19 results on '"William S. Helton"'
Search Results
2. You are measuring the decision to be fast, not inattention: the Sustained Attention to Response Task does not measure sustained attention
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Ivonne J. Figueroa, Jasmine S. Dang, and William S. Helton
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Adult ,Male ,General Neuroscience ,Psychological literature ,media_common.quotation_subject ,05 social sciences ,050105 experimental psychology ,Young Adult ,03 medical and health sciences ,0302 clinical medicine ,Reaction Time ,Humans ,Attention ,Female ,0501 psychology and cognitive sciences ,Psychology ,Psychomotor Performance ,030217 neurology & neurosurgery ,Cognitive psychology ,Vigilance (psychology) ,media_common - Abstract
The Sustained Attention to Response Task (SART) has been widely used in psychological literature as a measure of vigilance (the ability to sustain attention over a prolonged period of time). This task uses a Go/No-Go paradigm and requires the participants to repetitively respond to the stimuli as quickly and as accurately as possible. Previous literature indicates that performance in SART is subjected to a "speed-accuracy trade-off" (SATO) resulting from strategy choices and from the failures of controlling motor reflexes. In this study, 36 participants (n = 36) performed a series of four SARTs. The results support the perspective of strategy choice in SART and suggest that within-subjects SATO in SART should also be acknowledged in attempting to explain SART performance. The implications of the speed-accuracy trade-off should be fully understood when the SART is being used as a measure or tool.
- Published
- 2018
3. The configural properties of task stimuli do influence vigilance performance
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William S. Helton, Paul N. Russell, Kyle M. Wilson, and Neil R. de Joux
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Adult ,Male ,Adolescent ,media_common.quotation_subject ,Attention task ,Poison control ,Lateralization of brain function ,Young Adult ,Discrimination, Psychological ,Critical signal ,Reaction Time ,Humans ,Attention ,media_common ,General Neuroscience ,Circle group ,Cerebral activity ,Visual Perception ,Hit rate ,Female ,Arousal ,Psychology ,Social psychology ,Photic Stimulation ,Psychomotor Performance ,Vigilance (psychology) ,Cognitive psychology - Abstract
Sixty-one participants performed a sustained attention task in which they were required to respond to a critical signal requiring feature discrimination. Three separate groups performed the task with different global display configurations. The local feature elements (directional arrow shapes) were displayed on either a circle, a circle broken apart or a reconnected figure. For two of the groups, the entire display consisted of a clear global shape (circle and reconnected), and for one of the groups, the display had no discernible global element (broken circle) despite the critical signal being the same for all the groups. Analyses of hit rate and A' scores indicated that the broken circle group had impaired performance compared to the global figure groups. A configural superiority effect was found in which performance was improved by having a global shape property to the entire display. These results provide a behavioural base for further research utilizing measures of cerebral activation, as cerebral activity during vigilance tasks may be dependent on both task difficulty and hierarchical aspects of the display. The configurable or hierarchical aspects of vigilance displays may be critical in understanding sustained attention performance and its hemispheric lateralization.
- Published
- 2015
4. Passive perceptual learning versus active searching in a novel stimuli vigilance task
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William S. Helton and James Head
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Adult ,Male ,Adolescent ,Injury control ,media_common.quotation_subject ,Poison control ,behavioral disciplines and activities ,Arousal ,Young Adult ,Perceptual learning ,Reaction Time ,Humans ,Learning ,Attention ,media_common ,General Neuroscience ,Subliminal stimuli ,Cognition ,Workload ,Middle Aged ,Female ,Perception ,Psychology ,Social psychology ,Photic Stimulation ,Psychomotor Performance ,psychological phenomena and processes ,Vigilance (psychology) ,Cognitive psychology - Abstract
A criticism of laboratory vigilance or sustained attention research is the employment of static monotonous tasks with repetitive targets as opposed to the use of dynamic tasks with novel target stimuli. Unfortunately dynamic tasks employing novel stimuli may result in the mixture of two cognitive processes: active sustained attention search and passive perceptual learning. Moreover, the relative engagement of these two processes may depend on individual differences. In the present study, we examined this by having participants perform a dynamic auditory vigilance task with rare novel targets. In addition, some participants performed this task while also performing a secondary motor tracking task, a dual-task scenario. In the dual-task scenario, participants who failed to accurately detect the first target stimuli showed improvements in their tracking performance with time-on-task, suggesting reserves of attention. This improvement in tracking performance was not evident for those who accurately detected the first target stimuli, as their attention was likely actively engaged (searching). In addition, participants in the dual-task scenario who accurately detected the first target stimuli reported high workload and increased post-task tense arousal, results characteristic of participants performing static vigilance tasks. These results indicate the possibility that in a dynamic vigilance task with novel target stimuli participants may diverge in how they approach the task. Some participants will actively monitor the display for targets (search), whereas others will passively learn the target stimuli. Thus, these tasks may pose significant challenges to researchers who wish to examine vigilance in isolation from perceptual learning.
- Published
- 2015
5. The effects of warning cues and attention-capturing stimuli on the sustained attention to response task
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William S. Helton, Kyle M. Wilson, Kristin M. Finkbeiner, and Paul N. Russell
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Adult ,Male ,Time Factors ,Adolescent ,Injury control ,Accident prevention ,media_common.quotation_subject ,Poison control ,Neuropsychological Tests ,Association ,Young Adult ,Predictive Value of Tests ,Perception ,Reaction Time ,Humans ,Attention ,media_common ,General Neuroscience ,Significant difference ,Middle Aged ,Inhibition, Psychological ,Female ,Cues ,Psychology ,Social psychology ,Photic Stimulation ,Psychomotor Performance ,Cognitive psychology ,Vigilance (psychology) - Abstract
Performance on the sustained attention to response task (SART) is often characterized by a speed-accuracy trade-off, and SART performance may be influenced by strategic factors (Head and Helton Conscious Cogn 22: 913-919, 2013). Previous research indicates a significant difference between reliable and unreliable warning cues on response times and errors (commission and omission), suggesting that SART tasks are influenced by strategic factors (Helton et al. Conscious Cogn 20: 1732-1737, 2011; Exp Brain Res 209: 401-407, 2011). With regards to warning stimuli, we chose to use cute images (exhibiting infantile features) during a SART, as previous literature indicates cute images cause participants to engage attention. If viewing cute things makes the viewer exert more attention than normal, then exposure to cute stimuli during the SART should improve performance if SART performance is a measure of perceptual coupling. Reliable warning cues were shown to reduce both response time and errors of commission, and increase errors of omission, relative to unreliable warning cues. Cuteness of the warning stimuli, however, had no significant effect on SART performance. These results suggest the importance of strategic factors in SART performance, not increased attention, and add to the growing literature which suggests the SART is not a good measure of sustained attention, vigilance or perceptual coupling.
- Published
- 2014
6. Dual-task interference between climbing and a simulated communication task
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William S. Helton and Kathryn A. Darling
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Adult ,Male ,Adolescent ,Task (project management) ,Young Adult ,Encoding (memory) ,Reaction Time ,Humans ,Communication ,business.industry ,General Neuroscience ,Recall test ,Word Association ,DUAL (cognitive architecture) ,Mountaineering ,Acoustic Stimulation ,Climbing ,Female ,Self Report ,business ,Psychology ,Free association (psychology) ,Psychomotor Performance ,Word (computer architecture) ,Cognitive psychology - Abstract
Climbers often need to maintain communication with other people. Previous research indicates that climbers remember less of the information communicated to them while climbing than when not climbing. In the present research, we investigated at what stage of memory the source of this impairment occurs. Participants were required to respond to words presented to them by saying out loud an associated word. This enforced encoding of the words, and was completed alone, as well as while climbing. Participants then recalled as many words as possible. A separate single-task condition had participants climb without making word associations. Word recall was reduced in the dual-task compared with the single word association task, but there was no difference in the number of word associations made. This indicates that the reduction in word recall was not a result of reduced encoding in the dual-task condition. Concurrent climbing may have reduced word recall by interfering with rehearsal and maintenance of words in memory.
- Published
- 2014
7. Frontal cerebral oxygen response as an indicator of initial attention effort during perceptual learning
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William S. Helton, Paul N. Russell, and Michael Ong
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Adult ,Male ,Background information ,Adolescent ,Automaticity ,behavioral disciplines and activities ,Brain mapping ,Response Declined ,Task (project management) ,Young Adult ,Perceptual learning ,Task Performance and Analysis ,Reaction Time ,Humans ,Learning ,Attention ,Brain Mapping ,Spectroscopy, Near-Infrared ,General Neuroscience ,Middle Aged ,Frontal Lobe ,Oxygen ,Frontal lobe ,Female ,Cerebral oxygen ,Psychology ,Photic Stimulation ,Cognitive psychology - Abstract
Perceptual learning is critical in many settings. In the present study, we investigated the role of individual differences in attention effort in perceptual learning by having participants learn to detect rare cryptic figures. We employed both functional near-infrared spectroscopy measures of frontal cortical activity and self-reports of pre-task motivation in order to assess individual differences in attention effort. We also manipulated performance feedback and the amount of background information provided to the participants regarding the task. Twelve men and 28 women participated in the experiment. Performance metrics were indicative of perceptual learning occurring. Overall performance on the task was correlated significantly with pre-task levels of self-reported motivation and the rate of learning was correlated with initial oxygen response in the frontal cortex. The initial spike in frontal oxygen response declined with time on task, perhaps due to shifts towards automaticity. The results suggest perceptual learning is influenced by individual differences in attention effort.
- Published
- 2013
8. Interference between a fast-paced spatial puzzle task and verbal memory demands
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Samantha L. Epling, Paul N. Russell, Megan J. Blakely, and William S. Helton
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Adult ,Male ,Elementary cognitive task ,Adolescent ,050105 experimental psychology ,Task (project management) ,03 medical and health sciences ,Executive Function ,Young Adult ,0302 clinical medicine ,Cognitive resource theory ,Humans ,0501 psychology and cognitive sciences ,Recall ,Working memory ,General Neuroscience ,05 social sciences ,Cognition ,Middle Aged ,Verbal Learning ,Free recall ,Memory, Short-Term ,Space Perception ,Mental Recall ,Female ,Verbal memory ,Psychology ,030217 neurology & neurosurgery ,Psychomotor Performance ,Cognitive psychology - Abstract
Research continues to provide evidence that people are poor multi-taskers. Cognitive resource theory is a common explanation for the inability to efficiently perform multiple tasks at the same time. This theory proposes that one’s limited supply of cognitive resources can be utilized faster than it is replenished, which results in a performance decline, particularly when these limited resources must be allocated among multiple tasks. Researchers have proposed both domain-specific, for example, spatial versus verbal processing resources, and domain general cognitive resources. In the present research, we investigated whether a spatial puzzle task performed simultaneously with a verbal recall task would impair performance in either task or both tasks, compared to performance on the tasks individually. As hypothesized, a reduction in word recall was found when dual-tasking, though performance on the puzzle task did not significantly differ between the single- and dual-task conditions. This is consistent, in part, with both a general resource theory and a Multiple Resource Theory, but further work is required to better understand the cognitive processing system. The employment of the recall task in the dual-task paradigm with a variety of secondary tasks will help to continue mapping out the specificity (or lack thereof) of cognitive resources utilized in various mental and physical tasks.
- Published
- 2016
9. Dual-task performance during a climbing traverse
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William S. Helton and Alexander L. Green
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Adult ,Male ,Traverse ,Adolescent ,General Neuroscience ,Word Recall ,Cognition ,Athletic Performance ,DUAL (cognitive architecture) ,Arousal ,Task (project management) ,Young Adult ,Motor Skills ,Physical Fitness ,Climbing ,Humans ,Attention ,Female ,Psychology ,Energetic arousal ,Psychomotor Performance ,Cognitive psychology - Abstract
High-angle climbing is a physically and cognitively challenging activity. Whilst researchers have examined the physiological demands of climbing, the cognitive demands have been relatively neglected. In this experiment, we examined the performance of climbers when required to perform a dual climbing and word memory task, relative to single-task performance (word memory or climbing alone). Whilst there was no significant decrease in climbing distance during the dual-task condition, climbing efficiency was impaired, as was word recall. Participants' Energetic Arousal, Tense Arousal and Task-unrelated Thoughts (TUTs) all changed dependent on the condition, with arousal increasing after the climbing conditions, and TUTs decreasing after the memory-load conditions. These results could be expanded on in future research to examine the physical and cognitive demands of high-angle climbing in greater detail.
- Published
- 2011
10. Working memory load and the vigilance decrement
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Paul N. Russell and William S. Helton
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Male ,Adolescent ,Working memory ,General Neuroscience ,media_common.quotation_subject ,Cognition ,Boredom ,Neuropsychological Tests ,behavioral disciplines and activities ,Spatial memory ,Young Adult ,Memory, Short-Term ,Space Perception ,Perception ,Reaction Time ,medicine ,Humans ,Attention ,medicine.symptom ,Psychology ,Cognitive load ,Cognitive psychology ,Vigilance (psychology) ,media_common - Abstract
In this study, we examined the impact of concurrent verbal and spatial working memory demands on performance on an alpha-numeric successive target detection task. Seven hundred and forty-five participants performed a target detection task while simultaneously performing either a spatial or a verbal working memory task or they performed matched no-memory control tasks. The vigilance decrement, both an increase in target detection response times and a decrease in perceptual sensitivity A' to target stimuli over time, was exacerbated by concurrent working memory load. The spatial and verbal working memory loads both impacted vigilance performance suggesting utilization of common executive resources. Overall, these results support the view that the vigilance decrement results from high cognitive resource demands (e.g., hard work), not from cognitive under-load (e.g., boredom or mindlessness).
- Published
- 2011
11. The troubling science of neurophenomenology
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James Head and William S. Helton
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Adult ,Male ,Adolescent ,Consciousness ,media_common.quotation_subject ,Cognitive Neuroscience ,050105 experimental psychology ,03 medical and health sciences ,Young Adult ,0302 clinical medicine ,Perception ,Humans ,0501 psychology and cognitive sciences ,Attention ,Neurophenomenology ,media_common ,Psycholinguistics ,General Neuroscience ,fungi ,05 social sciences ,Conscious State ,Cognitive effort ,Recognition, Psychology ,Awareness ,Middle Aged ,Pattern Recognition, Visual ,Female ,Psychology ,Social psychology ,Perceptual Masking ,030217 neurology & neurosurgery ,Cognitive psychology ,Vigilance (psychology) - Abstract
Researchers suggest links between mind-wandering and impaired processing of external task stimuli: mind-wandering results in perceptual decoupling. The primary methodology employed to investigate the effects of mind-wandering requires people to report their conscious state and then predicts prior behavior or neurophysiological responses using the person’s self-report. Unfortunately, this method employs reports that occur after the behavior occurs. An alternative methodology employs a word displayed prior to a performance check or catch trial. After the catch trial, participants then report their awareness of the word occurring, attempt to recognize the word, and also report whether they were on- or off-task. We show that participants’ explicit and implicit awareness of the pre-catch trial word is independent of self-reports of conscious state. This finding conflicts with the perspective that mind-wandering reports indicate perceptual decoupling. Reports of mind-wandering may alternatively be how people explain behavioral outcomes.
- Published
- 2015
12. Practice does not make perfect in a modified sustained attention to response task
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James Head and William S. Helton
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Adult ,Male ,Injury control ,General Neuroscience ,media_common.quotation_subject ,Poison control ,Motor control ,Motor strategy ,Young Adult ,Response strategy ,Practice, Psychological ,Perception ,Surveys and Questionnaires ,Reaction Time ,Humans ,Attention ,Female ,Psychology ,Response inhibition ,media_common ,Vigilance (psychology) ,Cognitive psychology - Abstract
In the current investigation, we examined the changes in performance, task-related thoughts (TRT), and task-unrelated thoughts (TUT) over four sessions of a modified sustained attention to response task (SART). Eighteen participants completed a clockwise manual selection SART (Head and Helton in Conscious Cogn 22:913–919, 2013) and a conscious thought questionnaire once a week for four weeks. Response times and errors of commission oscillated over sessions in line with a motor strategy interpretation of the SART. As participants became faster in the task, they made more commission errors. The conscious thought questionnaire failed to show a relationship between errors of commission and TRT and TUT on the SART at either a between-subject or within-subject level of analysis. Commission errors in the SART may be better measures of executive motor control and response strategy than perceptual decoupling.
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- 2013
13. Post-disaster depression and vigilance: a functional near-infrared spectroscopy study
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Ulrike Ossowski, William S. Helton, and Sanna Malinen
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Adult ,Male ,medicine.medical_specialty ,Adolescent ,media_common.quotation_subject ,Poison control ,Audiology ,Anxiety ,Brain mapping ,Arousal ,Disasters ,Functional neuroimaging ,Injury prevention ,medicine ,Earthquakes ,Reaction Time ,Humans ,Attention ,media_common ,Brain Mapping ,Depressive Disorder ,Spectroscopy, Near-Infrared ,General Neuroscience ,Functional Neuroimaging ,Brain ,Middle Aged ,medicine.disease ,Functional near-infrared spectroscopy ,Female ,Medical emergency ,medicine.symptom ,Psychology ,Psychomotor Performance ,Stress, Psychological ,Vigilance (psychology) ,New Zealand - Abstract
The present study was designed to explore the relationships between post-disaster self-reports of depression, vigilance task performance, and frontal cerebral oxygenation. Forty participants (20 women) performed vigilance tasks following a magnitude 7.1 earthquake in Christchurch, New Zealand. In addition to performance, we measured self-reports of depression, anxiety, and stress anchored to the initial earthquake event, and frontal cerebral activity with functional near-infrared spectroscopy. Among the participants, one case may have been an outlier with extremely elevated levels of self-reported depressivity. Excluding the extreme case, there was a correlation between change in response time (response slowing) and depressivity. Including the case there was a correlation between depressivity and right hemisphere oxygenation. These results provide some support for a relationship between moderate depressivity and sustained attention difficulties.
- Published
- 2012
14. Visuospatial and verbal working memory load: effects on visuospatial vigilance
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Paul N. Russell and William S. Helton
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Adult ,Male ,Adolescent ,media_common.quotation_subject ,Short-term memory ,Neuropsychological Tests ,Verbal learning ,behavioral disciplines and activities ,Spatial memory ,Humans ,Attention ,Visual short-term memory ,media_common ,Hardware_MEMORYSTRUCTURES ,Working memory ,General Neuroscience ,Memory rehearsal ,Middle Aged ,Verbal Learning ,Memory, Short-Term ,Space Perception ,Visual Perception ,Female ,Verbal memory ,Psychology ,Cognitive psychology ,Vigilance (psychology) - Abstract
In this study, we examined the impact of concurrent verbal and visuospatial working memory demands on performance of a visuospatial successive target detection task. Three hundred and four participants performed a visuospatial vigilance task while simultaneously performing either a spatial or verbal working memory task that either required a memory load during the vigil or did not require a memory load during the vigil. Perceptual sensitivity A' to vigilance target stimuli was reduced by concurrent memory load, both verbal and visuospatial. The decline in perceptual sensitivity to vigilance targets, the vigilance decrement, was steeper for a visuospatial memory task than a verbal memory task, regardless of concurrent memory load. Memory performance after vigilance detection trials was much lower for visuospatial than verbal items, even though memory performance before vigilance detection trials was higher for visuospatial than verbal items. Together, this indicates increased interference when a visuospatial vigilance task is paired with a visuospatial memory task, than when paired with a verbal memory task. Overall, the visuospatial and verbal working memory loads both impacted vigilance target detection, suggesting utilization of common executive resources. There may, however, be domain specific interference, and this may be exacerbated for two visuospatial tasks.
- Published
- 2012
15. Increased attentiveness is associated with hemispheric asymmetry measured with lateral tympanic membrane temperature in humans and dogs
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William S. Helton and Michelle E. Maginnity
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Adult ,Male ,medicine.medical_specialty ,Neurology ,Tympanic Membrane ,Adolescent ,Tympanic membrane temperature ,Models, Neurological ,Audiology ,Lateralization of brain function ,Functional Laterality ,Developmental psychology ,Body Temperature ,Young Adult ,Dogs ,Hemispheric asymmetry ,medicine ,Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder ,Brain asymmetry ,Animals ,Humans ,Attention ,Cerebral Cortex ,General Neuroscience ,medicine.disease ,Cerebrovascular Circulation ,Laterality ,Female ,Tympanic temperature ,Psychology - Abstract
In this study, we examined the relationship between a measure of cerebral lateralization--differences in tympanic temperature (T(Ty))--and questionnaire measures of inattentiveness and hyperactivity in both people and dogs. Theories of cerebral lateralization indicate that cerebral asymmetry may improve attentive behaviour. In people, greater left than right T(Ty) was related to increased self-reports of inattentiveness. There was no relationship between lateralized T(Ty) and hyperactivity. In dogs, there was quadratic relationship between lateralized T(Ty) and handler reports of inattentiveness. Increased T(Ty) asymmetry, regardless of direction, was related to more attentiveness. There was no discernable relationship between hyperactivity and lateralized T(Ty). Differences in T(Ty) may be an useful tool for investigating species comparisons of cerebral lateralization.
- Published
- 2012
16. Brief mental breaks and content-free cues may not keep you focused
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Paul N. Russell and William S. Helton
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Adult ,Male ,Task switching ,Signal Detection, Psychological ,Adolescent ,media_common.quotation_subject ,Neuropsychological Tests ,behavioral disciplines and activities ,Young Adult ,Memory ,Perception ,Cognitive resource theory ,Psychophysics ,Humans ,Attention ,Disengagement theory ,Habituation ,media_common ,General Neuroscience ,Workload ,Awareness ,Middle Aged ,Female ,Cues ,Null hypothesis ,Psychology ,Social psychology ,Vigilance (psychology) - Abstract
The dominant theory amongst vigilance researchers is resource theory. From this theoretical perspective the increase in lapses with time on task, the vigilance decrement, is due to the depletion of the cognitive resources necessary for the maintenance of performance. Alternative under-load theories have recently been suggested: mindlessness and goal habituation. Advocates of mindlessness theory suggest the vigilance decrement results from conscious disengagement due to task monotony. From this theoretical perspective, the inclusion of content unrelated cues should draw the participants out of their mindless state. An alternative proposal is that vigilance decrements are a result of goal habituation. From this perspective a momentary deactivation and reactivation of task goal by inserting a brief task switch in a vigilance task should eliminate the vigilance decrement. In order to examine these alternative theories, we had 498 participants perform a visual vigilance task with either the inclusion of brief task switches, content-free cues, or in comparative control conditions during the vigilance task. All experimental groups had an equivalent robust vigilance decrement measured by both a decline in perceptual sensitivity over time and an increase in response latency over time. There was, moreover, no difference in self-reported mental workload or task-unrelated thoughts across the experimental groups. Bayesian analyses resulted in substantial evidence in favour of the null hypothesis, in agreement with the expectations based on resource theory and contrary to the expectations based on either the mindlessness or goal-habituation theories.
- Published
- 2011
17. Text-speak processing and the sustained attention to response task
- Author
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Ewald Neumann, Paul N. Russell, William S. Helton, James Head, and Martin J. Dorahy
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Adult ,Male ,media_common.quotation_subject ,Neuropsychological Tests ,Impulsivity ,Vocabulary ,Young Adult ,Response strategy ,Surveys and Questionnaires ,medicine ,Reaction Time ,Humans ,Attention ,media_common ,General Neuroscience ,Cognition ,Middle Aged ,Highly sensitive ,Inhibition, Psychological ,Pattern Recognition, Visual ,Female ,medicine.symptom ,Psychology ,Arousal ,Social psychology ,Photic Stimulation ,Cognitive psychology ,Vigilance (psychology) - Abstract
We examined performance in a sustained attention to response task (SART) (Experiment 1) and a more traditionally formatted vigilance task (Experiment 2) using novel word stimuli (text-speak) and normally spelt words. This enabled us to address whether the SART is a better measure of sustained attention or of response strategy, and to investigate the cognitive demands of text-speak processing. In Experiment 1, 72 participants completed a subset (text-speak) and a word SART, as well as a self-reported text experience questionnaire. Those who reported more proficiency and experience with text-speak made more errors on the subset SART, but this appeared to be due to their increase in response speed. This did not occur in the word SART. In Experiment 2, 14 participants completed high No-Go, low-Go (more traditional response format) versions of these tasks to further investigate the cognitive demands of text-speak processing. Response latency increased over periods of watch only for the text-speak task, not for the word task. The results of Experiment 1 support the perspective that the SART is highly sensitive to response strategy, and the results of both experiments together indicate target detection tasks may be a novel way of investigating the cognitive demands of text-speak processing.
- Published
- 2011
18. Reliable- and unreliable-warning cues in the Sustained Attention to Response Task
- Author
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Paul N. Russell, William S. Helton, and James Head
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Adult ,Male ,Analysis of Variance ,Signal Detection, Psychological ,General Neuroscience ,media_common.quotation_subject ,Statistics as Topic ,Significant negative correlation ,Neuropsychological Tests ,Impulsivity ,Young Adult ,Response strategy ,medicine ,Reaction Time ,Humans ,Attention ,Female ,medicine.symptom ,Cues ,Psychology ,Social psychology ,Psychomotor Performance ,Vigilance (psychology) ,media_common ,Cognitive psychology - Abstract
The Sustained Attention to Response Task (SART) is a Go-No-Go signal detection task developed to measure lapses of attention. In this study, we examined the impact that warning signals, reliable and unreliable, have on SART performance. Eighteen participants performed a no-warning, reliable-warning, or unreliable-warning SART. Response times were faster, errors of commission lower, but errors of omission higher in the reliable-warning SART in comparison with the no-warning or unreliable-warning SART. There was a significant negative correlation between participants' errors of commission rate and their response times in the unreliable-warning and no-warning SART. This correlation was reduced in the reliable-warning SART. Making the task perceptually easier reduces the errors of commission, in contradiction to the mindlessness perspective, and reduces the speed-accuracy trade-off. These results, overall, support the view that the SART is primarily a measure of response strategy, not sustained attention per se.
- Published
- 2010
19. Go-stimuli proportion influences response strategy in a sustained attention to response task
- Author
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William S. Helton, Neil R. de Joux, Paul N. Russell, Kyle M. Wilson, and Kristin M. Finkbeiner
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Adult ,Male ,media_common.quotation_subject ,Neuroscience(all) ,Poison control ,BF ,Neuropsychological Tests ,050105 experimental psychology ,Task (project management) ,Young Adult ,03 medical and health sciences ,Task-related thought ,0302 clinical medicine ,Response strategy ,Perception ,Task Performance and Analysis ,Injury prevention ,Reaction Time ,Humans ,Attention ,0501 psychology and cognitive sciences ,media_common ,SART ,Analysis of Variance ,General Neuroscience ,05 social sciences ,Perspective (graphical) ,Human factors and ergonomics ,Middle Aged ,Sustained attention ,Inhibition, Psychological ,Response inhibition ,Speed–accuracy trade-off ,H1 ,Female ,Analysis of variance ,Task-unrelated thought ,Psychology ,Social psychology ,Photic Stimulation ,030217 neurology & neurosurgery ,Research Article ,Cognitive psychology - Abstract
The sustained attention to response task (SART) usefulness as a measure of sustained attention has been questioned. The SART may instead be a better measure of other psychological processes and could prove useful in understanding some real-world behaviours. Thirty participants completed four Go/No-Go response tasks much like the SART, with Go-stimuli proportions of .50, .65, .80 and .95. As Go-stimuli proportion increased, reaction times decreased while both commission errors and self-reported task-related thoughts increased. Performance measures were associated with task-related thoughts but not task-unrelated thoughts. Instead of faster reaction times and increased commission errors being due to absentmindedness or perceptual decoupling from the task, the results suggested participants made use of two competing response strategies, in line with a response strategy or response inhibition perspective of SART performance. Interestingly, performance measures changed in a nonlinear manner, despite the linear Go proportion increase. A threshold may exist where the prepotent motor response becomes more pronounced, leading to the disproportionate increase in response speed and commission errors. This research has implications for researchers looking to employ the SART and for more applied contexts where the consequences of response inhibition failures can be serious.
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