Controlled Attention and Sleep Deprivation: Adding a Self-Regulation Approach?

The current study examined performance on an automated task battery under short-term sleep deprivation andnon-sleep deprivation conditions. Twenty-six volunteers completed the sleep deprivation study. Twenty-threevolunteers completed the non-sleep deprivation study. Performance was examined across five test sessionsduring 25 hours of acute sleep deprivation conditions and during two days of non-sleep deprivation conditions.ANOVAs examining changes in performance from baseline levels indicated that performance under sleepdeprivation conditions resulted in a decrease in performance in some tasks and an increase in estimated bloodalcohol concentration. Non-sleep deprivation resulted in stable or increasing performance and a decrease inestimated blood alcohol concentration. The Controlled Attention Model suggests that the task characteristicswould have helped maintain performance levels but does not explain how performance decreased on some butnot all of the tasks. Extending the Controlled Attention Model to include a broader self-regulation approachsuggests that on some of the tasks the participants did not adequately regulate their engagement in the task (evenwith rapidly changing stimuli) resulting in a decrease in performance levels. Incorporating a self-regulationapproach with the Controlled Attention Model could provide a model that better explains the range of effectsseen under sleep deprivation conditions.