Measuring the separate effects of practice and fatigue on eye movements during visual search

Measuring the separate effects of practice and fatigue on eye movements during visual search Sophie N. Lanthier (snlanthier@gmail.ca) Department of Psychology, 2136 West Mall, Vancouver, BC, V6T 1Z4, Canada Evan F. Risko (Evan.F.Risko@gmail.ca) Department of Psychology, 202 Psychology Building Memphis, TN, 38152 Daniel Smilek (dsmilek@uwaterloo.ca) Department of Psychology, 200 University Ave West, Waterloo, ON, N2L 3G1, Canada Alan Kingstone (alan.kingstone@ubc.ca) Department of Psychology, 2136 West Mall, Vancouver, BC, V6T 1Z4, Canada Abstract Two experiments were conducted to examine how time-on- task (i.e., practice and fatigue) influences eye movements during visual search. In Experiment 1, we examined how practice influences eye movements during an extended visual search task. Results replicate the findings that over the course of a visual search task, performance improves and fixation duration increases. Yet changes in fixation duration did not correlate with changes in search performance. In Experiment 2, we examined how fatigue influences eye movements during an extended visual search task. To manipulate fatigue, participants either did or did not receive breaks. Those who did not receive breaks replicated the findings in Experiment 1. Critically, participants who did receive breaks showed no increase in fixation duration over the course of the visual search task. These results indicate that the increase in fixation duration with time-on-task reflects fatigue, and that this measure of fatigue can be derived independent of measures of performance improvements, such as shorter response times. Keywords: Visual Search, Attention, Practice, Fatigue, Eye Movements. Previous research (Horowitz, Cade, Wolfe & Czeisler, 2003; Wolfe et al, 2007) has shown that after long passages of time, critical items are missed during visual search. Given that many studies have shown that fatigue negatively impacts the ability to allocate attention across a broad spectrum of tasks (Casagrande, Violani, Curcio & Bertini, 1997; Dawson & Reid, 1997; Drumer & Dinges, 2005; Fairclough & Graham, 1999; Lyznicki, Doege, Davis & Williams, 1998; Marcus & Loughlin, 1996; Williamson & Feyer, 2000), it is reasonable to think that the fatigue which arises over time while engaging on a task contributes to search performance failures over time. Fatigue can be manifested in a number of different ways. For example, fatigue is considered to result from working (e.g., Winwood, Winefield, & Lushington, 2006), mental stress (Baumeister, 2002), psychopathology (Berrios, 1990), boredom (Wyatt & Langdon, 1937), disease (Whitehead, 2009), and lack of sleep (Durmer, & Dinges, 2005). In the present context, we refer to the fatigue that is associated with time-on-task (e.g., Neri, et al., 2002; Stern, et al., 1993; Wilkinson, 1961). Pinpointing the role of fatigue on search performance is inherently challenging, given that a) the negative effect of fatigue overlaps with the positive effect of practice on a task, and b) the same behavioural measures (e.g., response time, RT) are used to assess both the positive and negative effects of time on task. Further, several studies have found that RT measures are actually insensitive to fatigue (Baulk, Reyner & Horne, 2001; Gillberg, Kecklund & Akerstedt, 1996; Milosevic, 1997). Utilizing the fact that fatigue appears to influence oculomotor control (Bocca & Denise, 2006; De Gennaro, Ferrara, Urbani & Bertini, 2000; Galley 1989; Galley & Galley, 1998; Hoffman, 1946; Luckiesh & Moss, 1937; Morris & Miller 1996; Saito, 1992; Schleicher, Galley, Briest & Galley, 2008; Sirevaag & Stern 2000; Stern, Boyer, & Schroeder, 1994; Summala, Hakkanen, Mikkola, & Sinkkonen, 1999), and could lead to an increase in fixation duration, the present paper investigated the intriguing possibility that fixation duration could provide an index of fatigue over time that is separable from the beneficial effects of practice on a task. To achieve this aim, in two experiments the eye movements and performance of individuals were monitored as they performed a visual search task. Experiment 1 confirmed that changes in fixation duration are not correlated with the improvements in search that come from practice. Experiment 2 manipulated levels of fatigue, and showed that as fatigue levels increased, so did fixation duration, and that this could be separated and measured reliably from the positive effects that practice has on search performance. Collectively these data provide evidence that eye movements can be used as an indicator of fatigue that is

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