Abstract
The influence of signal probability during an auditory pretest on performance on a visual monitoring task was examined in a split-plot factorial analysis of variance. 52 Ss were given an auditory pretask in which white noise was intermittently terminated at either a high (p = .18) or low (p = .02) probability during any 2-sec. interval; then a visual monitoring task was performed in which the signal probability was either high (p = .18) or low (p = .02). Ss who received the high auditory pretask performed reliably better than the low group (p < .01). The within-session decrement varied as a function of the different pretest and task signal probabilities. The results support the expectancy theory of vigilance and suggest the importance of the role of pretask adaptation in the vigilance paradigm.
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