The current study examined whether effort mobilization would enhance sustained attention and reduce lapses of attention. Participants performed a sustained attention task and were randomly assigned to either an effort condition where they were instructed to “Try Hard” on a subset of trials or were assigned to a control condition with no “Try Hard” instructions. Pupillary responses were continuously recorded, and periodically during the task participants were presented with thought probes to determine whether they were on or off task. The results suggested within the effort condition there were no behavioral differences between Try Hard and “Standard” trials. Preparatory pupil responses were increased in Try Hard trials, but there were no differences for phasic pupillary responses to stimulus onset. In contrast, examining differences between the effort and control conditions suggested that participants who received the Try Hard instructions demonstrated faster overall performance, a reduction in very long reaction times, and reported fewer off-task thoughts compared with participants in the control condition. Participants in the effort condition also demonstrated a larger ramp-up in pupillary responses during the preparatory interval and a larger phasic response to stimulus onset compared with participants in the control condition. These results are consistent with attention allocation models suggesting that participants in the effort condition mobilized more attentional effort than participants in the control condition, resulting in enhanced sustained attention and a reduction in lapses of attention. These results also are consistent with recent theories, which suggest that the locus coeruleus norepinephrine system is associated with effort mobilization.

目前的研究检验了努力动员是否会增强持续注意力并减少注意力疏忽。参与者执行了一项持续的注意力任务，并被随机分配到他们被指示在一部分试验中“努力”的努力条件下，或者被分配到没有“努力”指令的控制条件下。瞳孔的反应被连续记录，并在任务期间定期向参与者展示思维探针，以确定他们是在任务中还是在任务外。结果表明，在努力条件下，尝试努力和“标准”试验之间没有行为差异。Try Hard 试验中预备性瞳孔反应有所增加，但对刺激开始的阶段性瞳孔反应没有差异。相比之下，检查努力和控制条件之间的差异表明，与控制条件的参与者相比，接受“努力”指令的参与者表现出更快的整体表现，减少了非常长的反应时间，并且报告的任务外想法更少。与控制条件下的参与者相比，努力条件下的参与者在准备间隔期间也表现出更大的瞳孔反应和对刺激开始的更大阶段性反应。这些结果与注意力分配模型一致，表明努力条件下的参与者比控制条件下的参与者动员了更多的注意力，从而提高了持续注意力并减少了注意力缺失。