Unraveling crosstalk from lower-level motor coordination to higher-levels in the cognitive-behavioral hierarchy

复杂的普通任务，如开车或踢足球，被认为是按等级组织的。层次化组织指的是这样一种思想，即高层决策（例如，决定开车走哪条路线）支配着在较低层次结构中协调的过程的功能（例如，驾驶汽车）。值得注意的是，高层行为层级的决策往往必须在协调低层运动过程的同时做出，这被称为多任务处理。行为层次控制的认知模型假设不同层次的加工或多或少是独立的，而对多任务、体现和思想运动理论的研究表明，不仅高层决策决定低层加工，而且低层加工产生的串扰也影响高层决策。然而，这种类型的串扰研究不足，因为多任务文献主要关注独立任务的协调，而不是分层嵌套任务，因为分层组织行为的模型通常假设所涉及的过程是独立的。因此，建议项目的目的是仔细检查高层（认知）决策在多大程度上受到实施高层决策所必需的低层（运动）行动的持续协调的影响。为此，我们遵循并结合运动科学和心理学的方法和范式，从较低的层次到较高的层次来检验和确定三种潜在的不同的相声路径的影响。两项任务——现实生活中的步行任务和基于计算机的跟踪任务——将在拟议的项目中相互补充。行走任务使我们能够在复杂的、生态有效的情况下检查串扰，而计算机化的更简单的跟踪任务允许对这种现象进行更细致的审查。重要的是，建立和利用这两种范式对于最终解决有关跨不同任务的相声迁移的问题是强制性的，从而允许讨论有关所研究的相声现象的普遍性问题。总之，该项目汇集了来自运动科学和认知心理学的专业知识和范式，可以产生关于人类多任务处理和从低级协调到高级认知行为层次的串扰的知识，这些知识与许多日常人类行为实际相关并适用。

Complex commonplace tasks, such as driving a car or playing soccer, are thought to be organized hierarchically. Hierachical organisation refers to the idea that overarching higher-level decisions (e.g. deciding which route to take with the car) govern the functioning of processes coordinated at lower levels of the hierarchy (e.g. steering the car). Notably, decisions on higher-levels of the behavioral hierarchy often have to be made while simultaneously coordinating lower-level motor processes, dubbed as multitasking. Whereas cognitive models of the hierarchical control of behavior assume that processing at different levels of the hierarchy is more or less independent, research on multitasking, embodiment, and ideomotor theory suggests that not only do higher-level decisions determine lower-level processing but that crosstalk stemming from lower-level processing also affects higher-level decision making. However, this type of crosstalk is under-researched as the literature on multitasking predominantly focusses on the coordination of independent rather than hierarchically nested tasks and because models on hierarchically organized behavior typically assume independence of the involved processes.Therefore, the aim of the proposed project is to scrutinize to what degree higher-level (cognitive) decisions are affected by the ongoing coordination of lower-level (motor) actions that are necessary to implement the higher-level decisions. To this end, we follow and combine movement scientific and psychological approaches and paradigms to examine and identify the impact of three potential different crosstalk pathways from lower to higher levels of the hierarchy. Two tasks – a real-life walking task and a computer-based tracking task – will be employed that complement each other within the proposed project. Whereas the walking task enables us to examine crosstalk in a complex, ecologically valid situations, the computerized simpler tracking tasks allows for more fine-grained scrutiny of the phenomenon. Importantly, establishing and utilizing these two paradigms in conjunction is mandatory to finally address questions concerning transfer of crosstalk across different tasks, thereby allowing to speak to issues regarding the generalizability of the studied crosstalk phenomena.In summary, bringing together expertise and paradigms from movement science and cognitive psychology, this project allows to generate knowledge about human multitasking and crosstalk from lower-level coordination to higher-levels in the cognitive-behavioral hierarchy that is both practically relevant to and applicable in a multitude of daily human behaviors.