Abstract

Vigilance, or the ability to maintain attention to stimuli over a prolonged period of time (Davies & Parasuraman, 1982; Warm & Jerison, 1984), has been a troublesome research topic since World War II. Scientists have sought to counteract performance declines in vigilance tasks by training observers on these tasks. Though an extensive literature has been developed to examine the effectiveness of these techniques, the mechanisms by which many forms of vigilance training help performance are largely unknown. The present dissertation seeks to further the understanding of how two forms of training for vigilance, practice and knowledge of result, function to improve observers' ability to remain vigilant as time on task increases. In addition to understanding these forms of training, this dissertation seeks to develop a training protocol that would train observers for vigilance without adversely affecting their cognitive resources. Finally, this dissertation utilizes this new training protocol to examine the potential for transfer of training, which has been a question for vigilance researchers for decades. Results relating to these three research questions are presented, as well as a discussion of how these results may inform or influence vigilance research in the future.

Notes

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Graduation Date

2017

Semester

Fall

Advisor

Szalma, James

Degree

Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.)

College

College of Sciences

Department

Psychology

Degree Program

Psychology; Human Factors Cognitive Psychology

Format

application/pdf

Identifier

CFE0006876

URL

http://purl.fcla.edu/fcla/etd/CFE0006876

Language

English

Release Date

December 2020

Length of Campus-only Access

3 years

Access Status

Doctoral Dissertation (Open Access)

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