Effects of warned and unwarned demand transitions on vigilance performance and stress

    Authors

    W. S. Helton; T. Shaw; J. S. Warm; G. Matthews;P. Hancock

    Comments

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    Abbreviated Journal Title

    Anxiety Stress Coping

    Keywords

    attention; demand transitions; stress; warnings; vigilance; SUSTAINED ATTENTION; INDIVIDUAL-DIFFERENCES; WORKLOAD HISTORY; DUAL-TASK; PERSONALITY; AROUSAL; MODEL; Neurosciences; Psychiatry; Psychology, Multidisciplinary

    Abstract

    The present study was designed to explore the effects of warned and unwarned demand transitions in vigilance on performance and self-reported stress. Twenty observers (10 women and 10 men) were assigned at random to each of six conditions resulting from the factorial combination of signal salience (high and low salience signals) and switching (no switch, switch with warning, and switch without warning). Performance metrics and self-reported stress state (Task Engagement, Distress, and Worry) were collected. While demand transitions did destabilize subsequent performance, increasing intra-individual variability, overall performance efficiency was uninfluenced by either switching or warning. Demand transitions, whether warned or not, increased self-reported distress. A dynamic model of performance stress may be necessary and research employing vigilance tasks in the future may be useful for developing this performance-stress model.

    Journal Title

    Anxiety Stress and Coping

    Volume

    21

    Issue/Number

    2

    Publication Date

    1-1-2008

    Document Type

    Article

    Language

    English

    First Page

    173

    Last Page

    184

    WOS Identifier

    WOS:000254130500005

    ISSN

    1061-5806

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