Strategic Control of Time-Sharing Performance

Wright State University, Dayton OH

Investigators

Abstract

Strategic Control of Time-Sharing Performance Time-sharing or dividing attention among multiple tasks is an important component of many activities such as driving and piloting. But time-sharing performance is often observed to degrade from single-task performance level. A better understanding of the capability and limitations of time-sharing is germane to the understanding of the nature of attention. It is also most useful for designing and evaluating many daily activities and many occupational tasks such as maintaining aircraft stability while navigating in the cockpit. For example, the risk of motor vehicle collision was found to be four times higher when using a cellular telephone than when not regardless of whether hand operations were involved. This implicated a central limitation. The proposed research aims at a better understanding of the strategic control of time-sharing. Two major theoretical views on the nature of the limitations of time-sharing are examined. Bottleneck theory hypothesizes that attention acts as a bottleneck along the information processing system, necessitating multiple tasks to be processed sequentially. Resource theory hypothesizes a finite amount of attention that is allocated among the time-shared tasks such that when performance of one task improves due to increased priority, the other is likely to degrade. Traditionally, the psychological refractory period (PRP) paradigm has been used almost exclusively to test bottleneck theory and the relative-priority manipulation has been used to test resource theory. The proposed research will examine the extent to which the divergent conclusions drawn from these tests are constrained by the methodologies used. Converging evidence from a combination of the two paradigms should lead to a deeper understanding of the nature of attention and its effects on performance. The results should add to an already rather rich dual-task database. The proposed converging operations and methodological refinements should provide a new and powerful arena for further understanding of the attentional mechanism. This understanding has profound implications on activities that are as mundane as calling home while driving or as complex as landing a packed 747 in severe weather.