Abstract
Sleep deprivation adversely affects the ability to perform cognitive tasks, but theories range from predicting an overall decline in cognitive functioning (because of reduced stability in attentional networks) to claiming specific deficits in executive functions. In the present study, we measured the effects of sleep deprivation on a two-choice numerosity discrimination task. A diffusion model was used to decompose accuracy and response time distributions in order to produce estimates of distinct components of cognitive processing. The model assumes that, over time, noisy evidence from the task stimulus is accumulated to one of two decision criteria and that parameters governing this process can be extracted and interpreted in terms of distinct cognitive processes. The results showed that sleep deprivation affects multiple components of cognitive processing, ranging from stimulus processing to peripheral nondecision processes. Thus, sleep deprivation appears to have wide-ranging effects: Reduced attentional arousal and impaired central processing combine to produce an overall decline in cognitive functioning.
Article PDF
References
Dinges, D. F., & Kribbs, N. B. (1991). Performing while sleepy: Effects of experimentally-induced sleepiness. In T. H. Monk (Ed.), Sleep, sleepiness, and performance (pp. 97–128). Chichester, U.K.: Wiley.
Doran, S. M., Van Dongen, H. P. A., & Dinges, D. F. (2001). Sustained attention performance during sleep deprivation: Evidence of state instability. Archives of Italian Biology, 139, 253–267.
Durmer, J. S., & Dinges, D. F. (2005). Neurocognitive consequences of sleep deprivation. Seminars in Neurology, 25, 117–129.
Gunzelmann, G., Gluck, K. A., Price, S., Van Dongen, H. P. A., & Dinges, D. F. (2007). Decreased arousal as a result of sleep deprivation: The unraveling of cognitive control. In W. D. Gray (Ed.), Integrated models of cognitive systems (pp. 243–253). New York: Oxford University Press.
Harrison, Y., & Horne, J. A. (2000). The impact of sleep deprivation on decision making: A review. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied, 6, 236–249.
Harrison, Y., Horne, J. A., & Rothwell, A. (2000). Prefrontal neuropsychological effects of sleep deprivation in young adults: A model for healthy aging? Sleep, 23, 1067–1073.
Horne, J. A. (1993). Human sleep, sleep loss and behaviour: Implications for the prefrontal cortex and psychiatric disorder. British Journal of Psychiatry, 162, 413–419.
Kleitman, N. (1923). Studies on the physiology of sleep: The effects of prolonged sleeplessness on man. American Journal of Physiology, 66, 67–92.
Laming, D. R. J. (1968). Information theory of choice-reaction times. London: Academic Press.
Lim, J., & Dinges, D. F. (2008). Sleep deprivation and vigilant attention. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 1129, 305–322.
Patrick, G. T. W., & Gilbert, J. A. (1896). On the effects of loss of sleep. Psychological Review, 3, 469–483.
Posner, M. I. (2008). Measuring alertness. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 1129, 193–199.
Ratcliff, R. (1978). A theory of memory retrieval. Psychological Review, 85, 59–108.
Ratcliff, R. (1979). Group reaction time distributions and an analysis of distribution statistics. Psychological Bulletin, 86, 446–461.
Ratcliff, R. (1988). Continuous versus discrete information processing: Modeling accumulation of partial information. Psychological Review, 95, 238–255.
Ratcliff, R. (1993). Methods for dealing with reaction time outliers. Psychological Bulletin, 114, 510–532.
Ratcliff, R. (2002). A diffusion model account of reaction time and accuracy in a brightness discrimination task: Fitting real data and failing to fit fake but plausible data. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 9, 278–291.
Ratcliff, R. (2008). The EZ diffusion method: Too EZ? Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 15, 1218–1228.
Ratcliff, R., Cherian, A., & Segraves, M. (2003). A comparison of macaque behavior and superior colliculus neuronal activity to predictions from models of two-choice decisions. Journal of Neurophysiology, 90, 1392–1407.
Ratcliff, R., & McKoon, G. (2008). The diffusion decision model: Theory and data for two-choice decision tasks. Neural Computation, 20, 873–922.
Ratcliff, R., & Smith, P. L. (2004). A comparison of sequential sampling models for two-choice reaction time. Psychological Review, 111, 333–367.
Ratcliff, R., Thapar, A., & McKoon, G. (2001). The effects of aging on reaction time in a signal detection task. Psychology & Aging, 16, 323–341.
Ratcliff, R., & Tuerlinckx, F. (2002). Estimating parameters of the diffusion model: Approaches to dealing with contaminant reaction times and parameter variability. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 9, 438–481.
Ratcliff, R., Van Zandt, T., & McKoon, G. (1999). Connectionist and diffusion models of reaction time. Psychological Review, 106, 261–300.
Smith, P. L. (2000). Stochastic dynamic models of response time and accuracy: A foundational primer. Journal of Mathematical Psychology, 44, 408–463.
Smith, P. L., Ratcliff, R., & Wolfgang, B. J. (2004). Attention orienting and the time course of perceptual decisions: Response time distributions with masked and unmasked displays. Vision Research, 44, 1297–1320.
Vandekerckhove, J., & Tuerlinckx, F. (2007). Fitting the Ratcliff diffusion model to experimental data. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 14, 1011–1026.
Van Dongen, H. P. A. (2004). Comparison of mathematical model predictions to experimental data of fatigue and performance. Aviation, Space, & Environmental Medicine, 75, A15-A36.
Van Dongen, H. P. A., Baynard, M. D., Maislin, G., & Dinges, D. F. (2004). Systematic interindividual differences in neurobehavioral impairment from sleep loss: Evidence of trait-like differential vulnerability. Sleep, 27, 423–433.
Van Dongen, H. P. A., & Dinges, D. F. (2005). Circadian rhythms in sleepiness, alertness, and performance. In M. H. Kryger, T. Roth, & W. C. Dement (Eds.), Principles and practice of sleep medicine (4th ed., pp. 435–443). Philadelphia: Elsevier Saunders.
Voss, A., Rothermund, K., & Voss, J. (2004). Interpreting the parameters of the diffusion model: An empirical validation. Memory & Cognition, 32, 1206–1220.
Williams, H. L., Lubin, A., & Goodnow, J. J. (1959). Impaired performance with acute sleep loss. Psychological Monographs: General & Applied, 73(Whole No. 484).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
The present research was supported by USAMRMC Award W81XWH-05-1-0099 and DURIP Grant FA9550-06-1-0281. Preparation of this article was also supported by NIA Grant R01-AG17083 and NIMH Grant R37-MH44640 to the first author.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Ratcliff, R., Van Dongen, H.P.A. Sleep deprivation affects multiple distinct cognitive processes. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review 16, 742–751 (2009). https://doi.org/10.3758/PBR.16.4.742
Received:
Accepted:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.3758/PBR.16.4.742