Examining attentional and memory mechanisms of the vigilance decrement with event-related potentials

The current study explores support for unitary versus multiple resource mechanism perspectives of the vigilance decrement with neural signatures from electroencephalographic (EEG) data. Thirty participants (M-age = 21.17, SDage = 2.23, Female = 60.0%) completed an attentional task with either simultaneous or a more memory-intensive successive discrimination. Event-related potential (ERP) components associated with supervisory attention and memory processes were assayed. Effects of discrimination type and time-on-task were examined, with a focus on ERP memory process slope behaviour. Results provided preliminary support for a unitary as opposed to multiple resource mechanism perspective as ERP memory process slopes did not differ between the two tasks with time-on-task. This suggests that a single supervisory attentional mechanism might drive the vigilance decrement and has important implications for predictive models of sustained attention and fatigue interventions. Unexpected findings with early attentional processes between the two discrimination tasks are discussed further.