Abstract
Visual search—looking for targets among distractors—underlies both everyday actions (e.g., finding a friend in a crowd) and critical real-world professions (e.g., radiology, aviation security). For such professions, it is vital that operators perform optimally, but many factors can negatively impact performance. One such factor is fatigue, which is a state of mental and/or physical tiredness and diminished function. One way to reduce the detrimental effects is to minimize fatigue itself (e.g., scheduled breaks), but this is not always possible or sufficient. The current study offered a different tact by exploring whether some individuals might be less susceptible to fatigue than others. Specifically, this study examined if conscientiousness—the ability to plan and control impulses—might moderate the impact of fatigue on search, with the prediction that more conscientious individuals’ search performance would not vary based on their level of fatigue. Participants (N=374) completed a search task and self-reported their energy and conscientiousness levels. Self-report measures were gathered as part of a large set of surveys so that participants could not anticipate any particular research question. Preregistered linear mixed effects analyses revealed main effects of fatigue (higher fatigue reduces accuracy), and conscientiousness (more conscientiousness increases accuracy). Critically, there was also a significant interaction between fatigue and conscientiousness (F(1, 370) = 4.117; p = 0.043). Follow-up analyses divided the participants into those with above- vs. below-mean conscientiousness scores, revealing that the below-mean group had a significant relationship between fatigue and search (higher fatigue reduces accuracy) while the above-mean group produced no significant relationship. The results raise intriguing operational possibilities for visual search professions, with the most direct implication being potential changes to personnel selection processes.