Selection For Vigilance Assignments: A Review And Proposed New Direction

Vigilance or sustained attention is a critical aspect of operational tasks including air-traffic control, airport security, industrial quality control and inspection, and medical screening and monitoring. Consequently, the selection of personnel for assignments involving vigilance is a key ergonomic concern. As reviewed herein, traditional approaches to personnel selection for tasks requiring vigilance have concentrated on unidimensional measures involving sensory acuity, aptitude, sex, age and personality factors. These approaches have been ineffective. In this article, we suggest an alternative approach in which the selection issue is considered in terms of a theory-driven analysis of different types of vigilance tasks and multidimensional predictors. As an example of that approach, we made use of a resource model of vigilance and measures of cerebral blood flow velocity and subjective state obtained from a short battery of high-workload tasks to successfully predict individual performance on subsequent high-workload sensory and cognitive vigilance tasks. © 2011 Taylor & Francis

Functional Fidelity, Context-Matching, And Individual Differences In Performance

Conventional personality questionnaires are often only weak predictors of operational performance. A major problem is that personality effects are moderated by contextual factors which may be mismatched across laboratory and real-world studies. Context mismatch threatens the \u27functional fidelity\u27 of laboratory performance tasks; the extent to which the individual behaves as they would in the operational environment. Three research strategies for enhancing the functional fidelity of laboratory studies of individual differences are proposed. First, contexts relevant to specific personality traits may be developed in the laboratory. For example, socially threatening environments may be necessary to find meaningful effects of neuroticism. Second, traits linked to a specific performance context may be employed. The validity of traits for driver stress vulnerability supports this approach. Third, psychophysiological responses to simulations of the cognitive demands of the work environment may be used. Our recent work shows that stress and hemodynamic responses to short high-workload tasks predict longer-duration sustained performance. Copyright 2010 by Human Factors and Ergonomics Society, Inc. All rights reserved

The Functional Fidelity Of Individual Differences Research: The Case For Context-Matching

Applying basic research on individual differences in performance requires a kind of \u27functional fidelity\u27. That is, the laboratory environment must elicit individual differences in cognition and emotion similar to those seen in the operational setting. Studies of conventional personality traits and performance often lack this functional fidelity. Four research directions for enhancing functional fidelity are proposed. First, a greater focus on simulated operational tasks that require cognitive skills is requisite. Second, contexts relevant to specific personality traits, such as social demands, may be simulated in the laboratory. Third, traits linked to a specific performance context, such as vehicle driving, may be developed and validated. Fourth, psychophysiological responses to tasks that reproduce operational cognitive demands may be used as predictors, as exemplified in recent studies of vigilance. Enhancements to functional fidelity will assist human factors practitioners in accommodating the role of individual differences in operator selection, diagnostic monitoring and augmented cognition. © 2011 Taylor & Francis

Task Engagement, Cerebral Blood Flow Velocity, And Diagnostic Monitoring For Sustained Attention

Loss of vigilance may lead to impaired performance in various applied settings including military operations, transportation, and industrial inspection. Individuals differ considerably in sustained attention, but individual differences in vigilance have proven to be hard to predict. The dependence of vigilance on workload factors is consistent with a resource model of sustained attention. Thus, measures of attentional resource availability may predict the operator\u27s subsequent vigilance performance. In this study, we investigated whether a diagnostic battery of measures of response to a cognitive challenge would predict subsequent sustained attention. Measures that may relate to the mobilization of resources in response to task demands include subjective task engagement and coping, and a novel psychophysiological index, cerebral bloodflow velocity (CBFV). A two-phase design was used. First, participants were exposed to a challenging battery of short tasks that elevated CBFV. Second, participants performed a 36-min vigilance task. Two subgroups of participants performed either a sensory vigilance (N = 187) or a cognitive vigilance (N = 107) task. Measures of task engagement, coping, and CBFV response to the short task battery were compared as predictors of subsequent vigilance. Both subjective and CBFV indices of energization predicted sensory and cognitive vigilance, consistent with resource theory. Structural equation modeling was used to develop a latent factor model of influences on sustained attention. It is concluded that measures of resources, conceptualized as multiple energization processes, are potentially useful for diagnostic monitoring in applied settings. Use of a diagnostic task battery in military and transportation settings is discussed, along with some potential limitations on validity of the diagnostic test. © 2010 American Psychological Association