Deficits in job satisfaction and performance have been reported among operators of modern cordless telephone switchboards relative to the operation of the older cord switchboards. The attentional demands of these switchboards were investigated using, as an index of attention, the amplitude of the cortical evoked potential (CEP) to an appropriate task-relevant event. However, no reliable differences in the CEP were obtained; nor indeed were differences in alpha activity or heart rate present. Emphasis is placed upon the methodological importance of this contribution in drawing attention to the CEP as a measure of psychological processes in applied contexts.
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