Citation

Head J, Helton WS. Acta Psychol. 2014; 153C: 87-94.

Affiliation

University of Canterbury, New Zealand. Electronic address: Deak.Helton@canterbury.ac.nz.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2014, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1016/j.actpsy.2014.09.007

PMID

25310454

Abstract

We conducted two studies using a modified sustained attention to response task (SART) to investigate the developmental process of SART performance and the role of cognitive load on performance when the speed-accuracy trade-off is controlled experimentally. In study 1, 23 participants completed the modified SART (target stimuli location was not predictable) and a subjective thought content questionnaire 4 times over the span of 4weeks. As predicted, the influence of speed-accuracy trade-off was significantly mitigated on the modified SART by having target stimuli occur in unpredictable locations. In study 2, 21 of the 23 participants completed an abridged version of the modified SART with a verbal free-recall memory task. Participants performed significantly worse when completing the verbal memory task and SART concurrently. Overall, the results support a resource theory perspective with concern to errors being a result of limited mental resources and not simply mindlessness per se.

Language: en