Balakrishnan J D
Department of Psychological Sciences, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN 47907, USA.
Hum Factors. 1998 Dec;40(4):601-23. doi: 10.1518/001872098779649337.
Operators' performance in a vigilance task is often assumed to depend on their choice of a detection criterion. When the signal rate is low this criterion is set high, causing the hit and false alarm rates to be low. With increasing time on task the criterion presumably tends to increase even further, thereby further decreasing the hit and false alarm rates. Virtually all of the empirical evidence for this simple interpretation is based on estimates of the bias measure beta from signal detection theory. In this article, I describe a new approach to studying decision making that does not require the technical assumptions of signal detection theory. The results of this new analysis suggest that the detection criterion is never biased toward either response, even when the signal rate is low and the time on task is long. Two modifications of the signal detection theory framework are considered to account for this seemingly paradoxical result. The first assumes that the signal rate affects the relative sizes of the variances of the information distributions; the second assumes that the signal rate affects the logic of the operator's stopping rule. Actual or potential applications of this research include the improved training and performance assessment of operators in areas such as product quality control, air traffic control, and medical and clinical diagnosis.
人们通常认为，操作员在警戒任务中的表现取决于他们对检测标准的选择。当信号率较低时，该标准会设得较高，导致命中率和误报率都较低。随着任务时间的增加，该标准可能会进一步提高，从而进一步降低命中率和误报率。几乎所有支持这一简单解释的实证证据都是基于信号检测理论中偏差度量β的估计。在本文中，我描述了一种研究决策的新方法，该方法不需要信号检测理论的技术假设。这项新分析的结果表明，即使信号率较低且任务时间较长，检测标准也不会偏向任何一种反应。为了解释这一看似矛盾的结果，我们考虑了对信号检测理论框架的两种修改。第一种假设信号率会影响信息分布方差的相对大小；第二种假设信号率会影响操作员停止规则的逻辑。这项研究的实际或潜在应用包括改进产品质量控制、空中交通管制以及医学和临床诊断等领域中操作员的培训和绩效评估。
