text: Human errors in performing security-critical tasks are typically blamed on the complexity of those tasks. However, such errors can also occur because of (possibly unexpected) sensory distractions. A sensory distraction that produces negative effects can be abused by the adversary that controls the environment. Meanwhile, a distraction with positive effects can be artificially introduced to improve user performance. The goal of this work is to explore the effects of visual stimuli on the performance of security-critical tasks. To this end, we experimented with a large number of subjects who were exposed to a range of unexpected visual stimuli while attempting to perform Bluetooth Pairing. Our results clearly demonstrate substantially increased task completion times and markedly lower task success rates. These negative effects are noteworthy, especially, when contrasted with prior results on audio distractions which had positive effects on performance of similar tasks. Experiments were conducted in a novel (fully automated and completely unattended) experimental environment. This yielded more uniform experiments, better scalability and significantly lower financial and logistical burdens. We discuss this experience, including benefits and limitations of the unattended automated experiment paradigm.
  @cite_2: Publisher Summary This chapter provides a contemporary overview of one aspect of sensory aging, namely age-related changes in vision and low-level visual information processing. The ability to cope effectively with the environment begins with the capacity to process sensory input. Indeed, the senses have been carefully crafted by the forces of nature to effortlessly extract critical information from the world. Unfortunately, advancing adult aging brings with it systematic reductions in the efficiency of our sensory systems. This lost efficiency of low-level, automatic processing capacity often necessitates effortful, high-level compensatory processes that may tax already limited cognitive resources. Hence, sensory aging is of potentially great interest at all levels of psychological analysis. This focus on vision does not discount the critical role played by the other major sensory systems. Important domains of investigative inquiry are sampled with a focus on basic aspects of vision and aging that have received significant attention in the research literature during the past decade. Several excellent reviews of the sensory aging literature prior to the contemporary period are also presented in the chapter.
summary: O'Malley and Poplawsky @cite_2 argued that sensory noise affects behavioral selectivity. Specifically, while a consistent positive or negative effect on task completion may not occur, a consistent negative effect was observed for tasks that require subjects to react to signals on their periphery. Meanwhile, a consistent positive effect on task completion was observed for tasks that require subjects to react to signals in the center of their field of attention. This leads to the claim that sensory stimulation has the effect of narrowing the subject's area of attention.