Date of Award

Summer 1995

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science (MS)

Department

Psychology

Program/Concentration

Psychology

Committee Director

Mark W. Scerbo

Committee Member

Debra A. Major

Committee Member

Michelle L. Kelley

Call Number for Print

Special Collections LD4331.P65 C467

Abstract

The present laboratory study examined the impact of knowledge of results (KR) with multiple monitors on vigilance performance and mental workload. Previous studies have shown that multiple monitors and KR both have positive effects on performance. In addition, KR has been shown to attenuate the vigilance decrement, and reduce subjective ratings of mental workload. Social facilitory effects were e..pected to increase arousal for monitors working in pairs on a vigilance task and result in better performance compared to monitors working individually. Also, the social interaction between monitors working in pairs was expected to lower ratings of subjective workload. Subjects monitored the repeated presentation of a square on a visual display terminal (VDT) for 40 minutes and were told to press a response button whenever the size of the square increased. Subjects completed the task individually or with a second monitor and received KR for hits, false alarms, misses or no-KR. Self-report measures of arousal and mental workload were recorded. The results indicated that there were essentially no differences in performance between the monitors who worked in pairs and those who worked individually. In addition, no differences were found between workload ratings. However, there was a tendency for KR for hits and false alarms to attenuate the vigilance decrement, but not to lower workload ratings. Process loss between monitors is discussed as a possible explanation for why the paired monitors did not perform better than the individual monitors. In addition, the length and difficulty of the task may have rendered KR ineffective in eliminating the vigilance decrement and reducing ratings of workload.

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DOI

10.25777/jmtg-zy54

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