Method of the Week

The article I chose for my first MOTW describes a study done to measure the effect sleep deprivation has on memory, and in particular, error rates in a procedural task. Students would perform a set of tasks in a specific order, and every few tasks, the student was interrupted for 20 seconds and then asked to continue the task. This required the student to remember which step he/she was on to correctly move on. This study showed that participants who were sleep deprived scored lower than participants who had a full nights sleep. 

Stepan ME, Fenn KM, Altmann EM. Effects of sleep deprivation on procedural errors. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General. 2019;148(10):1828-1833. doi:10.1037/xge0000495