Can vigilance tasks be administered online? A replication and discussion.

Area of Science:

• Cognitive Psychology
• Experimental Psychology

Background:

• Online data collection is increasingly used in psychological sciences.
• Vigilance performance studies traditionally rely on in-laboratory or field data collection.
• The validity of online vigilance tasks requires further investigation.

Purpose of the Study:

• To replicate findings from a newly developed online vigilance task in a laboratory setting.
• To assess the suitability of online data collection for vigilance research.
• To identify factors influencing the success of online vigilance studies.

Main Methods:

• A semantic vigilance task developed by Thomson et al. (2016) was administered.
• 130 participants completed the task in a controlled research laboratory environment.
• Nonparametric and corrected signal detection measures were employed for data analysis.

Main Results:

• The study successfully replicated the results reported by Thomson et al. (2016).
• Replication was achieved specifically when using nonparametric and corrected signal detection measures.
• Parametric signal detection measures did not yield the same significant results.

Conclusions:

• Certain laboratory-based vigilance tasks may be effectively adapted for online administration.
• Researchers must carefully select the type of vigilance task, its length, and appropriate signal detection indices for online studies.
• The choice of statistical analysis significantly impacts the outcomes of online vigilance research.