{"id":615,"date":"2013-01-17T15:07:39","date_gmt":"2013-01-17T20:07:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/psychology.cos.ucf.edu\/perl\/?page_id=23"},"modified":"2025-10-23T17:43:59","modified_gmt":"2025-10-23T21:43:59","slug":"about-the-lab","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/psychology\/perl\/","title":{"rendered":"Welcome to the Performance Research Laboratory (PeRL)!"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading has-text-align-left\">Our Current Research<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>The study of individual differences as they relate to performance, workload, and stress associated with performing vigilance tasks. <\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The role of the environmental factors (e.g., social context, background noise) in relation to human performance, workload, and stress. <\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The impacts of social media and other technologies on human performance and stress. <\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Training for vigilance tasks, including air traffic controllers, baggage screening, threat detection, and military applications. <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\" \/>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\" \/>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-cover aligncenter\" style=\"min-height:235px;aspect-ratio:unset;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"334\" class=\"wp-block-cover__image-background wp-image-1051\" alt=\"TSA agents assist travelers with security checks, scanning belongings in trays at an airport checkpoint.\" src=\"https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/psychology\/perl\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/29\/2020\/01\/cropped-TSA-2-1024x334.jpg\" data-object-fit=\"cover\" srcset=\"https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/psychology\/perl\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/29\/2020\/01\/cropped-TSA-2-1024x334.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/psychology\/perl\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/29\/2020\/01\/cropped-TSA-2-300x98.jpg 300w, https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/psychology\/perl\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/29\/2020\/01\/cropped-TSA-2-768x250.jpg 768w, https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/psychology\/perl\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/29\/2020\/01\/cropped-TSA-2.jpg 1500w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><span aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-cover__background has-background-dim\"><\/span><div class=\"wp-block-cover__inner-container is-layout-flow wp-block-cover-is-layout-flow\">\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center has-large-font-size\"><strong>What is Vigilance?<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p><br>Vigilance generally involves boring people to death to see how well they pay attention. In more scientific terms, vigilance is commonly defined as the ability to sustain attention for extended periods of time to monitor for and respond to infrequently occurring signals. Real-world examples of vigilance tasks include security screening and long-distance driving. Performance on vigilance tasks generally declines over time, a phenomena known as the &#8220;vigilance decrement&#8221;. Meanwhile, operator stress and workload tend to increase. One of the goals of our lab&#8217;s research is to better understand the cognitive mechanisms driving this decrement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\" \/>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-cover\" style=\"min-height:235px;aspect-ratio:unset;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"782\" class=\"wp-block-cover__image-background wp-image-1013\" alt=\"People in a dimly lit room are monitoring multiple screens and radar displays, indicating a high-tech control center or command room.\" src=\"https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/psychology\/perl\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/29\/2020\/01\/Atc2-1024x782.jpg\" data-object-fit=\"cover\" srcset=\"https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/psychology\/perl\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/29\/2020\/01\/Atc2-1024x782.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/psychology\/perl\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/29\/2020\/01\/Atc2-300x229.jpg 300w, https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/psychology\/perl\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/29\/2020\/01\/Atc2-768x587.jpg 768w, https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/psychology\/perl\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/29\/2020\/01\/Atc2.jpg 1600w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><span aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-cover__background has-background-dim\"><\/span><div class=\"wp-block-cover__inner-container is-layout-flow wp-block-cover-is-layout-flow\">\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center has-large-font-size\"><strong>What are Individual Differences?<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p><br>Individual differences is the study of how and why people vary in across psychological characteristics. Examples might include personality, cognitive ability, age, and gender. Our research specifically explores how individual differences impact human performance and stress.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\" \/>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Our Current Research Vigilance generally involves boring people to death to see how well they pay attention. In more scientific terms, vigilance is commonly defined as the ability to sustain <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/psychology\/perl\/\">Continue Reading &rarr;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"class_list":["post-615","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Welcome to the Performance Research Laboratory (PeRL)! - Performance Research Laboratory (PeRL)<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/psychology\/perl\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Welcome to the Performance Research Laboratory (PeRL)! - Performance Research Laboratory (PeRL)\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Our Current Research Vigilance generally involves boring people to death to see how well they pay attention. In more scientific terms, vigilance is commonly defined as the ability to sustain Continue Reading &rarr;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/psychology\/perl\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Performance Research Laboratory (PeRL)\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-10-23T21:43:59+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/psychology\/perl\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/29\/2020\/01\/cropped-TSA-2.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1500\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"489\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/sciences.ucf.edu\\\/psychology\\\/perl\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/sciences.ucf.edu\\\/psychology\\\/perl\\\/\",\"name\":\"Welcome to the Performance Research Laboratory (PeRL)! - Performance Research Laboratory (PeRL)\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/sciences.ucf.edu\\\/psychology\\\/perl\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/sciences.ucf.edu\\\/psychology\\\/perl\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/sciences.ucf.edu\\\/psychology\\\/perl\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/sciences.ucf.edu\\\/psychology\\\/perl\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/sites\\\/29\\\/2020\\\/01\\\/cropped-TSA-2-1024x334.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2013-01-17T20:07:39+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-10-23T21:43:59+00:00\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/sciences.ucf.edu\\\/psychology\\\/perl\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/sciences.ucf.edu\\\/psychology\\\/perl\\\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/sciences.ucf.edu\\\/psychology\\\/perl\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/sites\\\/29\\\/2020\\\/01\\\/cropped-TSA-2.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/sciences.ucf.edu\\\/psychology\\\/perl\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/sites\\\/29\\\/2020\\\/01\\\/cropped-TSA-2.jpg\",\"width\":1500,\"height\":489,\"caption\":\"TSA agents assist travelers with security checks, scanning belongings in trays at an airport checkpoint.\"},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/sciences.ucf.edu\\\/psychology\\\/perl\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/sciences.ucf.edu\\\/psychology\\\/perl\\\/\",\"name\":\"Performance Research Laboratory (PeRL)\",\"description\":\"Human Factors and Cognitive Psychology\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/sciences.ucf.edu\\\/psychology\\\/perl\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Welcome to the Performance Research Laboratory (PeRL)! - Performance Research Laboratory (PeRL)","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/psychology\/perl\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Welcome to the Performance Research Laboratory (PeRL)! - Performance Research Laboratory (PeRL)","og_description":"Our Current Research Vigilance generally involves boring people to death to see how well they pay attention. 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