A vigilance decrement comes along with an executive control decrement: Testing the resource-control theory

A decrease in vigilance over time is often observed when performing prolonged tasks, a phenomenon known as "vigilance decrement." The present study aimed at testing some of the critical predictions of the resource-control theory about the vigilance decrement. Specifically, the theory predicts that the vigilance decrement is mainly due to a drop in executive control, which fails to keep attentional resources on the external task, thus devoting a larger number of resources to mind-wandering across time-on-task. Datasets gathered from a large sample size (N = 617) who completed the Attentional Networks Test for Interactions and Vigilance-executive and arousal components in Luna, Roca, Martín-Arévalo, and Lupiáñez (2021b, Behavior Research Methods, 53[3], 1124-1147) were reanalyzed to test whether executive control decreases across time in a vigilance task and whether the vigilance decrement comes along with the decrement in executive control. Vigilance was examined as two dissociated components: executive vigilance, as the ability to detect infrequent critical signals, and arousal vigilance, as the maintenance of a fast reaction to stimuli. The executive control decrement was evidenced by a linear increase in the interference effect for mean reaction time, errors, and the inverse efficiency score. Critically, interindividual differences showed that the decrease in the executive-but not in the arousal-component of vigilance was modulated by the change in executive control across time-on-task, thus supporting the predictions of the resource-control theory. Nevertheless, given the small effect sizes observed in our large sample size, the present outcomes suggest further consideration of the role of executive control in resource-control theory.