An automatic vigilance hypothesis states that humans preferentially attend to negative stimuli, and that this attention to negative valence disrupts the processing of other stimulus properties. Thus negative words typically elicit slower color naming, word naming, and lexical decisions than neutral or positive words. Larsen, Mercer, and Balota (2006) analyzed the stimuli from 32 published studi...

Humans depend massively on communication with others, but this leaves them open to the risk of being accidentally or intentionally misinformed. We claim that humans have a suite of cognitive mechanisms for epistemic vigilance to ensure that communication remains advantageous despite this risk. Here we outline this claim and consider some of the ways in which epistemic vigilance works in mental ...

The new European vigilance guidelines come into force on 1 January 2008. In addition, the Directive amending the medical devices Directives, which includes some aspects of the vigilance system, was recently published. This article discusses the amendments concerning vigilance requirements, the new European vigilance guidelines and steps that manufacturers should take now to prepare for these.

In prey species, vigilance is an important part of the decision making process related to predation risk effects. Therefore, understanding the mechanisms shaping vigilance behavior provides relevant insights on factors influencing individual fitness. We investigated the role of extrinsic and intrinsic factors on vigilance behavior in Mediterranean mouflon (Ovis gmelini musimon×Ovis sp.) in a st...

Given that older adults are remaining longer in the workforce, their ability to perform demanding cognitive tasks such as vigilance assignments needs to be thoroughly examined, especially since many vigilance assignments affect public safety (e.g., aviation, medicine and long distance driving). Previous research exploring the relation between aging and vigilance is conflicted, with some studies...

For prey species that visually monitor their surroundings for signs of danger, obstruction in the field of view is expected to increase vigilance against predators. However, visual obstruction could also make it more difficult to monitor neighbors, which might increase vigilance on its own and also reduce the widespread ability to synchronize vigilance with neighbors. To address these issues, I...