Personality and physiological correlates of performance decrement on a monotonous task requiring sustained attention.

The reductions in task load resulting from the increasing automation of air traffic control may actually increase the requirement for controllers to maintain high levels of sustained attention in order to detect infrequent system malfunctions. A previous study indicated that individuals scoring high on a distractibility scale found it difficult to maintain sustained attention on a monotonous, but perceptually demanding, task. The present study used the same serial reaction task to study other possible personality, as well as physiological , correlates of individual differences in performance decrement under low task-load conditions. Sixty subjects performed the task continuously for 4" 0 minutes. Extraverted subjects showed increasing lapses of attention, while introverted subjects failed to show any evidence of a decline in attention. Of the two extraversion components (impulsivity and sociability), impulsivity was the component responsible for the obtained decrement. Heart-rate variability showed a significant relationship with performance decrement while mean heart rate did not. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The authors wish to gratefully acknowledge the assistance of Marilyn Dollar and Joe Bailey in scoring and analyzing the data of this study.