenneman, J. K., & Backs, R. W. (2000). The validity
of factor analytically derived cardiac autonomic
components for mental workload assessment. In Backs, R.
W., & Boucsein, W. (Eds.), Engineering
Psychophysiology: Issues and Applications. Mahwah,
NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
Backs, R. W., & Lenneman, J. K. (1997). Enhancing cardiovascular
mental workload assessment in the field using autonomic
components. In D. Harris (Ed.), Engineering
Psychology and Cognitive Ergonomics, Volume 1 -
Transportation Systems (pp. 261-268). Aldershot, UK:
Ashgate.
Backs, R. W. (1987). Stimulus intensity
and task complexity effects on late components of the
event related potential. In R. Johnson, Jr., R.
Parasuraman, & J. R. Rohrbaugh (Eds.), Current
trends in event-related potential research (pp.
163-169). Amsterdam: Elsevier.
Papers Published in Full in Official
Proceedings
Xu., X., Navidzadeh, H. T., &
Backs, R. W. (2001). Personality,
divided attention performance, and cardiovascular
predictors of performance in a simulated air traffic
control task. In R. S.
Jensen (Ed.), Proceedings of the Eleventh
International Symposium on Aviation Psychology.
Columbus, OH: The Ohio State University.
Backs, R. W. (2000). Application of psychophysiological models to mental workload. Proceedings of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society 44th Annual Meeting. Santa Monica, CA: Human Factors and Ergonomics Society.
Backs, R. W., Navidzadeh, H. T., & Xu., X. (2000). Cardiorespiratory indices of mental workload during simulated air traffic control. Proceedings of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society 44th Annual Meeting. Santa Monica, CA: Human Factors and Ergonomics Society.
Backs, R. W., Lenneman, J. K., &
Sicard, J. L. (1997). Reliability
of autonomic components for cardiovascular assessment of
mental workload in flight simulation. In R. S. Jensen
& L. A. Rakovan (Eds.), Proceedings of the Ninth
International Symposium on Aviation Psychology (pp.
1536-1542). Columbus, OH: The Ohio State University.
Backs, R. W., Wilson, G. F., & Hankins, T. C. (1995).
Cardiovascular assessment of
mental workload using autonomic components: Laboratory
and in-flight examples. Proceedings of the Eighth
International Symposium on Aviation Psychology, 875-880.
Ryan, A. M., & Backs, R. W. (1993). Multimodal measures of the energetic demands of information processing in a suboptimal environment. Proceedings of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society 37th Annual Meeting, 1393-1397.
Backs, R. W., & Ryan, A. M. (1992). Multimodal measures of mental
workload during dual-task performance: Energetic demands
of cognitive processes. Proceedings of the Human
Factors Society 36th Annual Meeting, 1413-1417.
Backs, R. W., Ryan, A. M., & Wilson, G. F.
(1991). Cardiorespiratory
measures of workload during continuous manual
performance. Proceedings of the Human Factors
Society 35th Annual Meeting, 1495-1499.
Backs, R. W., & Walrath, L. C.
(1991). Heart rate
variability and auditory workload during noise stress:
Speaker sex and bandpass effects on speech
intelligibility. Proceedings of the Sixth
International Symposium on Aviation Psychology,
740-745.
Walrath, L. C., & Backs, R. W. (1989). Time stress
interacts with coding, density, and search type in visual
search. Proceedings of the Human Factors Society 33rd
Annual Meeting, 1496-1500.
Backs, R. W., & Walrath, L. C. (1988). Pupil measures of alertness and mental load. In J. R. Comstock, Jr., (Ed.), Mental-state estimation-1987 (pp. 111-122), NASA Conference Publication 2504. Langley, VA: NASA Publications Office.
Backs, R. W., Walrath, L. C., and
Hancock, G. A. (1987). Comparison of horizontal and
vertical menu formats. Proceedings of the Human
Factors Society 31st Annual Meeting, 715-717.
Hancock, G.A., Walrath, L.C., & Backs, R.W.
(1986). Effects of update rate, practice, and display
characteristics in critical event detection with digital
displays. Proceedings of the Twenty-Second Annual
Conference on Manual Control (pp.177-187),
AFWAL-TR-86-3093. Dayton, OH: Air Force Wright
Aeronautical Laboratories.
Computer Program Abstracts
Backs, R. W., & Grings, W. W. (1982). An interactive Applesoft program for digitizing skin conductance data using the Apple Graphics Tablet. Psychophysiology, 19, 597.
Technical Reports
Backs, R. W., & Ryan, A. M. (1993). Multimodal measures of mental workload during complex task performance. Final report submitted to AFOSR Summer Faculty Research Program.
Backs, R. W. (1991). Sensitivity of
metabolic, respiratory, and performance measures to
cognitive demands in dual-task performance. Final report
submitted to AFOSR-UES Research Initiation Program.
Backs, R. W., & Ryan, A. M. (1990).
Cardio-respiratory measures of workload during continuous
manual performance. Final report submitted for the
AFOSR-UES Summer Faculty Research Program.
PRESENTATIONS
Published Abstracts of Conference Presentations
Backs, R. W., Knowles, J. M., & Short, T. (2001). Cardiac and respiratory measures of practice effects and processing resource demand during continuous manual tracking. Psychophysiology, 38(S1), S22.
Rodriguez, S., & Backs, R. W. (2000). Impedance cardiographic measures of attention during two visual illusion tasks. Psychophysiology, 37(S1), S83.
Ryan, A. M., Wilson, G.F., Tsang, P., & Backs, R. W. (1999). Relations between P300 amplitude and heart period during a memory task. Psychophysiology, 36(S1), S98.
Sicard, J. L., & Backs, R. W. (1999). Cardiovascular reactions to emotional images in young and old adults. Psychophysiology, 36(S1), S105.
Lenneman, J. K., Rodriguez, S. R., &
Backs, R. W. (1998). Autonomic
modes of control for tasks that differ in cognitive
effort and active or passive coping. Psychophysiology,
35(S1), S52.
Backs, R. W., Ryan, A. M., Wilson, G. F., & Swain, R.
A. (1995). Topographic EEG
changes across single-to-dual task performance of mental
arithmetic and tracking. Proceedings of the Human
Factors and Ergonomics Society 39th Annual Meeting,
953.
Backs, R. W. (1995). Autonomic space and mental workload assessment in the laboratory and in flight. Psychophysiology, 32(S1), S14.
Backs, R. W., Pringle, D. D., Pohlman, R. L., Hunt, J. L., Mann, B. L., & Isaacs, L. D. (1995). Heart rate response to exercise and a cognitive task. Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise, 27(5S), S151.
Backs, R. W., Pohlman, R. L., Hunt, J.
L., Pringle, D. D., Mann, B. L., & Isaacs, L. D.
(1994). Exercise and working
memory effects on heart rate. Psychophysiology,
31(S1), S23-S24.
Backs, R. W., Ryan, A. M., Swain, R. A., &
Wilson, G. F. (1994). Central
and Autonomic Assessment of mental arithmetic and manual
tracking during focused and divided attention. Psychophysiology,
31(S1), S24.
Backs, R. W., & Kelly, K. A. (1992). Metabolic measures of central processing. Psychophysiology, 29(4A), S17.
Backs, R. W., & Walrath, L. C. (1990). EEG measures of auditory workload and noise stress. Psychophysiology, 27(4A), S15.
Backs, R. W., & Walrath, L. C. (1989). Ocular measures of visual search: A comparison of EOG and corneal reflection data. Psychophysiology, 26(4A), S12.
Walrath, L. C., Backs, R. W., & Hancock, G. A. (1988). Eye movement measures of visual workload. Psychophysiology, 25, 488.
Backs, R. W., & Walrath, L. C.
(1986). Evoked pupillary response during visual search.
Psychophysiology, 23, 423.
Walrath, L. C., Backs, R. W., &
Hancock, G. A. (1986). Eye movement during visual
search: Effects of information density, color coding, and
search type. Psychophysiology, 23, 469.
Backs, R. W. (1984). Effects of warning
stimulus intensity and task complexity on the
electrodermal response and contingent negative variation
during a forewarned reaction time paradigm. Psychophysiology,
21, 568.
Backs, R. W. (1983). UCS probability and aversiveness
effects on the contingent negative variation and
electrodermal response during long-ISI conditioning. Psychophysiology,
20, 430.
Backs, R. W., & Grings, W. W. (1982).
Effects of UCS probability on the CNV and EDR during long
ISI conditioning. Psychophysiology, 19,
550.
Unpublished Papers Given at Professional
Conferences
Backs, R. W., & da Silva, S. P. (2001, June). Young and old adults do not differ in long-tern affective picture recognition. Poster presented at the Thirteenth Annual Convention of the American Psychological Society, Toronto, Canada.
Ash, I., & Backs, R. W. (2000, August). Cardiac measures of attentional resource demands during continuous manual tracking. Paper presented at the Third International Conference on Psychophysiology in Ergonomics, San Diego, CA.
Backs, R. W., & Lenneman, J. K. (1998, October). The validity of factor analytically derived cardiovascular modes of control for mental workload assessment. Paper presented at the Second International Conference on Psychophysiology in Ergonomics, Kyoto-Osaka-Nara, Japan.
Lenneman, J. K., & Backs, R. W. (1998, March). The validity of principal components analysis as a method for obtaining cardiovascular autonomic information. Poster presented at the Fourth Annual Symposium on Human Interaction with Complex Systems, Dayton, OH.
MaloneBeach, E. E., Zarit, S. H., & Backs, R. W. (1996, November). Caregiving stressors, social support, and depressive affect: A comparison of interview and daily log data. Poster presented at the 49th Annual Scientific Meeting of the Gerontological Society of America, Washington, D.C.
Backs, R. W. (1996, May). Mental workload assessment using cardiovascular autonomic components. Paper presented at the First International Conference on Psychophysiology in Ergonomics, Wuppertal, Germany.
Backs, R. W. (1994, May). Multimodal assessment of the perceptual/central and response processing resource demands of visual-manual tracking under focused and divided attention. Poster presented at the Converging Operations in the Study of Visual Selective Attention Symposium in Honor of Charles Eriksen, Urbana-Champaign, IL.
Backs, R. W., & Walrath, L. C. (1989, April). Ocular measures of tactical display search. Paper presented at the Fifth International Symposium on Aviation Psychology, Columbus, OH.
Stern, J. A., Backs, R. W., & Walrath, L. C. (1987, June). Use of square wave generated SSEPs for workload evaluation in flight simulation. Paper presented at the Mental-State Estimation Workshop, Williamsburg, VA.
Satterfield, J. H., Schell, A. M.,
Nicholas, T., & Backs, R. W. (1986, June). Topographic
ERP study of young ADDH and normal boys. Poster
presented at the Eighth International Conference on
Event-Related Potentials of the Brain, Palo Alto, CA.
Satterfield, J. H., Backs, R. W., & Hidaka, K. C.
(1984, May). EEG and ERP studies of ADD and normal
boys. Paper presented at the Society of Biological
Psychiatry, Los Angeles, CA.
Backs, R. W., & Grings, W. W. (1982, April). Conditioning
of the evoked potential and
electrodermal response using affective stimuli.
Poster presented at Western Psychological Association,
Sacramento, CA.