The role of choice in vigilance performance

Abstract

This study tested the hypothesis that affording subjects the illusion of choice with respect to the experimental condition in which they were to participate would lead to increased commitment and hence persistence in a vigilance task. Half of the subjects were offered the opportunity to select a “hard” or “easy” version of the task prior to the start of the vigil. The remaining subjects were not given that opportunity. Actually, assignment to the difficult (low signal salience) and easy (high signal salience) conditions was determined at random. In agreement with the hypothesis in question, the detection scores of the choice subjects remained more stable over the course of a 40-min vigil than did those of the controls. The results highlight the importance of intrinsic motivation in vigilance performance. © 1992, Psychonomic Society, Inc.. All rights reserved.