RESUMO
Attention is regulated by three independent but interacting networks, that is, alerting, comprising phasic alertness and vigilance, orienting, and executive control. Previous studies analyzing event-related potentials (ERPs) associated with attentional networks have focused on phasic alertness, orienting, and executive control, without an independent measure of vigilance. ERPs associated with vigilance have been instead measured in separate studies and via different tasks. The present study aimed to differentiate ERPs associated with attentional networks by simultaneously measuring vigilance along with phasic alertness, orienting, and executive control. Forty participants (34 women, age: M = 25.96; SD = 4.96) completed two sessions wherein the electroencephalogram was recorded while they completed the Attentional Networks Test for Interactions and Vigilance-executive and arousal components, a task that measures phasic alertness, orienting, and executive control along with executive (i.e., detection of infrequent critical signals) and arousal (i.e., sustaining a fast reaction to environmental stimuli) vigilance. ERPs previously associated with attentional networks were replicated here: (a) N1, P2, and contingent negative variation for phasic alertness; (b) P1, N1, and P3 for orienting; and (c) N2 and slow positivity for executive control. Importantly, different ERPs were associated with vigilance: while the executive vigilance decrement was associated with an increase in P3 and slow positivity across time-on-task, arousal vigilance loss was associated with reduced N1 and P2 amplitude. The present study shows that attentional networks can be described by different ERPs simultaneously observed in a single session, including independent measures of executive and arousal vigilance on its assessment.
Assuntos
Atenção , Desempenho Psicomotor , Humanos , Feminino , Tempo de Reação , Nível de Alerta , Função Executiva , Potenciais EvocadosRESUMO
A decrease in vigilance over time is often observed when performing prolonged tasks, a phenomenon known as "vigilance decrement." The present study aimed at testing some of the critical predictions of the resource-control theory about the vigilance decrement. Specifically, the theory predicts that the vigilance decrement is mainly due to a drop in executive control, which fails to keep attentional resources on the external task, thus devoting a larger number of resources to mind-wandering across time-on-task. Datasets gathered from a large sample size (N = 617) who completed the Attentional Networks Test for Interactions and Vigilance-executive and arousal components in Luna, Roca, Martín-Arévalo, and Lupiáñez (2021b, Behavior Research Methods, 53[3], 1124-1147) were reanalyzed to test whether executive control decreases across time in a vigilance task and whether the vigilance decrement comes along with the decrement in executive control. Vigilance was examined as two dissociated components: executive vigilance, as the ability to detect infrequent critical signals, and arousal vigilance, as the maintenance of a fast reaction to stimuli. The executive control decrement was evidenced by a linear increase in the interference effect for mean reaction time, errors, and the inverse efficiency score. Critically, interindividual differences showed that the decrease in the executive-but not in the arousal-component of vigilance was modulated by the change in executive control across time-on-task, thus supporting the predictions of the resource-control theory. Nevertheless, given the small effect sizes observed in our large sample size, the present outcomes suggest further consideration of the role of executive control in resource-control theory.
Assuntos
Atenção , Função Executiva , Nível de Alerta , Humanos , Tempo de Reação , VigíliaRESUMO
Over the past few years, there has been growing interest in using online methods for collecting data from large samples. However, only a few studies have administered online behavioral tasks to assess attention outside the lab. In the present study, we assessed the classic attentional functions and two vigilance components using two versions of the Attentional Networks Test for Interactions and Vigilance-executive and arousal vigilance components (ANTI-Vea): (1) a standard version, performed under typical experimental conditions (n = 314), and (2) an online version, completed outside the lab (n = 303). Both versions were equally effective in assessing (1) the main effects and interactions of phasic alertness, orienting, and executive control, and (2) the executive (i.e., a decline in the ability to detect infrequent critical signals) and the arousal (i.e., a progressive slowness and variability in responses to stimuli from the environment) vigilance decrement across time on task. Responses were generally slower in the online than in the standard version. Importantly, the split-half reliability observed for both tasks was (1) higher for executive control (~.67) than for phasic alertness and orienting (< .40), as observed in previous versions of the task, and (2) between .71 and .99 for the executive and arousal vigilance measures. We expect the present study will be of interest to researchers aiming to assess attentional functions with a valid and reliable method that, importantly, is publicly available on an open website ( https://www.ugr.es/~neurocog/ANTI/ ) and is easy to use in applied contexts.