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Vigilance

The document discusses vigilance and factors that influence performance on vigilance tasks. It describes how vigilance refers to the ability to sustain attention over long periods, as studied originally in radar operators. A classic vigilance task is the "clock test" where subjects must detect occasional double jumps of a pointer. The document outlines how performance declines by about 20% after 30 minutes in such tasks, known as the vigilance decrement. It discusses factors that can influence vigilance like signal properties and feedback, and provides techniques for improving vigilance task performance like reducing uncertainty, introducing job variation, and providing breaks.

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Lucky Gem Asibuque
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111 views15 pages

Vigilance

The document discusses vigilance and factors that influence performance on vigilance tasks. It describes how vigilance refers to the ability to sustain attention over long periods, as studied originally in radar operators. A classic vigilance task is the "clock test" where subjects must detect occasional double jumps of a pointer. The document outlines how performance declines by about 20% after 30 minutes in such tasks, known as the vigilance decrement. It discusses factors that can influence vigilance like signal properties and feedback, and provides techniques for improving vigilance task performance like reducing uncertainty, introducing job variation, and providing breaks.

Uploaded by

Lucky Gem Asibuque
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© © All Rights Reserved
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VIGILANCE

IE-311
SUSTAINED ATTENTION – THE VIGILANCE PARADIGM

• THE ABILITY TO SUSTAIN ATTENTION OVER LONG PERIODS IS KNOWN AS VIGILANCE.


• RESEARCH ON VIGILANCE DATES FROM THE SECOND WORLD WAR, WHEN THERE WAS GREAT
INTEREST IN THE ABILITY OF OPERATORS TO MONITOR RADAR AND SONAR DISPLAYS.
VIGILANCE TEST
• MACKWORTH (1948) CARRIED OUT SOME OF THE FIRST LABORATORY EXPERIMENTS ON
VIGILANCE USING THE NOW-FAMOUS CLOCK TEST.
• THE POINTER MOVED ONCE PER SECOND BUT OCCASIONALLY MADE A DOUBLE JUMP. THIS
WAS THE SIGNAL THAT SUBJECTS WERE REQUIRED TO DETECT. THE ERROR RATE – AT BEST –
WAS ABOUT 15% (15 MISSES PER HUNDRED TARGETS).
• IN LABORATORY TASKS, IT WAS FOUND THAT PERFORMANCE DECLINED BY ABOUT 20% AFTER
ABOUT HALF AN HOUR ON THE TASK. THIS DECREMENT WAS FOUND TO BE HIGHLY
REPRODUCIBLE AND IS KNOWN AS THE VIGILANCE DECREMENT
MAIN CONCLUSIONS ON HUMAN VIGILANCE AND
VIGILANCE DECREMENT
• FOR A VARIETY OF REASONS (E.G. BOREDOM, DISTRACTION, SLEEPINESS) OPERATORS ARE
NOT VERY GOOD AT PERFORMING THESE TASKS, PARTICULARLY WHEN THEY ARE ISOLATED.
• THE DECREMENT APPEARS TO BE AN ARTEFACT OF PSYCHOLOGICAL RESEARCH TECHNIQUES
AND DOES NOT OCCUR IN REAL SETTINGS (E.G. NACHREINER, 1977).
DESIGN THE INTERFACE
MORAY ET AL. (1999), IN A COMPUTER SIMULATION OF A PROCESS CONTROL TASK, FOUND
THAT VIGILANCE PERFORMANCE WAS LESS THAN 100% (SUBJECTS MISSED SOME OF THE
TARGETS) IN ALL CONDITIONS INVESTIGATED. HOWEVER, THE VIGILANCE DECREMENT ONLY
OCCURRED DURING SIMPLE TASKS REQUIRING ATTENTION. FOR MORE COMPLEX COGNITIVE
TASKS INVOLVING MORE THAN ONE DISPLAY, THERE WAS NO VIGILANCE DECREMENT. SO, FOR
MODERN PROCESS CONTROL OPERATIONS, THE FOCUS SHOULD SHIFT TOWARDS OPTIMIZING
THE DESIGN OF THE INTERFACE, THE WORK TEAMS AND THE WORK ORGANIZATION TO ACHIEVE
BETTER SYSTEM PERFORMANCE
FACTORS INFLUENCING VIGILANCE

• SIGNAL CONSPICUITY
AUDITORY SIGNALS: INCREASED SIGNAL AMPLITUDE (SIGNAL-TO-NOISE RATIO) IMPROVES
DETECTION. NUMBER OF MISSED SIGNALS DROPS APPROXIMATELY BY A FACTOR OF 10 WHEN
THE SIGNAL IS 5.1 DB GREATER THAN NOISE AS COMPARED TO 2.1 DB (DOUBLE THE INTENSITY
OF THE SIGNAL AND GET A 10 FOLD IMPROVEMENT). VIGILANCE DECREMENT GOES AWAY.
FACTORS INFLUENCING VIGILANCE CONT.

• SIGNAL AND NOISE INTENSITY


BOOSTING THE INTENSITY OF BOTH SIGNAL AND NOISE IN AN AUDITORY TASK CAN ABOLISH
THE VIGILANCE DECREMENT (PROBABLY OWING TO THE ALERTING ASPECT OF NOISE).
• SIGNAL DURATION
INCREASING SIGNAL DURATION TO 2–3 SECONDS LEADS TO ALMOST 100% DETECTION IN
VISUAL TASKS
FACTORS INFLUENCING VIGILANCE CONT.
• NUMBER OF EVENTS
QUALITY OF SUSTAINED ATTENTION IS INVERSELY RELATED TO THE TOTAL NUMBER OF EVENTS.
MACKWORTH SUGGESTS THAT WHEN THERE ARE LOTS OF EVENTS AND ONLY SOME OF THEM
ARE SIGNALS, WE HABITUATE TO THEM MORE RAPIDLY, WHICH EXPLAINS THE POORER
PERFORMANCE.
FACTORS INFLUENCING VIGILANCE CONT.
• KNOWLEDGE OF RESULTS
FEEDBACK CAN ABOLISH THE VIGILANCE DECREMENT, AND ENHANCE THE SPEED AND
FREQUENCY OF DETECTIONS. ON SIMPLE VIGILANCE TASKS THE BENEFICIAL EFFECTS OF KOR ARE
PROBABLY MOTIVATIONAL, PEOPLE KNOW HOW WELL THEY ARE DOING AND DO NOT GET
BORED. IN MORE COMPLEX TASKS, THE FEEDBACK MAY REINFORCE DETECTION OF SIGNAL CUES.
FACTORS INFLUENCING VIGILANCE CONT.
• WAYS OF SUSTAINING ATTENTION
SYNTHETIC TARGETS WITH FEEDBACK, SECONDARY TASKS. PROVIDE AMPHETAMINES, CAFFEINE,
METHYLPHENIDATE; BUT THERE ARE PROBLEMS WITH SIDE EFFECTS.
• OTHER FACTORS
EFFECTS OF ELEVATED BODY TEMPERATURE ARE EQUIVOCAL. EFFECTS OF COLD, NOISE AND
VIBRATION DIFFICULT TO PREDICT IN PRACTICAL SITUATIONS BECAUSE THE OBSERVER IS AN
ACTIVE PARTICIPANT IN THE ENVIRONMENT AND CAN TAKE STEPS TO MODIFY EXPOSURE OR
ENHANCE PERFORMANCE.
TECHNIQUES FOR IMPROVING PERFORMANCE

• REDUCE UNCERTAINTY (ABOUT WHAT CONSTITUTES A TARGET AND WHERE IT WILL OCCUR. IF
POSSIBLE PROVIDE SPECIFICATIONS – WHAT TO LOOK FOR (REFERENCE STANDARDS, IF
POSSIBLE).
• PROVIDE REDUNDANT INFORMATION – E.G. VISUAL AND AUDITORY CUES.
TECHNIQUES FOR IMPROVING PERFORMANCE CONT.

• SIGNAL ENHANCEMENT TECHNIQUES: SIGNAL PROCESSING TECHNIQUES EXIST FOR


MODIFYING DISPLAYED DATA. FOR EXAMPLE, INSTEAD OF DISPLAYING RAW EEG DATA, YOU
CAN DISPLAY CHANGE IN VOLTAGE OVER TIME IN DIFFERENT SITES, ELECTRICAL POWER
RATHER THAN VOLTAGE, OR SMOOTH OUT NOISE USING RUNNING MEANS OR OTHER
STATISTICAL TECHNIQUES THAT OPERATE IN REAL TIME.
TECHNIQUES FOR IMPROVING PERFORMANCE CONT.

• REDUCE SPATIAL UNCERTAINTY: REDESIGN DISPLAY TO FIT INTO A SMALLER AREA (E.G. EYE
FIELD AS OPPOSED TO HEAD AND EYE FIELD).
• INTRODUCE JOB ENLARGEMENT: FOR EXAMPLE, INSPECTION OF COINS IN BATCHES CAN BE
INTERSPERSED PERIODS OF FETCHING AND LOADING/UNLOADING A CONVEYOR. COMBINE
RADAR MONITORING WITH NAVIGATION (USEFUL IN TEAMS WHERE TASKS CAN BE ROTATED
DYNAMICALLY).
TECHNIQUES FOR IMPROVING PERFORMANCE CONT.

• PROVIDE REGULAR SHORT BREAKS OF AROUND 5 MIN.


• MOTIVATION: SUBJECTS PERFORM BETTER WHEN TOLD THE TASK IS A SELECTION TEST FOR A
WELL-PAID JOB THAN WHEN THEY BELIEVE IT IS A PSYCHOLOGICAL EXPERIMENT (NACHREINER,
1977).
AIDING VIGILANCE TASK PERFORMANCE
• IN AVIATION, IN RESPONSE TO CRASHES CAUSED BY ‘HUMAN ERROR’, ATTEMPTS HAVE BEEN
MADE TO USE AUTOMATIC SYSTEMS SUCH AS THE ‘GROUND PROXIMITY WARNING SYSTEM’.
• THE PROBLEM WITH AUTOMATED WARNINGS IS THAT THEY MAY MALFUNCTION. THE RESULT IS
TO EXCHANGE ONE TYPE OF VIGILANCE TASK FOR ANOTHER.
• TYPE 1 ERRORS (WARNING YOU WHEN THERE IS NO DANGER) AND TYPE 2 ERRORS (NOT
WARNING YOU WHEN THERE IS DANGER) CAN OCCUR AND THERE IS A TRADE-OFF BETWEEN
THE TWO. E. L. WIENER HAS ARGUED THAT ALERTING DEVICES ARE NOTHING MORE THAN
SUBSTITUTE VIGILANCE TASKS.

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