The 3-minute Psychomotor Vigilance Task (PVT) Embedded in a Wrist-worn Device: Time of Day Effects

Abstract

The study assesses the utility of the 3-minute version of the Psychomotor Vigilance Task (PVT) embedded in a wrist-worn device (interstimulus interval-ISI =1-4 seconds) to detect changes in performance between a morning and an afternoon data collection session. The experiment utilized a randomized, within-subject, repeated-measures design with two factors, device type (wrist-worn PVT, laptop PVT, Go/No-Go task) and time of day (morning, afternoon). Results showed that performance in both the wrist-worn 3-minute PVT (ISI = 1-4 seconds) and the 5-minute Go/No-Go task (180 trials, 80% Go/20% No Go; ISI = 0.5-1.0 seconds) differed between the morning and the afternoon sessions but not the laptop-based PVT. We discuss these findings under the light of the differences in task characteristics between the wrist-worn and the laptop PVT.