Presentation
Vigilance Decrements Attributed to Bias Shifts, Attentional Lapses, and Guess Rates but Not Sensitivity: A Replication Experiment of McCarley and Yamani (2021)
SessionPP2: Vigilance
DescriptionThe ability to monitor rare signals is critical in many high-stake tasks, yet, the human performance literature suggests that detection rate for such signals decline sharply over time on task—sometimes within as little as half an hour-- a phenomenon known as vigilance decrement. Some work using signal detection theory has suggested that the vigilance decrement reflects a loss of sensitivity, but other findings have attributed the decrement solely to criterion changes and mental lapses. The current experiment replicates earlier studies using analysis of psychometric function to distinguish among these possibilities. The results confirm that conservative bias shifts and attentional lapses are the primary mechanisms of the decrement, and give no evidence for sensitivity losses. Designers of automated technologies for monitoring tasks such as surveillance, air traffic control, and security screening may find these results useful in developing strategies to mitigate vigilance failures in real-world settings.
Event Type
Lecture
TimeTuesday, October 14th4:50pm - 5:10pm CDT
LocationGrand Hall K
Perception and Performance