Monitoring of Complex Visual Displays: IV. Training for Vigilance

An experiment was performed to test the hypothesis that knowledge of results (KR) in a vigilance task can be used as a training technique that will transfer positively to subsequent non-KR sessions where feedback is absent. Three groups, fifteen subjects each, participated in a visual monitoring task for four sessions of three hours each. One group received KR about response proficiency after each response in the first two sessions and a second group received only a neutral remark each time from the experimenter. The final two sessions were standard vigilance tasks without feedback. A third control group had the standard task throughout. The KR group had reliably superior performance on all sessions although within-session vigilance decrement was uninfluenced. The neutral stimulation group did not differ from the control condition. It is suggested that KR administered in a training situation can produce improved vigilance during actual system use where KR is absent.