Modelling Performance in the Sustained Attention to Response Task

We present a computational model of human performance on the Sustained Attention to Response Task, a computer-based task in which people must withhold responses to infrequent and unpredictable stimuli during a period of rapid and rhythmic responding to frequent stimuli. The model, formulated within the ACT-R cognitive architecture, accounts for human performance in terms of two competing strategies and the dynamic modification of priorities given competing task demands to minimise both response time and error. The model suggests that such strategic factors may be responsible for the observed speed-accuracy trade-off rather than the alternative proposal based on sustained attention.