PERSONALITY AND PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRELATES OF PERFORMANCE DECREMENT ON A MONOTONOUS TASK REQUIRING SUSTAINED ATTENTION

Abstract

A serial‐reaction task was used to study personality, as well as physiological, correlates of individual differences in performance decrement under low task‐load conditions. Sixty subjects performed the task continuously for 40 min. Extraverted subjects showed increasing lapses of attention, while introverted subjects failed to show any evidence of a decline in attention. Of the two extraversion components (impulsivity and sociability), impulsivity was the component responsible for the obtained decrement. Heart‐rate variability showed significant relationships with personality and with performance decrement, while mean heart rate did not. 1974 The British Psychological Society