Sustained attention, often referred to as vigilance in humans, is the ability to maintain goal-directed behavior for extended periods of time and respond to intermittent targets in the environment. With greater time-on-task the ability to detect targets decreases and reaction time increases-a phenomenon termed the vigilance decrement. The purpose of this study was to examine the role of dorsola...

Feeding birds must balance food gathering against predation risk. Group foraging is generally considered as a strategy for optimising this trade-oo. Previous modelling studies assumed that group sizes were static and that all group members are informed of an imminent predator attack if one of them detects it. These models implicitly assumed that birds could estimate group size, and adopt a xed ...

OBJECTIVE The aim of this study was to compare the effectiveness of a new index of perceived mental workload, the Multiple Resource Questionnaire (MRQ), with the standard measure of workload used in the study of vigilance, the NASA Task Load Index (NASA-TLX). BACKGROUND The NASA-TLX has been used extensively to demonstrate that vigilance tasks impose a high level of workload on observers. How...

Performance fluctuates systematically during the day, which fluctuation is referred to as ‘diurnal variation’. Performance is maximal at midday and minimal in the morning and at night . However, a continuous decline over the waking day is sometimes found . If multiple testing sessions are conducted during mid-afternoon, a post-lunch dip is sometimes found . In order to clarify the task differen...

Natural environments are increasingly exposed to high levels of noise pollution. Noise pollution can alter the behavior of animals but we know little about its effects on antipredator behavior. We therefore investigated the impact of noise pollution on vigilance behavior and roost selection in an avian species, peafowl (Pavo cristatus), that inhabits urban environments. Captive peahens were exp...

The purpose for the present study was to examine how person and task characteristics affected the performance, workload, and stress of vigilance. Task type (sensory versus cognitive) and source complexity (1, 2, or 4 displays to be monitored) were the dimensions of vigilance examined, and several person characteristics selected based on an energetic-resource approach to vigilance. Relationships...

Automated monitoring of vigilance in attention intensive tasks such as air traffic control or sonar operation is highly desirable. As the operator monitors the instrument, the instrument would monitor the operator, insuring against lapses. We have taken a first step toward this goal by using feedforward neural networks trained with backpropagation to interpret event related potentials (ERPs) an...

Many species of animals have to perform two contradictory tasks: feeding, and avoiding becoming food for others. A large number of theoretical and empirical studies have investigated the trade-off between feeding and antipredator vigilance, especially in birds. An important factor which has been neglected in these studies is that of the area occupied by the flock. If individuals feed close toge...

Many animals spend their lives performing two often mutually exclusive tasks: feeding and watching out for predators (anti-predator vigilance). There have been many theoretical and empirical studies investigating this trade-off, especially for birds. An important characteristic of a flock of real birds is the area occupied by the flock. Individuals feeding close together experience increased co...

The purpose of this research was to compare vigilance performance over time for visual, auditory, and vibrotactile tasks, while simultaneously recording oxygenation in the frontal lobe to assess physiological resource utilization. Subjective workload was assessed in each condition using the NASA Task Load Index (NASA-TLX). The data indicate a significant effect of time-on-task in all experiment...