Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Task disengagement and implications for vigilance performance in CCTV surveillance

  • Original Article
  • Published:
Cognition, Technology & Work Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

This research examines the relationship between behavioural indicators of task disengagement and vigilance performance for closed-circuit television (CCTV) surveillance operators and novices in a proactive real-world detection task. Seventy-three participants (42 CCTV operators and 31 novices) performed a 90-min CCTV video surveillance task based on asset protection footage in a heavy industry. The study showed a range of individualised responses in managing attention resources in order to deal with vigilance demands. Alternating fluctuations between task engagement and disengagement were found for the majority of participants, indicating efforts to manage attention resources and cope with vigilance demands. Almost a quarter of the sample disengaged during the first 30 min, but a third showed no behavioural indicators of disengagement during the task. Different results were obtained for participants with different types of work exposure (novices and operators from either ‘generalist’ or ‘specialist’ CCTV surveillance operations). Task disengagement was associated with lower detection rates. The implications of task engagement theory and behavioural indictors of task disengagement for the measurement and management of vigilance performance are discussed.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Balakrishnan JD (1998) Measures and interpretations of vigilance performance: evidence against the detection criterion. Hum Factors 40(4):601–623

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ballard JC (1996) Computerized assessment of sustained attention: a review of factors affecting vigilance performance. J Clin Exp Neuropsyc 18:843–863

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bauer B, Jolicoeur T, Cowan WB (1996) Distractor heterogeneity versus linear separability in color visual search. Perception 25(11):1281–1293

  • Broadbent DE (1953) Noise, paced performance and vigilance tasks. Brit J Psychol 44:295–303

    Google Scholar 

  • Carriere JSA, Cheyne JA, Smilek D (2008) Everyday attention lapses and memory failures: the affective consequences of mindlessness. Conscious Cogn 17:835–847

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cheyne JA, Solman GJF, Carriére JSA, Smilek D (2009) Anatomy of an error: a bidirectional state model of task engagement/disengagement and attention-related errors. Cognition 1(11):98–113

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dockree PM, Kelly SP, Robertson IH, Reilly RB, Foxe JJ (2005) Neurophysiological markers of alert responding during goal-directed behavior: a high-density electrical mapping study. NeuroImage 27(3):587–601

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Donald C (2001) Vigilance. In: Noyes J, Bransby M (eds) People in control: human factors in control room design. The Institution of Electrical Engineers, London, pp 35–50

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Donald C, Bridges A, Donald F (2012) Psychological implications of automated detection in visual search. Paper presented at the 30th international congress of psychology in Cape Town, 22–27 July 2012

  • Finomore VS, Shaw TS, Warm JS, Matthews G, Boles DB (2013) Viewing the workload of vigilance through the lenses of the NASA-TLX and the MRQ. Hum Factors 55(6):1044–1063

  • Gilden DL, Hancock H (2007) Response variability in attention deficit disorders. Psychol Sci 18:796–802

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Grier RA, Warm JS, Dember WN, Matthews G, Galinsky TL, Szalma JL, Parasuraman R (2003) The vigilance decrement reflects limitations in effortful attention, not mindlessness. Hum Factors 45:349–359

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • He J, Becic E, Lee Y, Jason S, McCarley J (2011) Mind wandering behind the wheel: performance and oculomotor correlates. Hum Factors 53(1):13–21

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Helton WS, Russell PN (2011) Working memory load and the vigilance decrement. Exp Brain Res 212(3):429–437

  • Helton WS, Hollander TD, Warm JS, Matthews G, Dember WN, Wallart M, Beauchamp G, Parasuraman R, Hancock PA (2005) Signal regularity and the mindlessness model of vigilance. Brit J Psychol 96(2):249–261

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Helton WS, Weil L, Middlemiss A, Sawers A (2010) Global interference and spatial uncertainty in the sustained attention to response task (SART). Conscious Cogn 19:77–85

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Howard CJ, Troscianko T, Gilchrist ID, Behera A, Hogg DC (2009) Suspiciousness perception in dynamic scenes: a comparison of CCTV operators and novices. Hum Neuroscience 7:1–9 

  • Humphreys MS, Revelle W (1984) Personality, motivation, and performance: a theory of the relationship between individual differences and information processing. Psychol Rev 91(2):153–184

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Itti L, Koch C (2000) A saliency-based search mechanism for overt and covert shifts of visual attention. Vision Res 40:1489–1506

  • Jarodzka H, Scheiter K, Gerjets P, van Gog T (2010) In the eyes of the beholder: how novices and experts interpert dynamic stimuli. Learn Instr 20(2):146–154

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Johnson A, Proctor RW (2004) Attention: theory and practice. Sage, Thousand Oaks

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Kanfer R, Ackerman PL (1996) A self-regulatory skills perspective to reducing cognitive interference. In: Sarason IG, Pierce GR, Sarason BR (eds) Cognitive interference: theories, methods, and findings. Lawrence Erlbaum, Mahwah, pp 153–172

    Google Scholar 

  • Koelega HS (1996) Sustained attention. In: Neumann O and Sanders AF (eds) Handbook of perception and action, vol. 3: Attention. Academic Press, London, p 277–331

  • MacLean K, Aichele S, Bridwell D, Mangun G, Wojciulik E, Saron C (2009) Interactions between endogenous and exogenous attention during vigilance. Atten Percept Psychophys 71(5):1042–1058

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Manly T, Robertson IH, Galloway M, Hawkins K (1999) The absent mind: further investigations of sustained attention to response. Neuropsychologia 37(6):661–670

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Matthews G, Davies DR, Westerman SJ, Stammers RB (2000) Human performance, cognition, stress and individual differences. Psychology Press, East Sussex

    Google Scholar 

  • Matthews G, Warm JS, Reinerman-Jones LE, Langheim LK, Washburn DA, Tripp L (2010) Task engagement, cerebral blood flow velocity, and diagnostic monitoring for sustained attention. J Exp Psychol Appl 16(2):187–203

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • McVay JC, Kane MJ, Kwapil TR (2009) Tracking the train of thought from the laboratory into everyday life: an experience-sampling study of mind wandering across controlled and ecological context. Psychon B Rev 16(5):857–863

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Messick S (1962) Response style and content measures from personality inventories. Educ Pschol Meas 22:41–56

  • Parasuraman R (1984) Sustained attention in detection and discrimination. In: Parasuraman R, Davies DR (eds) Varieties of attention. Academic Press, Orlando, pp 243–272

    Google Scholar 

  • Parasuraman R, Mouloua M (1996) Automation and human performance: theory and applications. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates Inc, Mahwah

    Google Scholar 

  • Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act (2000). The government of the United Kingdom, Queen’s Printer of Acts of Parliament

  • Sawin DA, Scerbo MW (1995) Effects of instruction type and boredom proneness in vigilance: implications for boredom and workload. Hum Factors 37(4):752–765

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Smallwood J, Davies JB, Heim D, Finnigan F, Sudberry M, O’Connor R et al (2004) Subjective experience and the attentional lapse: task engagement and disengagement during sustained attention. Conscious Cogn 13(4):657–690

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Smith GJD (2004) Behind the scenes: examining constructions of deviance and informal practices among CCTV control room operators in the UK. Surveill Soc 2(2/3):376–395

    Google Scholar 

  • Szalma JL, Warm JS, Matthews G, Dember WN, Weiler EM, Meier A, Eggemeier FT (2004) Effects of sensory modality and task duration on performance, workload, and stress in sustained attention. Hum Factors 46(2):219–233

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Temple JG, Warm JS, Dember WN, Jones KS, LaGrange CM, Matthews G (2000) The effects of signal salience and caffeine on performance, workload, and stress in an abbreviated vigilance task. Hum Factors 42:183–194

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Tickner AH, Poulton EC (1973) Monitoring up to 16 synthetic television pictures showing a great deal of movement. Ergonomics 16(1):381–401

  • Warm JS, Parasuraman R, Matthews G (2008) Vigilance requires hard mental work and is stressful. Hum Factors 50(3):433–441

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wells H, Allard T, Wilson P (2006) Crime and CCTV in Australia: understanding the relationship. Centre of applied psychology and criminology, faculty of humanities and social sciences, Bond University. Gold Coast, Australia

    Google Scholar 

  • Wickens CD, McCarley JD (2008) Applied attention theory. CRC Press, London

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa

    Fiona M. Donald

  2. Edith Cowan University, Perth, WA, Australia

    Craig H. M. Donald

  3. Leaderware, Sandton, South Africa

    Craig H. M. Donald

Authors
  1. Fiona M. Donald
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Craig H. M. Donald
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Craig H. M. Donald.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Donald, F.M., Donald, C.H.M. Task disengagement and implications for vigilance performance in CCTV surveillance. Cogn Tech Work 17, 121–130 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10111-014-0309-8

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10111-014-0309-8

Keywords

Search

Navigation