Varied auditory stimulation, temperament differences and vigilance performance.

Three experiments are described which investigate the effects of varied auditory stimulation (VAS) on the visual vigilance performance of relatively introverted and relatively extraverted subjects and the preferences of these two groups for such stimulation. In Expt. I , 80 db VAS was found to be associated with a significantly lower commission error rate than was 50 db steady noise, but only in the case of the more extraverted subjects. VAS had no effect upon the detection rate, possibly because the task was too insensitive. In Expt. I1 a preference for VAS was found to a significantly greater extent among more extraverted subjects, while in Expt. I11 a preference for silence was found to a significantly greater extent among more introverted subjects.