Prolonging the Response Movement Reduces Commission Errors in a High-Go, Low-No-Go Target Detection Task and...

Area of Science:

• Human Factors
• Cognitive Psychology
• Agricultural Technology

Background:

• Modified Sustained Attention to Response Tasks (SART) investigate response inhibition failures.
• Composite speed and accuracy metrics are established for Low-Go/High No-Go tasks.
• Limited research exists for High-Go/Low-No-Go tasks, like the SART.

Purpose of the Study:

• Adapt SART for agricultural target detection and selection.
• Evaluate performance metrics in a High-Go/Low-No-Go context.
• Assess the utility of composite speed and accuracy measures.

Main Methods:

• Participants performed a modified SART using a weed (Go) and soybean (No-Go) image selection task.
• Stimuli (weeds/soybeans) appeared on a computer screen.
• Response time varied based on stimulus distance from a central point.

Main Results:

• Commission errors (selecting soybeans) increased when stimuli were centrally located.
• Omission errors (failing to select weeds) rose with stimulus distance.
• Composite measures were mainly influenced by response time and omission errors, limiting their utility for commission error analysis.

Conclusions:

• Participants exhibit higher accuracy in High-Go/Low-No-Go tasks with longer motor tasks.
• Composite metrics may not fully capture performance when commission errors are critical.
• Findings highlight human factors liabilities in automated target detection systems.