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Maintaining alertness for prolong period of time is crucial for variety of tasks. However alertness tends to decline after certain interval of time. Several factors are responsible for this decrement in alertness. Among these factors the effect of task demand and intrinsic motivation has not been explored much. Thus, the present study examined the effects of intrinsic motivational state and task demand (in terms of event rate) on vigilance task performance. Target and non target were the square of size 3.5 cm and 3.3 cm, respectively. High and low event rate was used. Forty three undergraduate and post graduate volunteer students of Banaras Hindu University in the age range of 18 to 23 years were randomly selected for the experiment. The participant's task was to make a speeded decision about the presence or absence of the target by pressing the response key. A 2 (low and high event rate) x 2 (pre and post level of intrinsic motivation) x 4 (time period: 4 Blocks of 10 minutes each) mixed factorial design with repeated measure on the last two factors was used. Results revealed that participants employed in low task load condition (low event rate) showed better vigilance performance than participants on high cognitive load condition. Since high cognitive demand produces great task induced stress performance declined in high task load condition. Results further indicated that motivational dimension of state variables significantly got reduced after performing on vigilance task.
Keywords: Vigilance, task demand, intrinsic motivation, event rate
The term vigilance was introduced for the first time by Head (1926), a British neurologist who defined vigilance as a state of maximum physiological efficiency in which individual try to remain alert on infrequent and unpredictable signals over longer period of time. The term vigilance is synonymous with sustained attention (Warm, 1984) or watch-keeping behavior. It is a component of various task situations, like RADAR (Radio Detection and Ranging), SONAR (Sound Navigation and Ranging) cytological screening, anesthesia gauge monitoring, nuclear power plant operation, industrial quality control, baggage screening, and detection of criminal or insurgent activity (e.g., friend or foe identification during long shifts) etc., which require sustained attention performance. Because of its importance it grapples central interest of cognitive psychologist, ergonomics specialist as well as neuroscientist. However,...