Abstract
Subjects monitored the repetitive presentation of pairs of vertical lines (events) for one of two kinds of critical signals: a) pairs in which one of the lines was longer than the other (simultaneous task), or b) pairs in which both lines were longer than usual (successive task). The events to be monitored appeared in a temporally regular manner (synchronous events) or under two conditions of temporal irregularity (event asynchrony). Perceptual sensitivity (A’) for critical signals was degraded by event asynchrony when discriminations were made in the successive mode, but not in the simultaneous mode. The results support the hypothesis that successive tasks place a greater load on attentional capacity than do simultaneous tasks.
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© 1987 Springer-Verlag New York Inc.
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Scerbo, M.W., Warm, J.S., Doettling, V.S., Parasuraman, R., Fisk, A.D. (1987). Event Asynchrony And Task Demands In Sustained Attention. In: Mark, L.S., Warm, J.S., Huston, R.L. (eds) Ergonomics and Human Factors. Recent Research in Psychology. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4612-4756-2_3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4612-4756-2_3
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