Showing papers on "Vigilance (psychology) published in 1976"
TL;DR: In two separate experiments, the latencies associated with all four categories of response (correct detections, false alarms, correct rejections, and omissions) were recorded during the performance of a 45-min visual monitoring task.
Abstract: In two separate experiments, the latencies associated with all four categories of response (correct detections, false alarms, correct rejections, and omissions) were recorded during the performance of a 45-min. visual monitoring task. In the first experiment, concerned primarily with criterion changes in vigilance, signal probability was manipulated. The second experiment was concerned with sensitivity changes resulting from changes in event rate. In the first experiment, latencies associated with correct detections and false alarms increased, whereas those associated with correct rejections and omission errors decreased, with an increase in criterion. In the second experiment, a reduction in sensitivity associated with an increased event rate exerted significant and opposing effects on latencies of responses to signals (correct detections and omissions) while leaving the latencies of responses to nonsignals (correct rejections and false alarms) unchanged. In both experiments, it was observed that while the latencies associated with positive responses increased with time on task, the latencies of negative responses decreased with time. These results are consistent with the predictions of a decision theory model for response latency extended from signal detection theory, which assumes an inverse relation between response latency and distance from the criterion; A decision theory analysis thus enables the interpretation of both detectability and latency measures of vigilance performance within the same theoretical framework. Language: en
69 citations
TL;DR: The present results support the hypothesis that acute disruption of the 24-hr sleep-wakefulness cycle produces degradations in human performance largely independent of total sleep time.
Abstract: The relative effects of extended sleep, reduced sleep, and shifts of habitual sleep time on subsequent performance and mood were studied. Ten healthy male university students who regularly sleep 9.5-10.5 hr were the subjects. Measurements were obtained from a 45-min auditory vigilance task, a 5-min experimenter-paced addition task and a mood adjective check list 30 min after awakening, at midday, and in the evening following five electroencephalographically recorded nights of sleep. The experimental treatments compromised at 9.5-10.5 hr habitual sleep condition and four conditions in which the regular sleep period was lengthened, reduced, delayed, and advanced by 3hr. Following each 3-hr altered condition of sleep there was an equivalent decline in vigilance performance and in subjective arousal as measured by the mood scales. Together with other recent evidence, the present results support the hypothesis that acute disruption of the 24-hr sleep-wakefulness cycle produces degradations in human performance largely independent of total sleep time.
65 citations
TL;DR: It is suggested that it is possible to alter sleep latency by manipulating presleep behavior without disrupting the normal steep pattern.
Abstract: The effects of different presleep activities on all-night sleep were assessed. Nine young adult males engaged in brief periods of progressive relaxation (Relaxation), light dynamic exercise (Exercise), or a boring monotonous vigilance task (Vigilance) immediately before bed on consecutive nights. Standard electrophysiological data were recorded during the 7.5 hrs of sleep. The latency of sleep onset was shortest after Relaxation and longest after Exercise. Presleep heart rate and electromyograph levels were not related to sleep onset. Sleep stages were not differentiated by condition and no sleep parameter differed from normative data. The results suggest that it is possible to alter sleep latency by manipulating presleep behavior without disrupting the normal steep pattern.
61 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the effects of a visual distractor on the vigilance task performance were examined in a sample of LD and normal children and the results supported previous findings that LDs tend to have a lower correct detection rate and higher false alarm, or random response, rate than normals.
Abstract: The effects of a visual distractor on vigilance task performance were examined in a sample of LD and normal children. The vigilance task provides quantitative measures of the attentional deficit which is characteristic of many LD children. The results support previous findings that LDs tend to have a lower correct detection rate and higher false alarm, or random response, rate than normals. Detailed analysis supported the idea that most of the differences between these two broad groupings of children could be attributed to the hyperactive LDs. The study provided further support for the notion that the parameters of constructs such as Learning Disability can be Investigated and brought under experimental control.
47 citations
TL;DR: The facilitation of vigilance performance by amitriptyline was in apparent contradiction to reports by parents and teachers that children appeared ‘drowsy’ while receiving this medication, suggesting that children's ability to process information was unaffected by the reported side effect.
Abstract: The effects of amitriptyline (Elavil) and methylphenidate (Ritalin) on the vigilance of 20 hyperactive/aggressive children was investigated using an auditory version of the Continuous Performance Test (CPT). Over the course of this letter-detection task, correct detections tended to return to pretreatment levels under placebo, but were maintained at significantly improved levels under amitriptyline and methylphenidate. The relatively steep performance decrement which occurred in the placebo condition was found to be associated with a progressive increase in responses to the letter which immediately followed a target letter. Treating these ‘late’ responses as slow but ‘correct’ detections failed to eliminate the treatment effects obtained with amitriptyline and methylphenidate. It was concluded that in addition to keeping detection response latencies from increasing, the medications produced a heightened level of vigilance which resulted in an absolute increase in the number of correct detections. The facilitation of vigilance performance by amitriptyline was in apparent contradiction to reports by parents and teachers that children appeared ‘drowsy’ while receiving this medication. Findings of the study suggested that children's ability to process information was unaffected by the reported side effect.
35 citations
29 citations
TL;DR: The results indicated that the external subjects made significantly more incorrect responses and missed significantly more signals during the entire task, indicating that the internal-external dimension was effective in differentiating performance on a vigilance task.
Abstract: Summary.-Previous studies have demonsrrated there are large individual differences in subjects' ability to perform on vigilance or watch-keeping tasks. This study used Rotter's Internal-External (I-E) Locus of Conrrol Scale to resolve some of the variance attributed to individual differences and tested the hypothesis that the internally controlled person is a better monitor on a vigilance task than an externally controlled person. There were 64 subjects who performed a visual watch-keeping task for a 1-hr. period. The results indicated that the external subjects made significantly more incorrect responses and missed significantly more signals during the entire task The internal-external dimension was effective in differentiating performance on a vigilance task. Mackworth (1957) defined vigilance as "a state of readiness to detect and respond to certain specified small changes occurring at random time intervals in the environment." In spite of the fact that the above definition focuses on he status of the individual subject, the bulk of research on vigilance or watchkeeping has concentrated on such parameters as signal characteristics, task variables, and environmental variables leaving relatively unexplored the relationship between personality variables and performance on tasks requiring vigilance behavior. Mackworth ( 1969) and other investigators ( Halcomb & Kirk, 1965 ) have noted the consistent finding of large individual differences among subjects performing vigilance tasks. The use of personality or temperament tests seems to be a very promising approach for resolving some of the variance attributable to individual subject differences. Research concerning personality differences has been primarily based upon the study of the influence of the introvert-extrovert dimension on performance in monotonous and repetitive tasks (Eysenck, 1963; Broadbent, 1958; Bakan, Belton, & Toth, 1963). Several vigilance studies have been conducted utilizing personality measures other than the intraversion-extroversion dimension. Some of the studies have yielded an inconsistent relationship between personality variables and vigilance performance (McGrath, Harabedian, & Buckner, 1963; McGrath, 1963) while other investigations have exhibited a systematic relation
21 citations
TL;DR: The present findings indicate that 7-8 h sleepers were more impaired by acute alterations in the length and timing of sleep than habitual long sleepers.
Abstract: The magnitude of the differences in performance, body temperature, and sleep stages following reduced, habitual, extended, and shifted sleep was compared in two groups of 10 healthy male university students who regularly slept nocturnally for 7-8 h or for 9.5-10.5 h. Measurements were obtained of sublingual temperature and from a 45-min Wilkinson auditory vigilance task 30 min after awakening in the morning, at midday, and in the evening following five electroencephalographically recorded nights of sleep. The experimental treatments comprised a habitual sleep condition and four conditions in which the regular sleep period was lengthened, reduced, delayed, and advanced by 3 h. After all sleep conditions, the long sleepers compared with the control (7-8-h) group had a higher daily level of body temperature, less misses on the vigilance task, and shorter reaction times. As a result of the mean difference in total sleep time existing between groups, under all conditions the control subjects averaged less stage 2 and stage REM sleep, but more stage 4. Previous studies have shown that a 3-h advance or delay and a 3-h extension or reduction of established 7-8 h and 9.5-10.5-h sleep periods all result in generally equivalent degrees of impaired performance. The present findings indicate that 7-8 h sleepers were more impaired by acute alterations in the length and timing of sleep than habitual long sleepers.
18 citations
TL;DR: Over four alcohol test sessions, social drinkers' performance on a coding task gradually improved, but vigilance remained unchanged.
Abstract: Over four alcohol test sessions, social drinkers' performance on a coding task gradually improved, but vigilance remained unchanged.
17 citations
TL;DR: The vigilance paradigm might serve as a basis for a standardized test of continuous attention in children and yielded relatively high test-retest reliability coefficients for both groups of children as well as performance which tended to vary as a function of chronological age.
Abstract: The present study examined the vigilance performance of 16 behaviorally deviant and 16 nondeviant children and suggested that the vigilance paradigm might serve as a basis for a standardized test of continuous attention in children The deviant and nondeviant children performed an auditory vigilance task administered on two separate occasions, 4 days apart Performance during the first administration of the task deteriorated significantly for the deviant children as a function of time but not for the nondeviant ones This finding was consistent with several prior clinical studies with children and suggested that the behaviorally deviant children were relatively less able to maintain a continuous level of attention In addition, the vigilance procedure yielded relatively high test-retest reliability coefficients for both groups of children as well as performance which tended to vary as a function of chronological age
17 citations
TL;DR: Subjects verbally tracked a central task that differed on a complexity dimension, while indicating their detection of small peripheral lights by pressing a hand–held switch, with faster reaction times to the peripheral lights as central task complexity increased.
Abstract: Subjects verbally tracked a central task that differed on a complexity dimension (subsets of two, four, or eight digits), while indicating their detection of small peripheral lights by pressing a hand–held switch. Teichner's stress theory would predict that the more complex the central task, the longer would be the reaction times to the peripheral lights, and that the differences would be most pronounced in the far periphery (the funneling effect). Hebb's arousal theory, applied to vigilance behavior, would predict the opposite effect, where increasing the complexity of the central task would heighten the subject's vigilance performance. The results supported an arousal interpretation, with faster reaction times to the peripheral lights as central task complexity increased.
TL;DR: In this article, the temporal uncertainty of critical signal occurrences was varied by use of signal densities of 24, 48, and 96 signals/hour with a markedly stronger effect from left-ear presentation.
Abstract: Subjects listened for increments in the duration of recurrent white noise pulses delivered to either the left or the right ear during a 1-h vigilance session. The temporal uncertainty of critical signal occurrences was varied by use of signal densities of 24, 48, and 96 signals/hour. Response times to signal detections increased as a function of an information measure of the temporal uncertainty of signals with a markedly stronger effect from left-ear presentation. Thus, a functional lateral asymmetry in the cortical processing of temporal information in this type of task was indicated.
TL;DR: It is suggested that a curvilinear relationship best explains the data, where both high and low arousal may lead to poor performance.
Abstract: This paper describes an investigation of the relationships between vigilance, performance on a. simulated driving task, and physiological measures of arousal. Changes in performance on the vigilance task occurred which wore like those frequently reported for vigilance tasks carried out alono, but changes characteristic of vigilance tasks with divided attention were not found. A marked doclino in physiological arousal was not directly related to changes in either the vigilance or driving performance. It is suggested that a curvilinear relationship best explains the data, where both high and low arousal may lead to poor performance.
TL;DR: The anaesthetist's role during an anaesthetic is one of vigilance, and any interaction between tutor and student in this situation must be structured around the vigilance task.
Abstract: The anaesthetist's role during an anaesthetic is one of vigilance. Any interaction between tutor and student in this situation must be structured around the vigilance task. Teaching that recognizes this role may be educationally fruitful and may even improve vigilance. Teaching which disregards this function is less likely to result in learning and may interfere with patient care. Some of the types of teaching that are likely to be appropriate or inappropriate to different phases of an anaesthetic are indicated.
TL;DR: The relationship between arousal and total signal detection rate was significantly curvilinear, and an 'inverted U' (quadratic) function provided the best fit, justifying the conclusion that vigilance performance is a function of at least that component of arousal measured by barbiturate tolerance.
Abstract: An experiment was performed to investigate predictions of vigilance performance among depressive patients, based on the assumptions that vigilance would vary in a predictable manner with level of arousal, and that levels of arousal among diagnostic categories of depressive patients are well known. It was found that psychotic depressives, presumed to be hypo-aroused relative to normals, exhibited poor signal detection performances and committed few false positive errors relative to normals. This was consistent with predictions. Neurotic depressives, presumed to be hyper-aroused relative to normals, detected fewer signals than did normals, but also made more false positive errors than normals. Again this was consistent with predictions. A measure of arousal in experimental subjects, namely barbiturate tolerance, was found to directly relate to the false positive error rate in all subjects. The relationship between arousal and total signal detection rate was significantly curvilinear, and an 'inverted U' (quadratic) function provided the best fit. This justified the conclusion that vigilance performance is a function of at least that component of arousal measured by barbiturate tolerance.
TL;DR: Examination of individual differences in the response of subjects to the 4 hypnotic drug treatments, compared with their responses after dummy indicated that subjects could be divided into two groups, and it is suggested that the improvement in the first group resulted from improved sleep quality sufficient to counteract the residual effect of the hypnotic.
Abstract: Twelve healthy volunteers were given butobarbitone 100 and 200 mg, nitrazepam 5 and 10 mg and 2 lactose dummy treatments, at 23.00 hours at weekly intervals over 6 weeks according to a balanced design and using double blind conditions. Performance was studied between 09.00 hours and 17.00 hours the following day. Significant (P is less than 0.05) impairment of tapping rate and digit symbol substitution occurred. No significant differences occurred between performance after active drug and dummy in auditory vigilance, and subjective effects. Examination of individual differences in the response of subjects to the 4 hypnotic drug treatments, compared with their responses after dummy, indicated that subjects could be divided into two groups. One group consistently rated themselved as more alert after hypnotics and their vigilance performance improved. The other group consistently were more drowsy after hypnotics and their performance was impaired. It is suggested that the improvement in the first group resulted from improved sleep quality sufficient to counteract the residual effect of the hypnotic, whereas the second group merely showed the residual effects of the drugs.
TL;DR: Self-enhanced EEG alpha activity does not prevent impairment of performance or mood during sleep loss.
Abstract: Can performance and mood during sleep loss be maintained by self-induced high EEG alpha activity? In a previous study, most of the performance and mood measures showed sleep-loss impairment regardless of EEG alpha level, but attention and reported sleepiness were less impaired for the high-alpha group (although the differences were of doubtful significance). A constructive replication was carried out. In Group A (N=10) auditory feedback was contingent on high alpha, and in Group B (N=10) auditory feedback was contingent on low alpha and low theta. All subjects were repeatedly measured on auditory vigilance, addition, immediate recall, and feelings of sleepiness for 40 hrs during which no sleep was permitted. Sixty min of EEG feedback were given during each block of 220 min. Group A did produce significantly more alpha for the first 24 hrs but this difference was not maintained. Both groups had significant sleep-loss impairment on all measures. There were no significant differences between the groups in the amount of impairment. Self-enhanced EEG alpha activity does not prevent impairment of performance or mood during sleep loss.
Journal Article•
TL;DR: It is suggested that the alterations in EEG pattern during sleep and wakeful state, indicating a dissolution of slow sleep activity and a deficiency of the arousal functions, represent a regression towards an immature functioning of the vigilance regulation.
Abstract: 1. The resting EEG in endogenous depressions, characterized by an increase of slow alpha- and subalphacomponents and a change of spatial organization of background activity, indicates a lowered level of vigilance, If the physiological diurnal increase of the dominant alpha-frequency compensates the described slowing of alpha-rhythm, the typical daily mood fluctuation of endogenous depressions will result. 2. Changes in the resting activity occurring during arousal are probably related to the functional alteration of the EEG-sleep activity, especially to the diminishing of phasic REM-activity. 3. It is suggested that the alterations in EEG pattern during sleep and wakeful state, indicating a dissolution of slow sleep activity and a deficiency of the arousal functions, represent a regression towards an immature functioning of the vigilance regulation.
Journal Article•
TL;DR: During the performance of the d 2 test developed by Brickenkamp, occipital EEG activity was registered telemetrically in 10 male students and there is a relationship between these EEG measures reflecting the regulation of cortical vigilance and the error rate in the concentration test.
Abstract: During the performance of the d 2 test developed by Brickenkamp (standardized test of attention and concentration), occipital EEG activity was registered telemetrically in 10 male students aged 25 to 32 years. Simultaneously, the pencil markings performed by the subjects, indicating the time course of their pattern recognition and discrimination, were recorded by means of a piezo-electrical transducer. The EEG behavior during test performance was evaluated by serial spectral analysis. The analysis of the EEG parameters derived from it (total power, absolute and relative alpha-power) showed that there is a relationship between these EEG measures reflecting the regulation of cortical vigilance and the error rate in the concentration test. While subjects with low error rate present a heightening of cortical arousal focused in the right occipital area, subjects with higher error rate tend to have a higher degree of general cortical activation.
Journal Article•
TL;DR: In ten male students the EEG occipital activity was recorded during a visuo-motor task consisting of pursuit-tracking, and evoked potentials induced by task-irrelevant stimuli can serve as indicators of the neuronal capacity available for information processing that is not task-oriented.
Abstract: In ten male students the EEG occipital activity was recorded during a visuo-motor task consisting of pursuit-tracking. The degree of task difficulty varied systematically depending on the modification of the transfer function of control element dynamics. The EEG data were evaluated by serial spectral analysis. The distribution functions of the total power estimates and their minima and maxima reflect the dynamics of the regulation of cortical vigilance and permit to differentiate the degree of effort which corresponds to the varying degree of task difficulty. The study of task-irrelevant acoustically evoked potentials showed that with increasing cortical activation the amplitudes of N1-P2 and P2-N2 are diminished. These results might suggest that evoked potentials induced by task-irrelevant stimuli can serve as indicators of the neuronal capacity available for information processing that is not task-oriented. Language: de
Journal Article•
TL;DR: The statistically proved results show that nomifensine causes a distinct shift in vigilance with two different partial processes, which results in a typical pharmaco-electroencephalographic profile.
Abstract: Ten healthy volunteers received a single oral dose of 100 mg nomifensive, a new antidepressant (tetragtdriusiqyubikube deruvatuve; Hoe 36-984) The drug-induced effects on the EEG were compared with those of placebo The statistically proved results show that nomifensine causes a distinct shift in vigilance with two different partial processes After an initially occurring stabilization of the dominant alpha-frequency there appears a polyrhythmic disintegration of the alpha-rhythm with increase of slower and faster frequencies At the same time a shifting takes place within the beta-range with increasing of 235-320 Hz-components Accordingly it is evident that nomifensine results in a typical pharmaco-electroencephalographic profile