Vigilance Research: Its Application To Industrial Problems

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Abstract
Review of the vigilance literature of the past two decades reveals that the results of most studies have questionable application to industrial inspection tasks for which they were, in part, designed to investigate. It is concluded that: (1) little or no evidence exists indicating that the oft-found decrement in the laboratory has a parallel in the industrial (or military) setting; (2) motivational variables may comprise the key to explaining the decrement and general law level of performance; (3) the decrement may be an artifact arising from a general failure of subjects to follow experimental instructions; and (4) many characteristics of inspection tasks bear little resemblance to those of vigilance tasks. These conclusions are supported by a body of evidence which can no longer be ignored by the serious investigator seeking to understand vigilance behavior and expecting to generalize his results. Redirection of vigilance research and greater experimental control are emphasized.