Effects of Electrodermal Lability and Payoff Instructions on Vigilance Performance

The psychophysiologically based personality dimension of electrodermal lability has been related to vigilance performance. The present study investigated this effect basing lability on spontaneous electrodermal fluctuations and habituation of the electrodermal orienting response, and attempted to modify performance using monetary payoffs. In an auditory vigilance task, detections and sensitivity (d′) declined across blocks, and payoffs influenced detections, commission errors, d′, and response bias in the expected directions. Although there were no main effects for spontaneous lability, habituation labiles had higher log false alarm rates, lower response bias and tended to detect more signals. Using either lability criterion, labiles did not demonstrate a vigilance decrement and were more responsive than stabiles to payoff instructions. Lability based on habituation rate was therefore more clearly related to vigilance performance than lability based on spontaneous fluctuations.