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Ways to Improve Multitasking: Effects of Predictability after Single- and Dual-Task Training

In this study we investigated the effect of predictability on dual-task performance in two experiments. In the first experiment 33 participants separately practiced a continuous tracking task and an auditory reaction time task. Both tasks had a repeating element that made them predictable; in the tr...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Ewolds, Harald, Broeker, Laura, de Oliveira, Rita F., Raab, Markus, Künzell, Stefan
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Ubiquity Press 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7792460/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33506170
http://dx.doi.org/10.5334/joc.142
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author Ewolds, Harald
Broeker, Laura
de Oliveira, Rita F.
Raab, Markus
Künzell, Stefan
author_facet Ewolds, Harald
Broeker, Laura
de Oliveira, Rita F.
Raab, Markus
Künzell, Stefan
author_sort Ewolds, Harald
collection PubMed
description In this study we investigated the effect of predictability on dual-task performance in two experiments. In the first experiment 33 participants separately practiced a continuous tracking task and an auditory reaction time task. Both tasks had a repeating element that made them predictable; in the tracking task this was a repeating segment, and in the auditory task this was an auditory sequence. In addition, one group obtained explicit knowledge about the repeating sequence in the tracking task while the other group trained implicitly. After training, single- and dual-task performance was tested at a post test and retention test. Results showed that predictability only improved performance in the predictable tasks themselves and dual-task costs disappeared for the tracking task. To see whether the task-specific effect of predictability was the results of task prioritization, or because task representations did not have much chance to interact with each other, we conducted a second experiment. Using the same tasks as in Experiment 1, 39 participants now trained both tasks simultaneously. Results largely mirrored those of the first experiment, demonstrating that freed-up resources due to predictability in one task could not be re-invested to improve in the other task. We conclude that predictability has a positive but task-specific effect on dual-task performance.
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spelling pubmed-77924602021-01-26 Ways to Improve Multitasking: Effects of Predictability after Single- and Dual-Task Training Ewolds, Harald Broeker, Laura de Oliveira, Rita F. Raab, Markus Künzell, Stefan J Cogn Research Article In this study we investigated the effect of predictability on dual-task performance in two experiments. In the first experiment 33 participants separately practiced a continuous tracking task and an auditory reaction time task. Both tasks had a repeating element that made them predictable; in the tracking task this was a repeating segment, and in the auditory task this was an auditory sequence. In addition, one group obtained explicit knowledge about the repeating sequence in the tracking task while the other group trained implicitly. After training, single- and dual-task performance was tested at a post test and retention test. Results showed that predictability only improved performance in the predictable tasks themselves and dual-task costs disappeared for the tracking task. To see whether the task-specific effect of predictability was the results of task prioritization, or because task representations did not have much chance to interact with each other, we conducted a second experiment. Using the same tasks as in Experiment 1, 39 participants now trained both tasks simultaneously. Results largely mirrored those of the first experiment, demonstrating that freed-up resources due to predictability in one task could not be re-invested to improve in the other task. We conclude that predictability has a positive but task-specific effect on dual-task performance. Ubiquity Press 2021-01-07 /pmc/articles/PMC7792460/ /pubmed/33506170 http://dx.doi.org/10.5334/joc.142 Text en Copyright: © 2021 The Author(s) http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC-BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. See http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
spellingShingle Research Article
Ewolds, Harald
Broeker, Laura
de Oliveira, Rita F.
Raab, Markus
Künzell, Stefan
Ways to Improve Multitasking: Effects of Predictability after Single- and Dual-Task Training
title Ways to Improve Multitasking: Effects of Predictability after Single- and Dual-Task Training
title_full Ways to Improve Multitasking: Effects of Predictability after Single- and Dual-Task Training
title_fullStr Ways to Improve Multitasking: Effects of Predictability after Single- and Dual-Task Training
title_full_unstemmed Ways to Improve Multitasking: Effects of Predictability after Single- and Dual-Task Training
title_short Ways to Improve Multitasking: Effects of Predictability after Single- and Dual-Task Training
title_sort ways to improve multitasking: effects of predictability after single- and dual-task training
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7792460/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33506170
http://dx.doi.org/10.5334/joc.142
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