Presentation
Vigilance Decrement Persists Following Mental Breaks in a Signal Detection Task
SessionLBR2: Late-Breaking Results
DescriptionThe vigilance decrement is a decline in an operator’s ability to detect infrequent task-critical signals over time, one of the best-known phenomena in human performance. Some previous research suggests that the vigilance decrement results from resource depletion and can be avoided or reversed with a brief mental break from a task. Other findings have indicated that changes in response bias and increases in attentional lapses can also contribute to the decrement. The current study aimed to understand the mechanisms by which rest breaks counteract the decrement. Fifty-five participants performed a task that asked them to judge the gap between spatial probes buried in visual noise. They were asked to press a key each trial if the gap exceeded a criterion value or withhold their response otherwise. Signal rate was 15%. Each participant performed 5 blocks of 160 trials each. Between blocks 4 and 5, participants were given a 60-second break. We used a Bayesian hierarchical modeling technique to estimate four parameters – shift (response bias), scale (sensitivity), lapse rate, and guess rate – characterizing a psychometric curve of detection performance. Detection performance declined across blocks mainly due to increases in the lapse rate. Results showed no evidence of the effect of a mental break on raw detection rates or on any of the four parameters, suggesting that the vigilance decrement persisted in full over the break. Results give no evidence that a mental break restored attentional processing resources.
Event Type
Late Breaking Results
TimeWednesday, September 11th3:30pm - 3:40pm MST
LocationFLW Salon B