Norman H. "Mack" Mackworth (1917–2005) was a British psychologist and cognitive scientist known for his pioneering work in the study of boredom, attention, and vigilance;History of Neuroscience and Psychiatry at the University of Cambridge, Department of Psychiatry, School of Clinical Medicine; adapted from A History of Cambridge Neuroscience (Compston & Jones), 2008; retrieved September 8, 2012 the Mackworth Clock test has been used since the 1940s in the study of vigilance.
During the Second World War, Mackworth was recruited by the RAF to study the efficiency of radar operators - after only 30 minutes the operators lost about 10 to 15 percent of their efficiency.Vigilance Requires Hard Mental Work and Is Stressful , Warm, J. S., Parasuraman, R., & Matthews, G. (2008). Human Factors, 50, 433-441 His findings resulted in the length of operator duty shifts being severely reduced.Psychobiology: the Biological Bases of Behavior (Readings from Scientific American), 1967
In 1951, Mackworth became head of the Unit for Research in Applied Psychology at Cambridge University, where he remained until emigrating to Canada in 1958.History of the MRC Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit at Cambridge University
References
External links Visual Acuity When Eyes Are Pursuing Moving Targets at Science, by Norman H. Mackworth and Ira T. Kaplan (1962)