COMPARATIVE EFFECTS OF AGE, SEX, AND DRUGS UPON TWO TASKS OF AUDITORY VIGILANCE

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Abstract
Two auditory vigilance tasks were evaluated for their sensitivity and operator performance characteristics one required subjects to monitor a sequence of single-digit numbers and record the occurrence of prescribed digit sets; the second involved monitoring periodic tones and detecting signals of increased duration. Subjects were 8 young males, 8 young females, and 8 older males, and all received 3 drugs involved in the design during separate 1-hr. watches. Both tasks showed comparable decrement with time but did not differ significantly in terms of mean signal detection. Data trends suggested women to be poorer monitors than men but failed to reveal expected age-related decrement. A depressant (Benadryl) increased false positive responses and, with female subjects, produced significantly poorer signal detection on the tone task. Vigilance decrement was less under an analeptic (Dexedrine), as compared to placebo, but not significantly so.

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