Time-based expectancy in multitasking: From cognitive psychology to movement science

该项目调查了作为信息来源的时间如何支持多任务处理。在第一个资助期，实验集中在任务切换场景中基于角色时间的可预测性，因为这在多任务的认知心理学基础研究中很常见。当在任务切换中，空准备间隔的持续时间预测下一个任务的类型时，参与者在行为上不自觉地适应了这种规律。第一个资助期的结果表明，这种适应相对独立于可预测性的程度，并且它涉及相对（例如短与长）而不是绝对（例如500毫秒与1500毫秒）的时间表征。此外，在其他基本认知心理学范式中也可以观察到对基于时间的可预测性的适应，如双重任务或效果监测。然而，认知心理学和运动科学在优先程序中的密切互动导致了初步的实验证据，即基于时间的可预测性也可能在多任务处理中发挥更重要的作用。除了在任务切换中宣布下一步要做哪个任务外，当可预测性嵌入到两个连续并发任务中的一个中时，基于时间的可预测性也可能有助于多任务处理。具有连续并发任务的范式在运动科学中占主导地位。通过与运动科学家在优先级项目中的合作，开发了一种连续并发多任务范式，其中基于时间的可预测性嵌入到一个任务中。一个简单的手动选择任务（按振动按钮）以一种不同步的方式与一个心算任务结合在一起。两个按钮振动之间的短暂间隔的持续时间预测下一个按钮将振动。初步研究结果表明，这种可预测性支持多任务处理。当手动选择任务暂时可预测时，相对于不可预测时，算术任务的性能更好。本文提出的实验将系统地研究一个任务中基于时间的可预测性对并发任务中表现的影响机制。假设来源于优先级规划中多个项目的可预测性的收敛理论。第一组实验将调查这两项任务的表现是如何相互关联的，以及哪个间隔时间主要驱动效果。第二组实验致力于研究这些效应的域特异性。一个任务中基于时间的可预测性是否特别支持与时间相关的第二个任务？最后一组实验将处理适应效应中时间处理的认知表征。它是否涉及到相对表征，比如对任务预测的适应？还是使用绝对表示，就像一些相关的移动计时任务一样？

The project investigates how time as a source of information supports multitasking. During the first funding period, experiments focused on the role time-based predictability in task switching scenarios, as they are common in cognitive psychology basic research on multitasking. When in task switching the duration of an empty preparatory interval predicts the type of the next task, participants behaviorally adapt to such regularity without getting aware of it. Results from the first funding period showed that this adaptation is relatively independent of the degree of predictability, and that it involves relative (e.g. short vs. long) instead of absolute (e.g. 500 ms vs. 1500 ms) representations of time. Further, adaptation to time-based predictability is also observable in other basic cognitive psychology paradigms, such as dual-tasking, or effect monitoring. However, the intense interaction between cognitive psychology and movement science in the priority program lead to preliminary experimental evidence that time-based predictability might also play a more fundamental role in multitasking. In addition to announcing which task to do next in task switching, time-based predictabilities might also assist multitasking when the predictability is embedded in one of two continuous concurrent tasks. Paradigms with continuous concurrent tasks, are predominant in the movement sciences. In collaboration with movement scientists within the priority program, a continuous concurrent multitasking paradigm has been developed, where time-based predictability is embedded in one of the tasks. A simple manual choice task (pressing on vibrating buttons) is combined, in an unsynchronized manner, with a mental arithmetic task. The duration of the short interval between two button vibrations predicts which button will vibrate next. Results from a preliminary study show that this predictability supports multitasking. Performance on the arithmetic task is better when the manual choice task is temporally predictable, relative to when it is not. The experiments proposed here will systematically investigate the mechanism underlying the effect from time-based predictability in one task on performance in a concurrent task. Hypotheses are derived from converging theorizing about predictability by multiple projects in the priority program. A first set of experiments will investigate how performance in both tasks is related to each other, and which interval durations primarily drive the effect. A second set of experiments is devoted to the domain specificity of the effects. Does time-based predictability in one task support timing related second tasks in particular? A last set of experiments will be deal with the cognitive representations of time processed in the adaptation effect. Does it involve relative representations, such as adaptation to task prediction? Or does it employ absolute representation, as typical for some related movement timing tasks?