Choices, Choices: Task Selection Preference During Concurrent Multitasking

With the ever-increasing stream of information we are expected to deal with on a moment-to-moment basis, human multitasking behavior has become an important part of modern society. Multitasking can occur on many different timescales. Our interest is in concurrent multitasking: attempting to fulfill multiple goals in parallel. There have been many investigations to determine whether concurrent multitasking is good or bad. However, there is no definite answer to this question. Instead, it seems to depend very much on the tasks that are performed concurrently, as well as the amount of experience one has with the tasks. For instance, studies into driving behavior have shown that purely cognitive tasks can have a negative impact on driving performance (Horrey & Wickens, 2006). On the other hand, some studies have shown that perfect multitasking is possible (Schumacher et al., 2001). Early attempts to explain the results of multitasking studies revolved around multiple resource theories. These postulate that the cognitive system can be divided up into several resources. Once the capacity of a resource is exceeded, it can create interference during multitasking. While able to offer explanations for multitasking observations, these theories cannot produce detailed models that can be used to predict behavior in new situations. However, with the development of cognitive architectures, our ability to predict multitasking behavior has greatly increased.