Psychophysical methods have been used successfully to establish maximal acceptable loads (MALs) in industrial repetitive lifting tasks, and it is known that physical tasks remain relatively unaffected by sleep deprivation, whereas cognitive tasks may be significantly degraded. Since the psychophysical method is essentially a physical task yet has a cognitive element (in that subjects are required continuously to reassess their decisions concerning MAL based upon their perceptions of the load weight), it was not known whether MAL would remain unchanged or be degraded by sleep deprivation.
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