Can Vigilance Tasks Be Administered Online? A Replication And Discussion

Keywords

Semantic vigilance; Signal detection theory; Sustained attention; Vigilance performance

Abstract

Recently, experimental studies of vigilance have been deployed using online data collection methods. This data collection strategy is not new to the psychological sciences, but it is relatively new to basic research assessing vigilance performance, as studies in this area of research tend to collect data in the laboratory or in the field. The present study partially replicated the results of a newly developed online vigilance task (Thomson, Besner, & Smilek, 2016). A sample of 130 participants completed the semantic vigilance task created by Thomson et al. (2016) in a research laboratory setting. The present results replicated Thomson et al. (2016) when nonparametric and corrected signal detection measures were used. We suggest that some vigilance tasks typically performed in the laboratory could be administered online. However, we encourage researchers to consider the following factors prior to studying vigilance performance online: (a) the type of vigilance task, (b) the length of the vigilance task, and (c) the signal detection indices most appropriate for their research. It is quite possible that some analyses may yield significant results, whereas other signal detection measures may not (i.e., parametric indices vs. nonparametric indices vs. "corrected" indices) and this point is discussed further in our article.

Publication Date

9-1-2018

Publication Title

Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance

Volume

44

Issue

9

Number of Pages

1348-1355

Document Type

Article

Personal Identifier

scopus

DOI Link

https://doi.org/10.1037/xhp0000538

Socpus ID

85046137501 (Scopus)

Source API URL

https://api.elsevier.com/content/abstract/scopus_id/85046137501

This document is currently not available here.

Share

COinS