Divided attention and multitasking

Question 1

Define multitasking

Answer 1

trying to acomplish two or more tasks at the same time

Question 2

Describe the difference between ‘Serial’ and ‘Parallel’ processing

Answer 2

serial processing - switching between tasks rapidly

Parallel processing - simultaneously doing 2 things at once

Question 3

Discuss the study by Treisman & Davies (1973) on input similarity making multi tasking hard

Answer 3

• pairs of teams shown for visual words or visual positions or auditory words or auditory tones.
• results: if both tasks are visual then multi tasking is poor, if tasks are visual and auditory then multi tasking is best

Question 4

Discuss the study by McLeod (1977) on response similarity making multi tasking hard

Answer 4

• two tasks
• main task: keep a dot near a target, visual input, manual response
• second task: identify tones, auditory input, manual or vocal response
• results: when both tasks have a manual response multi tasking is poor

Question 5

What are the key ideas behind Multiple Resource Theory?

Answer 5

• tasks that compete for the same resources will have poor joint performance
• those using different levels at each dimension can be performed effectively

Question 6

what is Threaded Cognition?

Answer 6

Threaded cognition is task processing in multiple threads e.g cooking loads of different iteams at once.

Question 7

What are the three different types of activation patterns we could see in the brain while dual tasking?

Answer 7

underadditive activation - when activation for dual tasking is less than the sum of activation for individual tasks

additive activation - when activation for dual tasking is equal to the sum of activation for individual tasks

overadditive activation - when activation for dual tasking is greater than the sum of activation for individual tasks

Question 8

What do the results of Schweizer et al. (2013) and Strobach et al. (2018) tell us about brain activity during dual tasking?

Answer 8

BOTH RESEARCHERS SAID INCREASED ACTIVITY IN PRE FRONTAL CORTEX WHILE MULTITASKING IS A COMMON FINDING

Question 9

What is the ‘Psychological Refractory Period’

Answer 9

Delay in resppnding, caused by bottleneck, cant do second action untill previous action has been completed

Question 10

How does the PRP Have direct real-world relevance

Answer 10

talking on the phone whilst driving can negatively impact reaction time due to the refractory period that occurs between tasks

Question 11

How is the PRP effect explained by the Bottleneck Model?

Answer 11

• response selection for second task cannot begin until response selection for first task has been completed
• PRP is not eliminated with easy tasks

Question 12

How is the PRP effect explained by Resource Models?

Answer 12

• limited processing capacity but can be shared between tasks
• tasks are processed more slowly than if tasks were processed individually

Question 13

Discuss the study by Strobach et al. (2013)

Answer 13

• provided evidence for bottleneck model
• dual task cost, auditory and visual tasks done together, performance improves but slowly, did 5000 trials

Question 14

Describe the study by Hesselmann et al (2011)

Answer 14

• provided evidence for bottleneck
  -ERP study
• slowed down response to second task matched with slowing brain responses associated with response selection

Question 15

Can we multitask?

Answer 15

YES BUT THERE ARE COSTS:

• MULTIPLE RESOURCE THEORY AND THREADED COGNITION assume two tasks may be performed together effectively as long as they use different resources
• neuro imaging studys show underadditivity in dual task conditions and overadditivity due to new demands in task co ordination
• PRP can be explained by bottleneck during response selction