Performance in Tasks Differing in Memory Load and Its Relationship with Habitual Activity Phase and Body Temperature

摘要

Twenty-four hour patterns in tasks differing in memory load were studied during a 75 hour vigil. Differences in performance were also studied between morning and evening active subjects, and between body temperature and performance rhythms. The task with a high memory load showed a 24 hr rhythm which was in inverse phase with the less memory loaded task and with body temperature. This was true only for the first 24 hr cycle, after that the memory loaded task tended to follow the other two variables, except in the case of the most extreme morning types for whom the inverse relationship continued to exist.