ORCID Profile
0000-0003-1973-6504
Current Organisation
University of Nottingham
Does something not look right? The information on this page has been harvested from data sources that may not be up to date. We continue to work with information providers to improve coverage and quality. To report an issue, use the Feedback Form.
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 05-2016
DOI: 10.1016/J.CONCOG.2016.04.011
Abstract: The impact of anxiety-provoking stimuli on the Sustained Attention to Response Task (SART Robertson, Manly, Andrade, Baddeley, & Yiend, 1997), and response inhibition more generally, is currently unclear. Participants completed four SARTs embedded with picture stimuli of two levels of emotion (negative or neutral) and two levels of task-relevance (predictive or non-predictive of imminent No-Go stimuli). Negative pictures had a small but detectable adverse effect on performance regardless of their task-relevance. Overall, response times and rates of commission errors were more dependent upon the predictive value (relevance) of the pictures than their attention-capturing nature (i.e., negative valence). The findings raise doubt over whether anxiety improves response inhibition, and also lend support to a response strategy perspective of SART performance, as opposed to a mindlessness or mind-wandering explanation.
Publisher: SAGE Publications
Date: 24-09-2015
Abstract: We investigated whether losses of inhibitory control could be responsible for some friendly-fire incidents. Several factors are commonly cited to explain friendly-fire incidents, but failure of inhibitory control has not yet been explored. The Sustained Attention to Response Task (SART) could be a valid model for inhibition failures in some combat scenarios. Participants completed small-arms simulations using near infrared emitter guns, confronting research assistants acting as friends or foes. In Experiment 1, seven participants completed three conditions with three different proportions of foes (high, medium, low). In Experiment 2, 13 participants completed high-foe (high-go) and low-foe (low-go) versions of a small-arms simulation as well as comparative computer tasks. Participants made more friendly-fire errors (errors of commission) when foe proportion was high. A speed–accuracy trade-off was apparent, with participants who were faster to fire on foes also more likely to accidentally shoot friends. When foe proportion was higher, response times to foe stimuli were faster, and subjective workload ratings were higher. Failures of inhibitory control may be responsible for some friendly-fire incidents and the SART could be a suitable empirical model for some battlefield environments. The effect appears to be disproportionately greater at higher foe proportions. The exact nature of performance reductions associated with high-foe proportions requires further investigation. The SART may be a useful model of friendly-fire scenarios. It could be used to indicate a soldier’s likelihood to commit a friendly-fire mistake and to identify high-risk environments.
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 04-08-2015
DOI: 10.1080/13803395.2015.1068744
Abstract: Sixty participants performed a sustained attention task in which they were required to perform either global or local feature discrimination. Two groups required just one type of discrimination, while the remaining two groups started on one type of discrimination before transitioning to the other type halfway through. A transition resulted in worse performance when compared to no transition. It was also found that the local discrimination group showed improved performance over time compared to the global discrimination group. Functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) was used to measure blood oxygenation during the task and was used as an index of cerebral hemodynamic activity. Total oxygenation was found to increase more in global discrimination tasks. It was also found that the left prefrontal cortex showed little change in nontransition tasks while in transition tasks it followed the same trend as the right prefrontal cortex. Combined with performance data, it suggests that an increased utilization of bilateral resources may in some cases improve performance over time.
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 31-05-2015
DOI: 10.1007/S00221-015-4331-8
Abstract: Sixty-one participants performed a sustained attention task in which they were required to respond to a critical signal requiring feature discrimination. Three separate groups performed the task with different global display configurations. The local feature elements (directional arrow shapes) were displayed on either a circle, a circle broken apart or a reconnected figure. For two of the groups, the entire display consisted of a clear global shape (circle and reconnected), and for one of the groups, the display had no discernible global element (broken circle) despite the critical signal being the same for all the groups. Analyses of hit rate and A' scores indicated that the broken circle group had impaired performance compared to the global figure groups. A configural superiority effect was found in which performance was improved by having a global shape property to the entire display. These results provide a behavioural base for further research utilizing measures of cerebral activation, as cerebral activity during vigilance tasks may be dependent on both task difficulty and hierarchical aspects of the display. The configurable or hierarchical aspects of vigilance displays may be critical in understanding sustained attention performance and its hemispheric lateralization.
Publisher: SAGE Publications
Date: 09-2014
Abstract: Losses of inhibitory control may be partly responsible for some friendly fire incidents. The Sustained Attention to Response Task (SART Robertson, Manly, Andrade, Baddeley, & Yiend, 1997) may provide an appropriate empirical model for this. The current investigation aimed to provide an ecologically valid application of the SART to a small arms simulation and examine the effect of different proportions of enemy to friendly confederates. Seven university students engaged in a small arms simulation where they cleared a building floor using a near-infrared emitter gun, tasked with firing at confederates representing enemies and withholding fire to confederates representing friends. All participants completed three conditions which were differentiated by the proportion of enemies to friends present. As hypothesized, participants failed to withhold responses more often when the proportion of foes was higher, suggesting that a prepotent motor response routine had developed. This effect appeared to be disproportionately more substantial in the high foe condition relative to the others. Participants also subjectively reported higher levels of on-task focus as foe proportions increased, suggesting that they found this more mentally demanding. Future research could examine closer the nature of the performance reductions associated with high proportions of foes, as it appears that this is more complex than a simple linear relationship.
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 2015
Location: United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
No related grants have been discovered for Neil de Joux.