“…Conversely, as a precautionary measure, individuals with lower WMC might benefit from additional support when monitoring under conditions of elevated cognitive demand. Irrespective of our findings, it is advisable for lifeguard training manuals to consider incorporating a segment on the concept of vigilance decrement and its implications for task performance.10.1 | Generalisability of findingsA diverse range of methodologies has been employed to assess the effectiveness of lifeguards in detecting drowning incidents, from prerecorded CCTV footage (Lanagan-Leitzel, 2012) to scripted beach recordings(Smith et al, 2020). Each variation of these methodologies introduces variations in terms of task representativeness (i.e., the fidelity with which tasks emulate real-world conditions), complexity, and duration.…”