The vigilance decrement is a decline in signal detection rate that occurs over time on a sustained-attention task. The effect has typically been ascribed to conservative shifts of response bias and losses of perceptual sensitivity. Recent work, though, has suggested that sensitivity losses in vigilance tasks are spurious, and other findings have implied that attentional lapses contribute to vigilance failures. To test these possibilities, we used Bayesian hierarchical modeling to compare psychometric curves for the first and last blocks of a visual vigilance task. Participants were a convenience sample of 99 young adults. Data showed evidence for all three postulated mechanisms of vigilance loss: a conservative shift of response bias, a decrease in perceptual sensitivity, and a tendency toward more frequent attentional lapses. Results confirm that sensitivity losses are possible in a sustained-attention task but indicate that mental lapses can also contribute to the vigilance decrement.
BroadbentD. E.GregoryM. (1965). Effects of noise and of signal rate upon vigilance analysed by means of decision theory. Human Factors, 7(2), 155–162. https://doi.org/10.1177/001872086500700207
2.
FrauliniN. W.HancockG. M.NeigelA. R.ClaypooleV. L.SzalmaJ. L. (2017). A critical examination of the research and theoretical underpinnings discussed in Thomson, Besner, and Smilek (2016). Psychological Review, 124(4), 525–531. https://doi.org/10.1037/rev0000066
3.
GelmanA.RubinD. B. (1992). Inference from iterative simulation using multiple sequences. Statistical Science, 7(4), 457–472. https://doi.org/10.1214/ss/1177011136
4.
GettyD. J.SwetsJ. A.PickettR. M.GonthierD. (1995). System operator response to warnings of danger: A laboratory investigation of the effects of the predictive value of a warning on human response time. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied, 1(1), 19–33.
5.
GreenD. M.SwetsJ. A. (1966). Signal detection theory and psychophysics. Wiley.
6.
GrierR. A.WarmJ. S.DemberW. N.MatthewsG.GalinskyT. L.SzalmaJ. L.ParasuramanR. (2003). The vigilance decrement reflects limitations in effortful attention, not mindlessness. Human Factors, 45(3), 349–359. https://doi.org/10.1518/hfes.45.3.349.27253
7.
HancockP. A. (2013). In search of vigilance: The problem of iatrogenically created psychological phenomena. American Psychologist, 68(2), 97–109. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0030214
8.
HautusM. J. (1995). Corrections for extreme proportions and their biasing effects on estimated values of d′. Behavior Research Methods, Instruments, & Computers, 27(1), 46–51. https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03203619
Huang-PollockC. L.KaralunasS. L.TamH.MooreA. N. (2012). Evaluating vigilance deficits in ADHD: A meta-analysis of CPT performance. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 121(2), 360–371. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0027205
11.
JerisonH. J.PickettR. M.StensonH. H. (1965). The elicited observing rate and decision processes in vigilance. Human Factors, 7(2), 107–128. https://doi.org/10.1177/001872086500700204
12.
KingdomF. A. A.PrinsN. (2016). Psychophysics: A practical introduction (2nd ed.). Academic Press.
13.
KruschkeJ. K. (2015). Doing Bayesian data analysis: A tutorial with R, JAGS, and Stan (2nd ed.). Academic Press.
14.
KruschkeJ. K.VanpaemelW. (2015). Bayesian estimation in hierarchical models. In BusemeyerJ. R.WangZ.TownsendJ. T.EidelsA. (Eds.), The Oxford handbook of computational and mathematical psychology (pp. 279–299). Oxford University Press.
15.
LeeM. D. (2018). Bayesian methods in cognitive modeling. In WixtedJ. T.WagenmakersE.-J. (Eds.), Stevens’ handbook of experimental psychology and cognitive neuroscience: Vol. 5. Methodology (4th ed., pp. 37–84). Wiley.
16.
LeeM. D.WagenmakersE.-J. (2013). Bayesian cognitive modeling: A practical course. Cambridge University Press.
MackworthN. H. (1948). The breakdown of vigilance during prolonged visual search. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 1(1), 6–21. https://doi.org/10.1080/17470214808416738
19.
MacmillanN. A.CreelmanC. D. (2005). Detection theory: A user’s guide (2nd ed.). Erlbaum.
20.
MoreyR. D.PratteM. S.RouderJ. N. (2008). Problematic effects of aggregation in z ROC analysis and a hierarchical modeling solution. Journal of Mathematical Psychology, 52(6), 376–388. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jmp.2008.02.001
ParasuramanR. (1979). Memory load and event rate control sensitivity decrements in sustained attention. Science, 205(4409), 924–927. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.472714
23.
PastoreR. E.CrawleyE. J.BerensM. S.SkellyM. A. (2003). “Nonparametric” A′ and other modern misconceptions about signal detection theory. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 10(3), 556–569. https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03196517
24.
PeirceJ.GrayJ. R.SimpsonS.MacAskillM.HöchenbergerR.SogoH.KastmanE.LindeløvJ. K. (2019). PsychoPy2: Experiments in behavior made easy. Behavior Research Methods, 51(1), 195–203. https://doi.org/10.3758/s13428-018-01193-y
25.
PekJ.FloraD. B. (2018). Reporting effect sizes in original psychological research: A discussion and tutorial. Psychological Methods, 23(2), 208–225. https://doi.org/10.1037/met0000126
26.
PigeauR. A.AngusR. G.O’NeillP.MackI. (1995). Vigilance latencies to aircraft detection among NORAD surveillance operators. Human Factors, 37(3), 622–634. https://doi.org/10.1518/001872095779049291
R Core Team. (2020). R: A language and environment for statistical computing (Version 4.0.3) [Computer software]. http://www.R-project.org
29.
RobertsonI. H.ManlyT.AndradeJ.BaddeleyB. T.YiendJ. (1997). “Oops!”: Performance correlates of everyday attentional failures in traumatic brain injured and normal subjects. Neuropsychologia, 35(6), 747–758. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0028-3932(97)00015-8
30.
SeeJ. E.HoweS. R.WarmJ. S.DemberW. N. (1995). Meta-analysis of the sensitivity decrement in vigilance. Psychological Bulletin, 117(2), 230–349.
31.
SzalmaJ. L.HancockP. A.WarmJ. S.DemberW. N.ParsonsK. S. (2006). Training for vigilance: Using predictive power to evaluate feedback effectiveness. Human Factors, 48(4), 682–692. https://doi.org/10.1518/001872006779166343
32.
TheeuwesJ.OliversC. N. L.BelopolskyA. (2010). Stimulus-driven capture and contingent capture. Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Cognitive Science, 1(6), 872–881. https://doi.org/10.1002/wcs.83
33.
ThomsonD. R.BesnerD.SmilekD. (2015). A resource-control account of sustained attention: Evidence from mind-wandering and vigilance paradigms. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 10(1), 82–96. https://doi.org/10.1177/1745691614556681
34.
ThomsonD. R.BesnerD.SmilekD. (2016). A critical examination of the evidence for sensitivity loss in modern vigilance tasks. Psychological Review, 123(1), 70–83. https://doi.org/10.1037/rev0000021
35.
WagenmakersE.-J.LodewyckxT.KuriyalH.GrasmanR. (2010). Bayesian hypothesis testing for psychologists: A tutorial on the Savage–Dickey method. Cognitive Psychology, 60(3), 158–189. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cogpsych.2009.12.001
36.
WarmJ. S.DemberW. N.HancockP. A. (1996). Vigilance and workload in automated systems. In ParasuramanR.MoulouaM. (Eds.), Automation and human performance: Theory and applications (pp. 183–200). Erlbaum.
37.
WarmJ. S.ParasuramanR.MatthewsG. (2008). Vigilance requires hard mental work and is stressful. Human Factors, 50(3), 433–441. https://doi.org/10.1518/001872008X312152
38.
WickensC.HollandsJ. G.BanburyS.ParasuramanR. (2016). Engineering psychology and human performance (4th ed.). Routledge.
39.
YoungM. S.RobinsonS.AlbertsP. (2009). Students pay attention!: Combating the vigilance decrement to improve learning during lectures. Active Learning in Higher Education, 10(1), 41–55. https://doi.org/10.1177/1469787408100194
Supplementary Material
Please find the following supplemental material available below.
For Open Access articles published under a Creative Commons License, all supplemental material carries the same license as the article it is associated with.
For non-Open Access articles published, all supplemental material carries a non-exclusive license, and permission requests for re-use of supplemental material or any part of supplemental material shall be sent directly to the copyright owner as specified in the copyright notice associated with the article.
