Vigilance, Workload, and Boredom: Two Competing Models

Abstract

Two models that seek to explain the high workload associated with vigilance tasks are the direct-cost and indirect-cost views. The former attributes the elevated workload to the high information-processing demand of the task; the latter attributes it to efforts to combat the boredom associated with monotonous vigilance tasks. A recent study by Hitchcock et al. (1999) provided support for the direct-cost view by showing that it is possible to lower the workload of vigilance through reductions in the information-processing load while leaving task-induced boredom unaffected. This study provides converging evidence for the direct-cost view: allowing observers to listen to a stress-reducing musical selection, Heart Zones, during a vigil lowered boredom while leaving the perceived workload of the task unaffected. The beneficial effect of the musical selection was limited to boredom; it had no impact upon post-vigil feelings of loss of task engagement and distress.