Individual Differences in Sustained Vigilant Attention: Insights from Computational Cognitive Modeling

Sustained attention is necessary in a variety of real-world settings, from baggage screeners and air traffic controllers to lifeguards and drivers on highways. Individual differences in performance on these tasks are prevalent, leading to questions about the sources of these differences. In this paper we compare the behavior of computational models to empirical data to evaluate the validity of cognitive architectural mechanisms as explanations for individual differences in sustained vigilant attention. The models indicate that individual differences in performance on the Psychomotor Vigilance Test (PVT) are not merely the result of quantitative differences in the timing of actions, but are a consequence of differences in sensitivity to perceptual events as well, which lead to qualitative differences in how the task is performed.