EXPERIMENTAL STUDIES OF HUMAN VIGILANCE

Abstract

A series of experiments was conducted on human vigilance or the characteristics of long-term human attentiveness for the occasional occurrences of signals which are to be detected and reported. Emphasis was given complex visual displays with multiple stimulus sources and alpha-numeric signals of the general class found in semi-automatic man-machine systems. The results were that (1) vigilance decrement usually occurs in small but reliable amounts within a session but does not increase as a function of number of daily sessions, (2) only response produced stimuli from simple decision behavior were a source of stimulation that deterred vigilance decrement in accord with the arousal hypothesis, (3) temporal uncertainty was not associated with differential vigilance decrement although spatial uncertainty appeared to be under some circumstances, and (4) feedback about the operator's proficiency after each response was a training method that improved monitoring behavior in a stable manner.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Feb 01, 1963
Accession Number
AD0408279

Entities

People

  • Jack A. Adams

Organizations

  • University of Illinois Urbana–Champaign

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Air Platforms
  • Human Systems
  • Materials and Manufacturing Processes
  • Weapons Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Air Force
  • Aircrafts
  • Automatic
  • Brain
  • Contracts
  • Detection
  • Eye Movements
  • Feedback
  • Monitoring
  • Psychology
  • Psychophysiology
  • Scanning
  • Second World War
  • Situational Awareness
  • Statistical Analysis
  • Training
  • Uncertainty

Fields of Study

  • Biology
  • Psychology

Readers

  • Educational Psychology
  • Neuroscience
  • Team-Based Human-Centered Cognitive Task Decision Making and Information Performance.