Anthony J. Hornof
ABSTRACT
Human-computer systems intended for time-critical multitasking need to be designed with an understanding of how humans can coordinate and interleave perceptual, memory, and motor processes. This paper presents human performance data for a highly-practiced time-critical dual task. In the first of the two interleaved tasks, participants tracked a target with a joystick. In the second, participants keyed-in responses to objects moving across a radar display. Task manipulations include the peripheral visibility of the secondary display (visible or not) and the presence or absence of auditory cues to assist with the radar task. Eye movement analyses reveal extensive coordination and overlapping of human information processes and the extent to which task manipulations helped or hindered dual task performance. For example, auditory cues helped only a little when the secondary display was peripherally visible, but they helped a lot when it was not peripherally visible.
Supplemental Material
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Index Terms
- Knowing where and when to look in a time-critical multimodal dual task
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Reviews
James H. Bradford
We live in a multitasking world and yet we still do not have a clear idea about the design disciplines that best support rapid changes in focus. This paper describes an experiment that evaluates the effectiveness of color, motion, and audio cues in improving high-performance multitasking. The experiment was based on a military application in which subjects needed to switch their attention between two displays. In the first display, subjects were required to track a moving target with a joystick. In the second, moving color-coded targets needed to be classified and responses keyed in for each kind of target. The display screens were placed far enough apart that the subjects had to switch their visual focus between the screens in order to accomplish both tasks. Both displays featured moving targets and, as a consequence, subjects could not focus for long on either of the screens. Subjects showed a marked improvement in performance over several days that suggested they continuously improved their multitasking strategies. This phenomenon has not been well studied in the literature. More research into the design features that support strategic improvement is needed. Other results indicated (not surprisingly) that auditory cues helped subjects decide when to switch attention to a competing task. The results are intriguing, but we do not know how well findings in a single multitasking environment generalize to other applications. The discipline, as a whole, needs to do more research of this sort and eventually develop a taxonomy of multitasking applications. This paper will be of interest to scientists conducting basic research on the human factors of effective task switching. Online Computing Reviews Service
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