Vigilance: A Review and Re-evaluation

Abstract

Vigilance as a human factors area is concerned with the fact that man is much less capable as a detector of signals under operational conditions than would be indicated by laboratory measures of his sensory thresholds. The area, which is obviously important for the analysis of man's visual capabilities in the operation of manned space systems, is re-examined with the help of a theoretical model that introduces a decision–theory approach to the observing response phase of the vigilance task. After a critical review of the vigilance literature, examples are presented of the application of this approach to the solution of human factors problems of the sort that might arise in manned space missions. The model is also used to suggest the kind of research that would make it easier to predict field monitoring performance from laboratory experiments.