An experimental paradigm for the assessment of realistic human multitasking
- PDF / 1,235,628 Bytes
- 10 Pages / 595.276 x 790.866 pts Page_size
- 106 Downloads / 199 Views
ORIGINAL ARTICLE
An experimental paradigm for the assessment of realistic human multitasking Otmar Bock1 · Uwe Drescher1 · Christin Janouch2 · Mathias Haeger1 · Wim van Winsum3 · Claudia Voelcker‑Rehage2 Received: 4 July 2017 / Accepted: 13 March 2018 © Springer-Verlag London Ltd., part of Springer Nature 2018
Abstract Human multitasking has been evaluated with paradigms that administered two—rarely three—concurrent tasks. In everyday life, however, we usually face an ever-changing sequence of distinct concurrent tasks. Available studies therefore provided valuable insights into our ability for dual tasking, but they did not address the natural interplay of dual tasking and task switching. The present study was undertaken to explore the feasibility of two new paradigms which replicate that interplay in virtual reality. We used car driving simulator software to implement a virtual car-driving task as well as a virtual streetcrossing task. Either task was administered alone, as well as concurrently with a battery of loading tasks that mimicked activities of everyday life. The loading tasks used different sensory modalities, different cognitive processes, and different output channels and were presented in an ever-changing sequence. Cronbach’s alpha scores of key registered variables were high, which indicates that our approach is reliable. Driving and street-crossing performance deteriorated under multitask conditions, which indicates that our approach is sensitive to multitasking. This is the first study to demonstrate the feasibility of an experimental paradigm for the assessment of natural multitasking, i.e., of combined dual tasking and task switching. This paradigm could be of interest for basic science as well as for prevention and rehabilitation settings. Keywords Human cognition · Multitasking costs · Ecological validity · Car driving · Street crossing
1 Introduction Technological progress challenges our ability to cope with multiple tasks at the same time. Often-cited examples are car driving and street crossing: In both situations, we need to control the speed and direction of our movement, watch for and obey road signs, detect and avoid obstacles, anticipate imminent collisions with other pedestrians or vehicles and act accordingly, navigate toward the desired destination of our trip, and plan alternative routes if traffic situation so requires. A large number of studies documented that multitasking is associated with performance decrements. Jersild (1927) was the first to notice that humans slow down when * Otmar Bock bock@dshs‑koeln.de 1
German Sport University, Cologne, Germany
2
Technical University Chemnitz, Chemnitz, Germany
3
Carnetsoft B.V, Groningen, The Netherlands
they perform two tasks alternately rather than either task repeatedly. This slowing, later called ‘switching costs,’ has been attributed to two distinct phenomena: adjustment to a new task and suppression of adjustment to the previous task (Rogers and Monsell 1995). In another line of research, Telford (1931) admin
Data Loading...
