Monitoring Performance as a Function of Rate of Ready Signals

Abstract

62 human male subjects were tested in this study which involved a unique, numeric-monitoring task including both ready signals and GO NO-GO signals for response in order to verify that increases in signal rate improve performance. These data extend and generalize previous findings to a wider variety of signal conditions and also answer a criticism of previous findings, i.e., that if subjects made a constant number of responses per hour, their percentage signals missed would decline as a function of signal rate. By the unique design of the task, this criticism was refuted and the general conclusions in the extant literature were supported and extended. It was shown that performance improved as a function of number of ready signals ( P < .02). Data from this study could be used to support the arousal hypotheses of performance.