and Sustained Attention

The ability to focus one’s attention while resisting distraction is critical for adaptive, goal-directed behavior. Voluntary attention—guided by goals, previous knowledge, or explicit instructions—can be directed to spatial locations (e.g., Posner, 1980) and moments in time (e.g., Correa, Lupiáñez, Madrid, & Tudela, 2006) to improve behavioral accuracy and efficiency. However, voluntary attention is limited and cannot be sus-tained indefinitely. Research on sustained attention consis-tently demonstrates reduced target-discrimination accuracy (perceptual sensitivity) with increased time on task, a phenom-enon known as the vigilance decrement (for a review, see Parasuraman, 1986). Despite this evidence, few attempts have been made to use training to improve healthy adults ’ sustained attention. Studies have demonstrated improvements in perfor-mance on vigilance tasks following repetitive practice (e.g.