title: The Attention-Lapse and Motor Decoupling accounts of SART performance are not mutually exclusive.
abstract: There is an ongoing debate about the mechanisms purported to underlie performance in the Sustained-Attention-to-Response Task (SART). Whereas the Attention-Lapse account posits that SART errors result from attentional disengagement, the Motor Decoupling account proposes that SART errors result from failures to inhibit a fast, prepotent motor response, despite adequate attention to the task. That SART performance might be fully accounted for by motor decoupling is problematic for a Attention-Lapse account, and for the use of the SART as an index of attention lapses. To test whether SART performance is in fact fully accounted for by motor decoupling, I examined the relation between SART performance and attention lapses while controlling for motor decoupling. The results were clear: The SART was associated with attention lapses independently of motor decoupling. Thus, the present study suggests that both accounts are correct and that the SART is a valid measure of attention lapses.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA. Electronic address: paulseli@fas.harvard.edu.
authors.forename: Paul
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Seli
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001288:Attention / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D011597:Psychomotor Performance / Q000502:physiology*; D013850:Thinking / Q000502:physiology*; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Attention lapses; Inattention; Mind wandering; Motor decoupling; SART; The Sustained Attention to Response Task