TY - JOUR
T1 - The Role of Time on Task in Multi-task Management
AU - Gutzwiller, Robert S.
AU - Wickens, Christopher D.
AU - Clegg, Benjamin A.
N1 - Funding Information:
This work was supported by NASA under Grant NNX12AE69G (PI: Angelia Sebok), technical monitor Dr. Jessica Marquez and technical sponsor Dr. Brian Gore. Funding agency had no role in study design, data collection, analysis, interpretation of data, writing of report or decision to submit article for publication. RSG's contribution was also supported by a DoD SMART scholarship through Space and Naval Warfare Systems Center Pacific . We thank Tyler Scott for his help in extracting data from the MATB platform.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2016
PY - 2016/6/1
Y1 - 2016/6/1
N2 - Extreme resistance to switching tasks can lead to cognitive tunneling. A four-attribute decision model of task management under load was recently built with an assumption of the resistance to switching tasks. Recent theory also suggests switch resistance declines with time on task, and this was tested in the current experiment. Participants managed sequential performance of four concurrent tasks in a multi-attribute task battery. The over-time trends in switch resistance, as related to both cognitive load, and stability of the tasks, were examined. Switch resistance showed no decrease over time overall, contradicting the existing theory. Instead, increases in switch resistance were found with an increased working memory load, and within periods of increased tracking task instability, shedding light on time-on-task effects and cognitive tunneling.
AB - Extreme resistance to switching tasks can lead to cognitive tunneling. A four-attribute decision model of task management under load was recently built with an assumption of the resistance to switching tasks. Recent theory also suggests switch resistance declines with time on task, and this was tested in the current experiment. Participants managed sequential performance of four concurrent tasks in a multi-attribute task battery. The over-time trends in switch resistance, as related to both cognitive load, and stability of the tasks, were examined. Switch resistance showed no decrease over time overall, contradicting the existing theory. Instead, increases in switch resistance were found with an increased working memory load, and within periods of increased tracking task instability, shedding light on time-on-task effects and cognitive tunneling.
KW - Decision making
KW - Multi-tasking
KW - Task management
KW - Task switching
KW - Time on task
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U2 - 10.1016/j.jarmac.2016.04.003
DO - 10.1016/j.jarmac.2016.04.003
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:84966658532
SN - 2211-3681
VL - 5
SP - 176
EP - 184
JO - Journal of Applied Research in Memory and Cognition
JF - Journal of Applied Research in Memory and Cognition
IS - 2
ER -