Using EEG to investigate the influence of boredom on prospective memory in top-down and bottom-up processing mechanisms for intelligent interaction

Abstract

We aimed to investigate the alpha (α) activity in operators experiencing boredom while performing prolonged monitoring and prospective memory tasks using different processing mechanisms. Fifty-four participants underwent electroencephalography (EEG) and were found to have poorer prospective memory performance under top-down conditions. Further, α power and synchronisation were higher during bottom-up than in top-down processes, revealing an inhibition effect of the former. Significant differences in brain regions and hemispheres were identified to distinguish different cognitive processes in both information-processing mechanisms. Thus, people are likely to cope with boredom differently in terms of top-down and bottom-up processes. Specifically, a higher attention level was reported during top-down processing, to mitigate the negative influences of boredom. Overall, this study provides EEG evidence which suggests that prospective memory can be enhanced in top-down processing during prolonged monitoring tasks by increasing the salience of cues.

Practitionary summary

Boredom is a growing problem as tasks requiring monitoring increase. We explored how people process information to perform prospective memory tasks while monitoring. The prospective memory was poorer during top-down processing, but stronger cortical activation indicated an inhibitory effect on inattention. Information-processing mechanisms are suggested for designing boredom interventions.

Keywords:

• Top-down processing
• bottom-up processing
• alpha power
• alpha synchronisation
• EEG

Ethics statement

This study was performed in accordance with the guidelines of the Declaration of Helsinki and approved by Department of Industrial Engineering, Tsinghua University.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China [71942005].