The degradation on task goal representations in the vigilance decrement

ARIGA, Atsunori; Lleras, Alejandro · 2010 · Crossref

DOI: 10.4992/pacjpa.74.0_3pm042

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Summary

This study investigates the cognitive mechanisms underlying the vigilance decrement, specifically testing whether the decline in performance during sustained attention tasks is driven by the degradation of task goal representations. While previous theories attributed the vigilance decrement to attentional disengagement, this research posits that habituation to task goals leads to a failure in maintaining the necessary cognitive set, resulting in performance errors. The experiment involved 68 undergraduate participants who performed a visual search task across four 10-minute blocks. In each trial, a target appeared with 10% probability. Participants were assigned to one of three conditions: a control group that performed only the vigilance task; a "no-switch" group that performed the vigilance task followed by a distractor task; and a "switch" group that performed the vigilance task followed by a distractor task requiring a response switch. The switch condition was designed to reactivate task goal representations. Performance was measured using sensitivity ($d'$) for the vigilance task and accuracy for the distractor task. Results indicated a significant main effect of time block on vigilance performance, with sensitivity declining over time. However, this decline was moderated by the experimental condition. In the control and no-switch conditions, vigilance performance significantly deteriorated across the four blocks. In contrast, the switch condition showed no significant decline in vigilance performance; sensitivity remained stable throughout the session. Furthermore, accuracy on the distractor task was high and did not differ significantly between conditions, suggesting that the switch manipulation did not impose an excessive cognitive load that would confound the results. The findings support the hypothesis that the vigilance decrement is caused by the degradation of task goal representations rather than attentional disengagement alone. By periodically switching tasks, participants maintained their task goals, thereby preventing the habituation that typically leads to performance decline. This study provides evidence that active maintenance of task goals is critical for sustaining vigilance and suggests that interventions involving task switching may mitigate performance errors in prolonged monitoring scenarios.

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• sustained attention vigilance
• vigilance