Multiple processing limitations underlie multitasking costs
- PDF / 1,504,480 Bytes
- 19 Pages / 595.276 x 790.866 pts Page_size
- 96 Downloads / 194 Views
ORIGINAL ARTICLE
Multiple processing limitations underlie multitasking costs Kelvin F. H. Lui1 · Alan C.‑N. Wong1 Received: 10 July 2018 / Accepted: 29 April 2019 © Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature 2019
Abstract Human multitasking is typically defined as the practice of performing more than one task at the same time (dual task) or rapidly alternating between multiple tasks (task switching). The majority of research in multitasking has been focusing on individual paradigms, with surprisingly little effort in understanding their relationships. We adopted an individual-difference approach to reveal the limitations underlying multitasking costs measured in different paradigms. Exploratory factor analyses revealed not a general multitasking factor but instead three different processing limitations associated with response selection, retrieval and maintenance of task information, and task-set reconfiguration. The three factors were only weakly correlated with and thus not reducible to common measures of processing speed, working memory capacity and fluid intelligence. Males and females excelled in different aspects of multitasking, demonstrating the benefit of using a multifaceted view of multitasking competency in group comparison. Findings of the current study help resolve conflicting results between studies using different paradigms, and form the basis of more comprehensive measurement tools and training protocols covering different aspects of multitasking limitations. The study will also help future integration of multitasking abilities into the theoretical framework of executive function.
Introduction Driving while talking on a cell phone, resuming work after email checking, juggling between web browsing and instant messaging, etc., exemplify the increasingly common practice of multitasking with the advance of technology and changes in lifestyle (Foehr, Rideout, & Roberts, 2005), with frequent undesirable consequences. For example, driving while talking on the cell phone quadruples the probability of being involved in a collision (Redelmeier & Tibshirani, 1997), and toggling several tasks impairs learning and productivity (Hembrooke & Gay, 2003; Sana, Weston, & Cepeda, 2013). The majority of research on multitasking performance has focused on performance detriment in specific multitasking This research was supported by the General Research Fund (14645416) from the Research Grants Council of Hong Kong to A.W. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (https://doi.org/10.1007/s00426-019-01196-0) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users. * Kelvin F. H. Lui [email protected] 1
Room 362A Sino Building, Department of Psychology, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shatin, N.T, Hong Kong
situations. While different paradigms all point to some kind of central cognitive limitations, it is unknown how they relate to each other. Do multitasking costs measured in different paradigms reflect a general limitation, or limitations at
Data Loading...
