The present paper discusses vigilance phenomena in terms of the automatic/controlled processing theory(Schneider & Shiffrin, 1977) of attention and human information processing. Fisk & Schneider (1981) interpreted vigilance decrements within the automatic/controlled process framework and discussed system design implications as well as training methods for vigilance environments. New results, concerning the effects of various stressors on automatic and controlled processes, are presented to highlight why, when theorizing about vigilance, it is more important to think about mode of processing than task complexity, stage of processing, etc.
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