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This edited collection combines contributions from academics and human factor specialists upon the theme of multiple-task performance - the ability of the mind to control several actions simultaneously.
This book deals with theories of multiple-task performance and focuses on learning and performance. It is primarily for professionals in human factors, psychology, or engineering who are interested in multiple-task performance but have no formal training in the area.
Multitasking refers to performance of multiple tasks. The most prominent types of multitasking are situations including either temporal overlap of the execution of multiple tasks (i.e., dual tasking) or executing multiple tasks in varying sequences (i.e., task switching). In the literature, numerous attempts have aimed at theorizing about the specific characteristics of executive functions that control interference between simultaneously and/or sequentially active component of task-sets in these situations. However, these approaches have been rather vague regarding explanatory concepts (e.g., task-set inhibition, preparation, shielding, capacity limitation), widely lacking theories on detailed mechanisms and/ or empirical evidence for specific subcomponents. The present research topic aims at providing a selection of contributions on the details of executive functioning in dual-task and task switching situations. The contributions specify these executive functions by focusing on (1) fractionating assumed mechanisms into constituent subcomponents, (2) their variations by age or in clinical subpopulations, and/ or (3) their plasticity as a response to practice and training.
Persistent controversies about human multiple task performance suggest that research on it will benefit from increased use of precise computational models. Toward this objective, the present report outlines a comprehensive theoretical framework for understanding and predicting the performance of concurrent perceptual motor and cognitive tasks. The framework involves an Executive Process Interactive Control (EPIC) architecture, which has component modules that process information at perceptual, cognitive, and motor levels. On the basis of EPIC, computational models that use a production system formalism may be constructed to simulate multiple task performance under a variety of conditions. These models account well for reaction time data from representative paradigms such as the psychological refractory period (PRP) procedure. With modest numbers of parameters, good fits between empirical and simulated reaction times support several key conclusions: (1) at a cognitive level, people can apply distinct sets of production rules simultaneously for executing the procedures of multiple tasks; (2) there is no immutable central response selection or decision bottleneck; (3) people's capacity to process information and take action at peripheral perceptual motor levels is limited; (4) to cope with such limits and to satisfy task priorities, flexible scheduling strategies are used; (5) these strategies are mediated by executive cognitive processes that coordinate concurrent tasks adaptively. The initial success of EPIC and models based on it suggest that they may help characterize multiple task performance across many domains, including ones that have substantial practical relevance.
Simulations are widely used in the military for training personnel, analyzing proposed equipment, and rehearsing missions, and these simulations need realistic models of human behavior. This book draws together a wide variety of theoretical and applied research in human behavior modeling that can be considered for use in those simulations. It covers behavior at the individual, unit, and command level. At the individual soldier level, the topics covered include attention, learning, memory, decisionmaking, perception, situation awareness, and planning. At the unit level, the focus is on command and control. The book provides short-, medium-, and long-term goals for research and development of more realistic models of human behavior.
In our modern society, technological developments have altered the nature of jobs and tasks. In many work situations, operators are required to monitor, control, and manipulate information via complex technological systems. Such systems typically involve performance of several tasks in a limited period of time. In order to be able to optimize such technological systems, knowledge with regard to complex-task performance is needed, based on which technical products, processes, and systems involved in daily life can be matched to the capabilities and limitations of people.
The thirty-two contributions discuss evidence from psychological experiments with healthy and brain-damaged subjects, functional imaging, electrophysiology, and computational modeling.
This book presents the theory of threaded cognition, a theory that aims to explain the multitasking mind. The theory states that multitasking behavior can be expressed as cognitive threads-independent streams of thought that weave through the mind's processing resources to produce multitasking behavior, and sometimes experience conflicts to produce multitasking interference. Grounded in the ACT-R cognitive architecture, threaded cognition incorporates computational representations and mechanisms used to simulate and predict multitasking behavior and performance.
Three experiments examining individual differences in multiple-task performance are presented. Experiment I examined whether the response strategies used to perform two discrete information processing tasks reflected individual differences in information processing at high levels of workload or simply were selected at random. Each subject's response strategy first was identified as either a simultaneous, an alternating, or a massed strategy. Then some of the subjects were asked to change strategy. The results indicated that the massed response strategy subjects had less well developed timesharing skills and were not able to process information under multiple-task conditions as well as the other subjects regardless of the response strategy used. The results were interpreted as evidence that response strategies represent fundamental differences in multiple-task information processing. Experiments II and III attempted to locate the source of the differences observed in Experiment I. Experiment II examined the relation between multiple-task performance in two different task combinations and cerebral lateralizatoin, multiple-limb coordination, and four tests of cognitive style. No significant relations were found.