Vigilance phenomena, cognitive workload, and fatigue

Comments on the original record by Hancock (see record 2012-28202-001) regarding the problem of iatrogenically created psychological phenomena. This comment offers a solution to two of the problems that Hancock identified in his integrative review of vigilance research. First, the performance decrement over time that can set in within a half hour of performing a vigilance task in the laboratory is much less likely to occur in real-world conditions; performance improvements have also been noted. Second, a paradigm shift in the framing of questions and experimental designs is probably required to further research on these phenomena, which appear to grow in complexity (Hancock, 2013, p. 107).