Poster #6 - Seeing what's not there: Measuring sustained attention and workload in a visual task

• In Event: Poster Session 03

Abstract

The first continuous performance task (CPT) was designed to assess attention in patients with brain injuries (Rosvold et al., 1956). Today these tasks are widely employed in clinical and research settings to measure sustained attention. In CPTs, observers attend to a temporally extended stream of events, responding to a critical “signal” stimulus and withholding responses to a “distractor” stimulus. Although the basic design is the same, CPTs vary with regard to task parameters and sensitivity to changes in attention (Halperin et al., 1991). For example, many tasks fail to generate errors of commission which provide a measure of an observer’s impulsivity, a trait often associated with attentional difficulties.
The adult sustained attention literature has proven invaluable to the study of children (Laurie-Rose et al., 2015). Finomore et al. (2013) employed simple “Signal Presence” and “Signal Absence” CPTs with adults in a study of workload, a measure of expenditure of cognitive resources. In the Signal Presence task, the distractor stimulus is an array of five unfilled circles. The signal contains the same five circles, but one is bisected by a vertical line. In the Signal Absence task, the distractor stimulus contains an array of five circles, each bisected by a vertical line. The signal stimulus contains the same five circles, but one is missing the vertical line (see Figure 1). Research reveals that adult performance efficiency is significantly reduced and overall workload is higher in the Absence compared to the Presence task (Schoenfeld & Scerbo, 1999, Finomore et al., 2013).
The goals of the current study are twofold: 1) to investigate the sensitivity of Signal Presence and Signal Absence tasks with children, and 2) to utilize a digital, modified National Aeronautics Space Administration Task Load Index (NASA-TLX), developed to assess workload with children (Laurie-Rose et al., 2014, 2017; see Figure 2). In a preliminary study, children (20 7-8-year-olds and 29 9-10-year-olds) performed either the Signal Absence or Signal Presence task. Stimuli were presented for 200 milliseconds at a rate of 30 events/minute. Children committed more commission errors in the Signal Absence (M = .33) compared to the Signal Presence condition (M = .14), F(1, 45) = 11.58, p < .01, ηp2 = .205, and they experienced greater latency variability, (Absence, M = 242, Presence, M = 157), F(1, 43) = 29.27, p < .01, ηp2 = .405. Younger children showed greater latency variability in the Absence Condition, F(1, 43) = 5.13, p =.01, ηp2 = .107 compared to older children.
Based on these preliminary results, tasks in the current study* will utilize longer stimulus presentation to address floor effects. Children will complete the Signal Absence or Signal Presence task. Stimuli will be presented for 350 milliseconds at a rate of 30 events/minute. After the task, children will report workload using a digital, modified NASA-TLX. Results will provide a better understanding of children’s perceived workload which may be useful in school settings where there are significant costs associated with increased workload.
*Before data collection begins, hypotheses and analyses will be pre-registered (AsPredicted).

Authors

• Lori M. Curtindale, Lycoming College
  Presenting Author

• Gillian Mitchell

• Maya Steiger

• Harmonie King

• Cynthia Laurie-Rose