Multiple processing limitations underlie multitasking costs
- Published
- Accepted
- Subject Areas
- Neuroscience, Psychiatry and Psychology
- Keywords
- multitasking, dual-task performance, individual differences, factor analysis, task switching
- Copyright
- © 2018 Lui et al.
- Licence
- This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, reproduction and adaptation in any medium and for any purpose provided that it is properly attributed. For attribution, the original author(s), title, publication source (PeerJ Preprints) and either DOI or URL of the article must be cited.
- Cite this article
- 2018. Multiple processing limitations underlie multitasking costs. PeerJ Preprints 6:e27010v1 https://doi.org/10.7287/peerj.preprints.27010v1
Abstract
Background. 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.
Methods. We adopted an individual-differences approach to reveal the limitations underlying multitasking costs measured in different paradigms.
Results. 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.
Discussion. 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.
Author Comment
This is a submission to PeerJ for review.
