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05-10-2017 | Original Article

Flexibility of individual multitasking strategies in task-switching with preview: are preferences for serial versus overlapping task processing dependent on between-task conflict?

Auteurs: Jovita Brüning, Dietrich Manzey

Gepubliceerd in: Psychological Research | Uitgave 1/2018

Abstract

The prevalence and the efficiency of serial and parallel processing under multiple task demands are highly debated. In the present study, we investigated whether individual preferences for serial or overlapping (parallel) processing represent a permanent predisposition or depend on the risk of crosstalk between tasks. Two groups (n = 91) of participants were tested. One group performed a classical task switching paradigm, enforcing a strict serial processing of tasks. The second group of participants performed the same tasks in a task-switching-with-preview paradigm, recently introduced by Reissland and Manzey (2016), which in principle allows for overlapping processing of both tasks in order to compensate for switch costs. In one condition, the tasks included univalent task stimuli, whereas in the other bivalent stimuli were used, increasing risk of crosstalk and task confusion in case of overlapping processing. The general distinction of voluntarily occurring preferences for serial or overlapping processing when performing task switching with preview could be confirmed. Tracking possible processing mode adjustments between low- and high-crosstalk conditions showed that individuals identified as serial processors in the low-crosstalk condition persisted in their processing mode. In contrast, overlapping processors split up in a majority adjusting to a serial processing mode and a minority persisting in overlapping processing, when working with bivalent stimuli. Thus, the voluntarily occurring preferences for serial or overlapping processing seem to depend at least partially on the risk of crosstalk between tasks. Strikingly, in both crosstalk conditions the individual performance efficiency was the higher, the more they processed in parallel.

vorige artikel Exploring the repetition bias in voluntary task switching

volgende artikel Sources of interference in cross-modal action: response selection, crosstalk, and general dual-execution costs

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Note that, in the PRP literature the term “parallel” processing is used to describe concurrent processing exactly at the central stage of response selection. We prefer to use the term “overlapping” processing to refer to any partial or full concurrent processing of two tasks, which can include all processing stages.

Note that the letters ‘D’, ‘P’, ‘T’, and ‘W’ are pronounced [deː], [peː], [teː], and [veː] in German, while the letters ‘H’, ‘K’, ‘J’, and ‘Q’ are pronounced [haː], [kaː], [jɔt], and [kuː].

Note that we use the term “dual-tasking” for any situation where an individual has to cope with two tasks, including situations of real concurrent performance like in PRP-tasks, situations of classical task switching where individuals have to switch between two tasks, or situations of task switching which provide options of overlapping processing like in our TSWP paradigm.

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Titel: Flexibility of individual multitasking strategies in task-switching with preview: are preferences for serial versus overlapping task processing dependent on between-task conflict?
Auteurs: Jovita Brüning
Dietrich Manzey
Publicatiedatum: 05-10-2017
Uitgeverij: Springer Berlin Heidelberg
Gepubliceerd in: Psychological Research / Uitgave 1/2018
Print ISSN: 0340-0727
Elektronisch ISSN: 1430-2772
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00426-017-0924-0

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