Two factors in the work decrement.

Robinson, Emma; Bills, Arthur Gilbert

doi:10.1037/h0072598

Cited by 24 publications

(21 citation statements)

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“…A second possible source of interference on the pure lists derives from the work of Bills and Robinson (Bills, 1931(Bills, , 1935a(Bills, , 1935bRobinson and Bills, 1926), who suggested that homogeneous (pure) lists are more likely to suffer 'mental blocks.' They defined a mental block as a temporary stop in a continuous task and, using tasks such as continuously writing or saying 'ababab...' or 'abcdefabcdef...,' found that as task homogeneity and response competition increased, so did the tendency toward more frequent and longer mental blocks.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Mental Set and Mental Shift Revisited

Spector¹,

Biederman²

1976

The American Journal of Psychology

353

270

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Mental Set and Mental Shift Revisited

Spector¹,

Biederman²

1976

The American Journal of Psychology

353

270

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“…Over the past century, there has been considerable evidence in the literature that perceptual‐motor detection and discrimination tasks suffer from a vigilance decrement (Bakan, ; Mackworth, ; Parasuraman, ). While other types of performance decrements have been studied as well, for example, the speed of writing and reading sequences of letters (Robinson & Bills, ), the focus in this manuscript will be specifically on tasks requiring perceptual detection of a signal. Typical vigilance tasks contain rare signals that require a response interspersed with more frequent stimuli that must be ignored.…”

Section: Study Of Vigilancementioning

confidence: 99%

Functional Equivalence of Sleep Loss and Time on Task Effects in Sustained Attention

Veksler

Gunzelmann

2017

Cognitive Science

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Research on sleep loss and vigilance both focus on declines in cognitive performance, but theoretical accounts have developed largely in parallel in these two areas. In addition, computational instantiations of theoretical accounts are rare. The current work uses computational modeling to explore whether the same mechanisms can account for the effects of both sleep loss and time on task on performance. A classic task used in the sleep deprivation literature, the Psychomotor Vigilance Test (PVT), was extended from the typical 10-min duration to 35 min, to make the task similar in duration to traditional vigilance tasks. A computational cognitive model demonstrated that the effects of time on task in the PVT were equivalent to those observed with sleep loss. Subsequently, the same mechanisms were applied to a more traditional vigilance task-the Mackworth Clock Task-providing a good fit to existing data. This supports the hypothesis that these different types of fatigue may produce functionally equivalent declines in performance.

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“…Anecdotal as well as experimental evidence shows that it is usually harder to maintain attention in intellectually unchallenging, monotonous situations than in cognitively demanding but interesting ones (Kahneman, 1973; Manly et al, 2003; Parasuraman, 1984; Poffenberger, 1927; Robinson & Bills, 1926; Wilkinson, 1964; see Robertson & O’Connell, 2010, for a recent review). This seemingly paradoxical, inverse relationship between cognitive challenge and effort required to sustain attention has long been known to industrial psychologists: simple, repetitive tasks requiring continuous attention were often found to be associated with increased stress responses and higher subjective effort expenditure, as compared with more complex, variable tasks (Frankenhaeuser & Gardell, 1976; Johansson, Aronsson, & Lindström, 1978; Thackray, 1981; Ulich, 1960; see also Warm, Parasuraman, & Matthews, 2008).…”

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confidence: 99%

Sustaining attention to simple tasks: A meta-analytic review of the neural mechanisms of vigilant attention.

Langner¹,

Eickhoff²

2013

Psychological Bulletin

587

491

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Maintaining attention for more than a few seconds is essential for mastering everyday life. Yet, our ability to stay focused on a particular task is limited, resulting in well-known performance decrements with increasing time on task. Intriguingly, such decrements are even more likely if the task is cognitively simple and repetitive. The attentional function that enables our prolonged engagement in intellectually unchallenging, uninteresting activities has been termed “vigilant attention.” Here we synthesized what we have learnt from functional neuroimaging about the mechanisms of this essential mental faculty. To this end, a quantitative meta-analysis of pertinent neuroimaging studies was performed, including supplementary analyses of moderating factors. Furthermore, we reviewed the available evidence on neural time-on-task effects, additionally considering information obtained from patients with focal brain damage. Integrating the results of both meta-analysis and review, a set of mainly right-lateralized brain regions was identified that may form the core network subserving vigilant attention in humans, including dorsomedial, mid- and ventrolateral prefrontal cortex, anterior insula, parietal areas (intraparietal sulcus, temporo-parietal junction), and subcortical structures (cerebellar vermis, thalamus, putamen, midbrain). We discuss the potential functional roles of different nodes of this network as well as implications of our findings for a theoretical account of vigilant attention. It is conjectured that sustaining attention is a multi-component, non-unitary mental faculty, involving a mixture of (i) sustained/recurrent processes subserving task-set/arousal maintenance and (ii) transient processes subserving the target-driven reorienting of attention. Finally, limitations of previous studies are considered and suggestions for future research are provided.

show abstract

Two factors in the work decrement.

Cited by 24 publications

References 0 publications

Mental Set and Mental Shift Revisited

Mental Set and Mental Shift Revisited

Functional Equivalence of Sleep Loss and Time on Task Effects in Sustained Attention

Sustaining attention to simple tasks: A meta-analytic review of the neural mechanisms of vigilant attention.

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