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Inter-Individual Differences in Executive Functions Predict Multitasking Performance – Implications for the Central Attentional Bottleneck

Human multitasking suffers from a central attentional bottleneck preventing parallel performance of central mental operations, leading to profound deferments in task performance. While previous research assumed that the deferment is caused by a mere waiting time (refractory period), we show that the...

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Autor principal: Szameitat, André J.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Frontiers Media S.A. 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9131123/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35645928
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.778966
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author Szameitat, André J.
author_facet Szameitat, André J.
author_sort Szameitat, André J.
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description Human multitasking suffers from a central attentional bottleneck preventing parallel performance of central mental operations, leading to profound deferments in task performance. While previous research assumed that the deferment is caused by a mere waiting time (refractory period), we show that the bottleneck requires executive functions (EF; active scheduling account) accounting for a profound part of the deferment. Three participant groups with EF impairments (dyslexics, highly neurotics, deprived smokers) showed worse multitasking performance than respective control groups. Three further groups with EF improvements (video-gamers, bilinguals, coffee consumers) showed improved multitasking. Finally, three groups performed a dual-task and different measures of EF (reading span, rotation span, symmetry span) and showed significant correlations between multitasking performance and working memory capacity. Demands on EF during multitasking may cause more errors, mental fatigue and stress, with parts of the population being considerably more prone to this.
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spelling pubmed-91311232022-05-26 Inter-Individual Differences in Executive Functions Predict Multitasking Performance – Implications for the Central Attentional Bottleneck Szameitat, André J. Front Psychol Psychology Human multitasking suffers from a central attentional bottleneck preventing parallel performance of central mental operations, leading to profound deferments in task performance. While previous research assumed that the deferment is caused by a mere waiting time (refractory period), we show that the bottleneck requires executive functions (EF; active scheduling account) accounting for a profound part of the deferment. Three participant groups with EF impairments (dyslexics, highly neurotics, deprived smokers) showed worse multitasking performance than respective control groups. Three further groups with EF improvements (video-gamers, bilinguals, coffee consumers) showed improved multitasking. Finally, three groups performed a dual-task and different measures of EF (reading span, rotation span, symmetry span) and showed significant correlations between multitasking performance and working memory capacity. Demands on EF during multitasking may cause more errors, mental fatigue and stress, with parts of the population being considerably more prone to this. Frontiers Media S.A. 2022-05-11 /pmc/articles/PMC9131123/ /pubmed/35645928 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.778966 Text en Copyright © 2022 Szameitat and Brunel Students. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
spellingShingle Psychology
Szameitat, André J.
Inter-Individual Differences in Executive Functions Predict Multitasking Performance – Implications for the Central Attentional Bottleneck
title Inter-Individual Differences in Executive Functions Predict Multitasking Performance – Implications for the Central Attentional Bottleneck
title_full Inter-Individual Differences in Executive Functions Predict Multitasking Performance – Implications for the Central Attentional Bottleneck
title_fullStr Inter-Individual Differences in Executive Functions Predict Multitasking Performance – Implications for the Central Attentional Bottleneck
title_full_unstemmed Inter-Individual Differences in Executive Functions Predict Multitasking Performance – Implications for the Central Attentional Bottleneck
title_short Inter-Individual Differences in Executive Functions Predict Multitasking Performance – Implications for the Central Attentional Bottleneck
title_sort inter-individual differences in executive functions predict multitasking performance – implications for the central attentional bottleneck
topic Psychology
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9131123/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35645928
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.778966
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