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ACTIVE VS PASSIVE SUSTAINED ATTENTION
Differentiating between active and passive visual sustained attention
My dissertation work investigated the possible distinction between two subtypes of sustained attention: (1) active sustained attention, which demands continuous cognitive engagement, and (2) passive sustained attention, characterized by vigilance and readiness for rare events.
My rationale was that even though the terms "sustained attention" and "vigilance" are interchangeably used in the literature to mean sustained attention, they do not have the same exact definitions. Therefore, I postulated that vigilant attention should be seen as a subtype of sustained attention. The experiments conducted aimed to differentiate these two forms of attention. Active sustained attention was assessed using a traditional Multiple Object Tracking task (renamed Active-MOT), while a modified version of this task was developed to measure passive sustained attention (Passive-MOT). I am calling this paradigm the AP-MOT.
Del_Sordo_Papesh_Pnomics24.pdfDissertation work:
The results from my dissertation's experiments were presented at the Psychonomic Society's 65th Annual Meeting (2024) in New York, NY, USA.
My dissertation consisted of a series of behavioral experiments providing preliminary evidence that active and passive sustained attention reflect distinct cognitive constructs. For example, in Experiment 1, performance on the Passive-MOT task correlated with a classic vigilance measure (the Mackworth Clock Task), whereas performance on the Active-MOT did not.
Pupillometry Reveals Distinct Signatures of Active and Passive Sustained Attention
To further test the distinction between active and passive sustained attention, I conducted a pupillometry study using both versions of the AP-MOT task.
Our preliminary results are highly promising! Active sustained attention showed a profile of continuous, internally driven engagement, with pupil responses and performance varying systematically with task difficulty. In contrast, passive sustained attention was marked by low engagement until critical events occurred, suggesting that attention was triggered externally rather than maintained internally. Together, these findings provide converging evidence that active and passive sustained attention may rely on different underlying control mechanisms—one sustained and self-initiated, the other transient and stimulus-driven.
This research has been published in Cognitive, Affective, & Behavioral Neuroscience! Check it out here.
Del Sordo - Psychonomic 2025 Talk.pdfPage updated
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