Individual Differences in Attention and the Prediction of Flight Criteria

1971 ◽  
Vol 33 (3_suppl) ◽  
pp. 1335-1342 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel Gopher ◽  
Daniel Kahneman

A dichotic listening test was constructed which requires S to monitor a relevant message and to ignore a concurrent message presented to the other ear. The test has promising validity for predicting different criteria of proficiency in flying high-performance aircraft. An analysis of the most valid type of errors suggests that a change in an existing orientation is accompanied by a transient instability of selective attention. Most errors in continuous attention are omissions, which indicate a failure of the listening set. Intrusions, which indicate a failure of selectivity, are rare and their frequency is not correlated to flight criteria.

1981 ◽  
Vol 25 (1) ◽  
pp. 649-653
Author(s):  
Daniel Gopher

Incorporation of a dichotic listening test of focused attention in the pilot selection battery of the Israel Air Force was studied using a group of 2000 flight cadets. In this test, subjects are presented with 48 dichotic messages, composed of strings of words and digit names. Subjects are required to detect digit names in one ear, ignore information in the other, and reconsider ear relevance upon indication. Three types of selective listening errors are recorded: omissions, intrusions and switching errors. Flight cadets who completed a two year training program had significantly lower error scores on all attention measures. In addition, these measurs had low correlations with all other tests of the pilot selection battery. Attention capabilities appear to an independent new dimension that improves the predictive validity of the present battery.


1973 ◽  
Vol 36 (1) ◽  
pp. 259-262
Author(s):  
Steven Jay Gross ◽  
Samuel F. Moore ◽  
Stephen L. Stern

Two methods of investigating human information processing, the one focusing on the manipulation of experimental tasks and the other emphasizing individual differences, were compared. The design utilized the experimental tasks of Treisman and Riley (1969) while examining for individual differences on the basis of Witkin's field-articulation dimension. The findings of Treisman and Riley were replicated, while no differences were found among Ss categorized on the individual-difference dimension, suggesting that task variables were most important in performance requiring selective attention.


1972 ◽  
Vol 24 (4) ◽  
pp. 474-484
Author(s):  
C. M. Holloway

The results of previous experiments suggest that when listeners are asked to repeat back prose arriving at one ear, their performance is unaffected by the presence (in the other ear) of another independent prose passage in the same voice and of equal intensity. In the present study dichotic messages were employed in which the words were presented quasi-simultaneously and were not connected in meaning. Considerable performance decrement was found from a message on the irrelevant ear even if that message was less intense than that on the relevant ear. Different kinds of error occur, but the principle form of error is a response which is incorrect but nevertheless clearly related to the word presented to the relevant ear. The results extend the findings of Treisman (1967, 1970) who found considerable interference in dichotic listening to pairs of words exactly matched for time of onset; and suggest a general difficulty of selective attention when non-prose material is used.


2004 ◽  
Vol 18 (3) ◽  
pp. 272-296 ◽  
Author(s):  
Claire Calmels ◽  
Christelle Berthoumieux ◽  
Fabienne Fabienne d’Arripe-Longueville

This study examined the effectiveness of an imagery training program in improving national softball players’ selective attention. A multiple-baseline design across individuals was used. There were four participants. One remained at baseline, while the other three spent 10 min a day practicing an audio-taped imagery program composed of 28 sessions. Measures of selective attention were collected via a baseball/softball batting specific version stemming from Nideffer’s (1976) Test of Attentional and Interpersonal Style (TAIS). The results demonstrated that the imagery training program generally enhanced the ability of softball players to integrate external stimuli without being overloaded with them and to narrow attention. Results were discussed in relation to the usefulness of multiple-baseline designs for investigating individual differences among elite athletes. Practical pedagogical considerations for coaching are proposed.


2000 ◽  
Vol 59 (3) ◽  
pp. 150-158 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nadia Ortiz ◽  
Michael Reicherts ◽  
Alan J. Pegna ◽  
Encarni Garran ◽  
Michel Chofflon ◽  
...  

Patients suffering from Multiple Sclerosis (MS) have frequently been found to suffer from damage to callosal fibers. Investigations have shown that this damage is associated with signs of hemisphere disconnections. The aim of our study was to provide evidence for the first signs of interhemispheric dysfunction in a mildly disabled MS population. Therefore, we explored whether the Interhemispheric Transfer (IT) deficit is multi-modal and sought to differentiate two MS evolution forms, on the basis of an interhemispheric disconnection index. Twenty-two patients with relapsing-remitting form of MS (RRMS) and 14 chronic-progressive (CPMS) were compared with matched controls on four tasks: a tachistoscopic verbal and non-verbal decision task, a dichotic listening test, cross tactile finger localization and motor tapping. No overall impairment was seen. The dichotic listening and lexical decision tasks were the most sensitive to MS. In addition, CPMS patients' IT was more impaired and was related to the severity of neurological impairment. The different sizes of the callosal fibers, which determine their vulnerability, may explain the heterogeneity of transfer through the Corpus Callosum. Therefore, evaluation of IT may be of value as an index of evolution in MS.


2001 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. 48-55 ◽  
Author(s):  
Juan Botella ◽  
María José Contreras ◽  
Pei-Chun Shih ◽  
Víctor Rubio

Summary: Deterioration in performance associated with decreased ability to sustain attention may be found in long and tedious task sessions. The necessity for assessing a number of psychological dimensions in a single session often demands “short” tests capable of assessing individual differences in abilities such as vigilance and maintenance of high performance levels. In the present paper two tasks were selected as candidates for playing this role, the Abbreviated Vigilance Task (AVT) by Temple, Warm, Dember, LaGrange and Matthews (1996) and the Continuous Attention Test (CAT) by Tiplady (1992) . However, when applied to a sample of 829 candidates in a job-selection process for air-traffic controllers, neither of them showed discriminative capacity. In a second study, an extended version of the CAT was applied to a similar sample of 667 subjects, but also proved incapable of properly detecting individual differences. In short, at least in a selection context such as that studied here, neither of the tasks appeared appropriate for playing the role of a “short” test for discriminating individual differences in performance deterioration in sustained attention.


2012 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-10 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rosalind Potts ◽  
Robin Law ◽  
John F. Golding ◽  
David Groome

Retrieval-induced forgetting (RIF) refers to the finding that the retrieval of an item from memory impairs the retrieval of related items. The extent to which this impairment is found in laboratory tests varies between individuals, and recent studies have reported an association between individual differences in the strength of the RIF effect and other cognitive and clinical factors. The present study investigated the reliability of these individual differences in the RIF effect. A RIF task was administered to the same individuals on two occasions (sessions T1 and T2), one week apart. For Experiments 1 and 2 the final retrieval test at each session made use of a category-cue procedure, whereas Experiment 3 employed category-plus-letter cues, and Experiment 4 used a recognition test. In Experiment 2 the same test items that were studied, practiced, and tested at T1 were also studied, practiced, and tested at T2, but for the remaining three experiments two different item sets were used at T1 and T2. A significant RIF effect was found in all four experiments. A significant correlation was found between RIF scores at T1 and T2 in Experiment 2, but for the other three experiments the correlations between RIF scores at T1 and T2 failed to reach significance. This study therefore failed to find clear evidence for reliable individual differences in RIF performance, except where the same test materials were used for both test sessions. These findings have important implications for studies involving individual differences in RIF performance.


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