Volume 2 (1)

Simon Says: The Influence of Handedness on Simon Effect and Considerations for Ergonomics Research and Practice

Nor Diana Mohd Mahudin

Department of Psychology, International Islamic University Malaysia, Jalan Gombak, 53100, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

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Studies have established that left and right actions are carried out faster when they spatially correspond to the stimulus signalling them, demonstrating the Simon effect. While the focus has been primarily on investigating this effect with a wide range of stimulus variations and cognitive abilities, limited research is available on investigating the influence of handedness on performance in the Simon task. The present study hypothesised that reaction times in the Simon task would differ across three groups (left-handed: n = 29, right-handed: n = 30, and ambidextrous: n = 26). Participants completed an online-based Simon task, in which they responded to the direction of left or right-pointing arrow appearing left or right from a fixation point. The Simon effect was larger in right-handed participants when the position of the arrow and the direction of the arrow were similar. Right-handed participants were also slowest in all conditions, irrespective of the position of the stimuli. However, the average speed of correct responses and percentage errors did not significantly differ when compared between the handedness groups. Further analyses showed that reaction times were fastest in the congruent condition and slowest in the incongruent condition. The results are discussed in light of the implications that they pose for ergonomics research and practice. Recommendations for future work are also presented.

Keywords: Simon effect, handedness, human-machine interfaces, reaction times 

Ergonomics Work System and Occupational Safety and Health Performance in the Manufacturing Sector

Fatin Nur Alia Hamid¹, Mohd Nasir Selamat²

Pusat Kajian Psikologi dan Kesejahteraan Manusia,Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia^1,2

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In the era of Industrial Revolution 4.0, an ergonomic work system, occupational safety and health performance are an important element that needs to be integrated into an organisation's management strategy. These two elements are capable of increasing the productivity of the organisation, but also to provide benefits, especially in the manufacturing sector as a guideline in implementing occupational sickness and occupational stress measures. Isolated performance sparked various problems, especially from the aspect of accidents, sickness, absences and occupational stress due to lack of applications and implementation of three key elements in the organization management system. Therefore, this study is aimed to find the relationship between ergonomic work systems and occupational safety and health performance. Respondents of the study comprised 252 production operators, the centre and the support staff in five organisations in the manufacturing sector around Selangor, Negeri Sembilan and Johor. The survey method employed in this study is to administer the questionnaire form to the manufacturing company required. The measurement of these elements used questionnaires adapted from previous studies focusing on occupational sickness, occupational stress and demographic data. The results showed that the task factor and ergonomics of the machines and equipment factor had an influence on occupational sickness. Further, the task factor also affects significant occupational stress. Established along the findings obtained, this subject area is able to provide information and knowledge to employees from engaging in occupational accidents and occupational health matters. In summation, this field would also cause an impingement on the manufacturing sector in Malaysia as a guideline in building the Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) to enforce and apply ergonomic aspects at the workplace.

Keywords: Ergonomic work systems, occupational safety and health performance, manufacturing sector

Cycling is an exercise performing in a vertically reciprocating movement using bicycle which usually serves as sports equipment for training and as transport. Great quantity of lower extremity muscle contraction involved in uphill cycling. In the past few decades, research related to cycling includes study of lower limb muscle activity by various situation applied. However, few research studies on the lower limb muscle activation level with varying cadence during uphill cycling. Thus, this task proposes to investigate the effect of pedalling cadence and tilting angle of cycling on lower extremity muscle activity, and to compare the muscle activation level between genders. Three pedalling cadences (70rpm, 80rpm and 90rpm) and two tilting angles of cycling inclination (10° and 30°) were set. Electromyography (EMG) measurements of the vastus lateralis and vastus medialis in quadriceps were done and collected from 5 males and 5 females during cycling. ANOVA analysis was performed, and results indicated that pedaling cadence had significant influence on the lower extremity muscle activity (p < 0.05). Increasing pedaling cadence caused a significant increase in the muscle activation of the vastus lateralis. For gender effect, females tend to have a higher muscle activation level and significantly greater vastus lateralis muscle activity than males during cycling. On the other hand, no significant differences in peak muscle activity at both tilting angles of cycling and no significant interaction effect in all group comparison.

Keywords: pedalling cadence, tilting angle, muscle activity

Ergonomic intervention study among woodball players

M. F. Abd Razak ¹, A. H. Mazelan ^1,2, S.A. Showkat Ali ¹ and S. Sudin ^2,3

Faculty of Mechanical Engineering Technology, University Malaysia Perlis (UniMAP), Pauh Putra Campus 02600 Arau, Perlis, Malaysia¹

Centre of Excellent Sports Engineering Research Centre (SERC), Sports and Recreation Centre, University Malaysia Perlis (UniMAP), Pauh Putra Campus, 02600 Arau, Perlis, Malaysia^1,2

Faculty of Electronic Engineering Technology, University Malaysia Perlis (UniMAP), Pauh Putra Campus 02600 Arau, Perlis, Malaysia³

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This paper proposed a feasibility study on the ergonomics intervention among the Woodball athletes. The objectives of this study are to identify the ergonomics risk factors that may cause harm to Woodball athlete by using the Initial Ergonomic Risk Assessment (ERA) and the Advanced ERA method. The ergonomic assessment of an athlete was focussed on the three different woodball exercises, namely the tee-off comprising of short tee-off, medium tee-off and long tee-off. The advanced ergonomic risk assessments were performed on the upper body part of an athlete such as the neck, shoulder, upper arm, hand or wrist and upper back by using the RULA employee assessment worksheet. Based on the findings and assessment done, the proper body posture is then proposed through the observation from the results of the initial and advanced ERA. A simulation using the Human Digital Modelling (HDM) was also performed to better analyse the ergonomic aspect of the selective body postures. The results of the simulation were then compared to the results of the RULA assessment. The improvised results from the RULA analysis were found to be able to reduce the ergonomics risk of the current and improvised posture. The improvised posture will be useful for future studies in order to obtain a more ideal body posture for the Woodball players.

Keywords: Woodball, musculoskeletal disorders, awkward posture, ergonomics