Peripheral Detection and Central Task Complexity

Abstract

Subjects verbally tracked a central task that differed on a complexity dimension (subsets of two, four, or eight digits), while indicating their detection of small peripheral lights by pressing a hand–held switch. Teichner's stress theory would predict that the more complex the central task, the longer would be the reaction times to the peripheral lights, and that the differences would be most pronounced in the far periphery (the funneling effect). Hebb's arousal theory, applied to vigilance behavior, would predict the opposite effect, where increasing the complexity of the central task would heighten the subject's vigilance performance. The results supported an arousal interpretation, with faster reaction times to the peripheral lights as central task complexity increased.