Title

The Vigilance Decrement Reflects Limitations In Effortful Attention, Not Mindlessness

Abstract

Robertson, Manly, Andrade, Baddeley, and Yiend (1997) proposed that the decline in performance efficiency over time in vigilance tasks (the vigilance decrement) is characterized by "mindlessness" or a withdrawal of attentional effort from the monitoring assignment. We assessed that proposal using measures of perceived mental workload (NASA-TLX) and stress (Dundee Stress State Questionnaire). Two types of vigilance task were employed: a traditional version, wherein observers made button-press responses to signify detection of rarely occurring critical signals, and a modified version, developed by Robertson et al. to promote mindlessness via routinization, wherein button-press responses acknowledged frequently occurring neutral stimulus events and response withholding signified critical signal detection. The vigilance decrement was observed in both tasks, and both tasks generated equally elevated levels of workload and stress, the latter including cognitions relating to performance adequacy. Vigilance performance seems better characterized by effortful attention (mindfulness) than by mindlessness. Actual or potential applications of this research include procedures to reduce the information-processing demand imposed by vigilance tasks and the stress associated with such tasks.

Publication Date

9-1-2003

Publication Title

Human Factors

Volume

45

Issue

3

Number of Pages

349-359

Document Type

Article

Personal Identifier

scopus

DOI Link

https://doi.org/10.1518/hfes.45.3.349.27253

Socpus ID

0344236193 (Scopus)

Source API URL

https://api.elsevier.com/content/abstract/scopus_id/0344236193

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