L5 - Multitasking

Question 1

What is multitasking?

Answer 1

• Our ability to perform or coordinate the completion of 2+ tasks at the same time to achieve an overall goal

Question 2

What is serial processing?

Answer 2

• Involves switching attention backwards and forwards between two tasks with only one task being processed at any given moment

Question 3

What is parallel processing?

Answer 3

Processing both tasks at the same time

Question 4

What did Strayer and Johnston do?

Answer 4

• Dual-task studies of simulated driving and conversation of mobile
• Stimulated driving task while occasionally saw a red light or green light
• Ppts reaction times and probability of missing the traffic signals were measured
• Control group: listen to the radio
• Experimental group: handheld and hands-free cell phone conversations

Question 5

Results of Strayer and Johnstone?

Answer 5

• Probability of missing traffic signal was more than double when ppts were having a conversation
• Ppts in the cell-phone group were also much slower than the control group
• Results highlight danger associated with multitasking irl
• BUT we can listen to radio while detecting traffic signals without costs

Question 6

What is the single channel model?

Answer 6

• Sensory info comes through system until bottleneck
• Only one task can be performed
• Second task must wait for end of first task

Question 7

What was the Psychological refractory period effect?

Answer 7

• Two stimuli and 2 responses - one associated with each stimulus e.g two lights and button presses
• Ppts respond to each stimulus as rapidly as possible
• When second stimulus is presented shortly after the first, there is a slowing of the response to the second stimulus
• Processing of the second stimulus must wait after the end of the processing of the first stimulus
• When stimulus of task 2 is closer in time to stimulus in task 1, reaction time to task 2 will be slower

Question 8

What is the general resource theory?

Answer 8

• We can perform multitasking
• One single pool of attentional resources can be divided freely between tasks
• We can perform multitask without cost if they do not exceed the available attentional resource

Question 9

What are the components of general resource theory?

Answer 9

• Available capacity: quantity of attentional resource available is determined by level of arousal
• Many factors affect the level of capacity e.g anxiety/fear/excitement
• Manifestations of arousal; include pupillary dilation and heart rate
• Allocation policy: system that selects activities that will be conducted based on importance of tasks
• Evaluation of demands: system that causes capacity or attention resource to be supplied as needed by the activities that the allocation policy selects
• If available resources is insufficient, system will have to increase the level of available resources to meet the demands of the task, if unable = performance decreases

Question 10

What is pupillometry?

Answer 10

• Measure of variation in pupil diameter
• Pupils dilate in response to increased cognitive activity
• Size of pupil is controlled by
  1) Iris sphincter muscle = causes pupil to constrict (parasympathetic ns)
  2) Iris dilator muscle = causes pupil to dilate (sympathetic ns)

Question 11

What was the pupil study?

Answer 11

• Pupil size should increase with difficulty of the task
• Ppts had to repeat string of 4 digits OR had to transform the string by adding a number to it
• In the say condition (hard) ppts repeated responses twice aloud
• In think condition (easy) ppts were instructed to think first and say aloud after
• Pupil size increased with task difficulty = larger in difficult condition

Question 12

Multiple resources theory?

Answer 12

• We can perform multitask if two tasks use different levels (visual/spatial) along each of the three dimensions
  1) Stages of processing: perception, cognition and responding
  2) Processing codes: cog processing can involve spatial/verbal info, Responding involves vocal verbal or manual spatial responses
  3) Modalities: perception involves visual or auditory info

Question 13

What are the stages of processing (in depth):

Answer 13

• Perception: system that received input of our environment
• Cognition: system that executes all metal processing of info = verbal/spatial processing
• Responding: system that exits output or execute the responses
• Task often used multiple attentional resources and performance decreases when two tasks use the same processing stages and same materials.

Question 14

What was examples of perception and cognitive processing examples?

Answer 14

• Visual-spatial: multiple object tracking task
• Visual-Verbal: Letter search task
• Auditory-spatial: sound location task
• Auditory-verbal: paced auditory serial addition task

Question 15

What were examples of responding?

Answer 15

• Manual: Simon task - ppts asked to press a button on left if stimulus is blue or press right button if stim is green
• Vocal: Expressive vocab test: Ppts are asked to name the image

Question 16

What was the dual task procedure?

Answer 16

• First task: continuous visual tracking task with a controller - visual info and manual response
• Second task: auditory tone identification task (high/low frequency task and aud info)
• Group 1 = vocal response, group 2 = manual response
• Measuring error in visual tracking task in a single or dual task

Question 17

What were the results of the dual task procedure?

Answer 17

• Single task: performance between two groups are equivalent
• Dual-task: performance in first task is drastically affected when ppts f=do the second one
• However, performance in the manual visual tracking task (1) was not affected by the vocal tone identification

Question 18

What are automatic processes?

Answer 18

Activation of a learned sequence of elements in long-term memory that is initiated by appropriate inputs and then proceeds automatically WITHOUT ppts control, without stressing capacity limitations of system and without necessarily demanding attention

Question 19

What are controlled processes?

Answer 19

Temporary activation of a sequence of elements that can be set up quickly and easily but requires attention and is capacity limited and controlled by the ppts

Question 20

What are 4 key features of automaticity?

Answer 20

• Unconscious
• Efficient: requires limited attentional resources
• Fast
• Goal-unrelated/uncontrolled: process that is not under participants control

Question 21

What is automatisation?

Answer 21

Process by which controlled process becomes automatic as a result of practise

Question 22

What is the practise effect?

Answer 22

Practise is an important factor that contributes to automatisation e.g driving a car

Question 23

What is the instance theory?

Answer 23

• Automatisation occurs because we gradually accumulate knowledge about a specific response to the specific stimuli
• e.g when child learns how to add, they use controlled process, then with practise they store knowledge about the specific stimulus, when sufficient knowledge is accumulated = child can retrieve knowledge automatically to specific stimulus with limited attention

Question 24

What is a study looking at acquiring automatisation?

Answer 24

• Ppts have to perform 2 tasks simultaneously
• Read a text silently for comprehension OR copying words dictated by experimenter
• Practise for 5 1-hour sessions per week over 7 weeks
• Stories ranged from 700-5000 words
• Reading speed, comprehension, and recognition memory were measures

Question 25

Results for study looking at acquiring automatisation?

Answer 25

• After 6 weeks their reading speed while performing the two tasks was equivalent to reading speed of performing only one task
• Similar results were observed for comprehensions and memory performance
• Results suggest that the complex tasks (controlled) with practise can become automatic and executed in parallel (simultaneously)

Question 26

What is the Stroop task?

Answer 26

• Ppts must say ink colour in which words are printed
• 3 conditions: control: words are not colour words, congruent: words are colour words that match colour of ink, incongruent: words are colours that do not match colour of ink
• The Stroop effect: phenomenon in which tendency to name a word will interfere with ability to name colour in which the word is printed
• Automatisation is not always beneficial