Temporal Pattern Models for Physiological Arousal During a Steering Task

Abstract

Physiological arousal can be a signal of attention, reflecting predictability and significance of stimuli or events. We explored temporal patterns in task-related physiological arousal and their connection to performance in repeated trials of a visuomotor steering task. Participants (N = 9) played a total of forty trials of a high-speed steering task in eight sessions over a period of 2-3 weeks. Temporal changes in electrodermal activity during task performance were modelled as habituation, and connections between performance, perceived importance and individual differences in habituation rate were examined. Additionally, withinsubject changes in habituation were compared to deviations from predicted performance. We found that sustained task-related arousal (slow habituation) was connected to better performance both between groups and within participants. Slow habituation was also related to higher subjective reports of perceived importance. Taken together, these results suggest that temporal changes in task-related arousal during learning are related to the processing of task-relevant cues and may reflect motivational states that direct selective attention.