Project Details
Projekt
Task organization in multitasking: Determinants and characteristics of individual preferences for serial versus overlapping task processing and different strategies of response organization
Applicant
Professor Dr. Dietrich Manzey
Subject Area
General, Cognitive and Mathematical Psychology
Social Psychology, Industrial and Organisational Psychology
Social Psychology, Industrial and Organisational Psychology
Term
from 2015 to 2022
Project identifier
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 274870725
The current project addresses individual differences in coping with multiple task requirements. During the first funding period two experimental paradigms have been developed which enable to describe individual preferences on two different levels of task organization when performing two cognitive tasks concurrently. The first one is referred to as task-switching with preview (TSWP) and is used to study individual preferences for different modes of process organization, i.e. serial versus overlapping task processing. The second one is referred to as free concurrent dual-tasking (FCDT) and enables for differentiating between different sorts of response organization when coping concurrently with two tasks. Based on the first paradigm evidence was found, that individuals differ systematically in their preferred mode of processing. While some individuals prefer to work strictly serially on two tasks, others use options of overlapping (parallel) processing in order to optimize multitasking performance. Similar differences emerged on the level of response organization. Here three types of behavioral strategies could be distinguished which are referred to as blocking, switching and response-grouping. Moreover, evidence was found that the chosen mode of processing is adapted to task-demands (i.e. the risk of crosstalk between tasks to be performed concurrently). In contrast, the chosen response strategy seems to reflect a more rigid individual bias which remains constant independent of the strength of resource competition between tasks. The current project capitalizes on these findings and shall contribute to a better understanding of the characteristics, underlying determinants and links of the individual preferences on the two levels of task-organization in multitasking. With the use of the two paradigms mentioned above, the following specific objectives will be addressed in a series of proposed laboratory experiments: (1) Identification of possible links between preferred modes of processing and strategies of response organization. (2) Clarifying the nature of overlapping processing, i.e. what exactly is processed in an overlapping manner by individuals identified as overlapping processors in the TSWP paradigm and when this overlapping processing takes place. (3) Investigating the involvement of top-down and bottom-up control in preferred modes of processing and strategies of response organization. (4) Investigating context effects (e.g. general memory load, induced cognitive style of thinking, motivational state) on the use and efficiency of different response organization strategies in the FCDT paradigm. In addition, a number of cooperative studies with other partners in the project are planned which, among others, will address links to individual differences of cognitive and behavioral control found in other multitasking paradigms used in cognitive psychology and movement sciences.
DFG Programme
Priority Programmes
