ABSTRACT
There are several reasons why occupational health psychologists should be concerned with the measurement of cognitive functioning. First, various factors including acute stress, fatigue, boredom, drug use, and illness may adversely influence information processing and performance. Such impairments may in turn lead to lost productivity, and an elevated risk of errors and accidents (Matthews, Davies, Westerman, & Stammers, 2000). Indeed, the operator’s awareness of loss of competence may add to stress, with potentially severe consequences for safety-critical work. Performance assessments may indicate whether the person is fit for work, and what tasks he or she may adequately perform. Second, large numbers of individuals with chronic disabilities are available for work, and assessments of cognitive functioning are requisite for career guidance. The severity of both neurological conditions (e.g., Parkinson’s disease) and disorders treated as psychological (e.g., mild depression) may vary from day to day, requiring further monitoring of acute status. The aging of the workforce also raises some concern for declines in cognitive functioning in some elderly employees. Third, tasks performed at work may be intrinsically stressful; recent research implicates both underload and overload as sources of job stress (Schultz, Wang, & Olsen, 2010). Countermeasures for job stress may require understanding of the cognitive demands of specific work tasks and activities.
