The effect of dual-task training on attentional control: underlying mechanisms, intra/inter-individual differences, training/transfer specificity

个体同时执行多项任务的能力一直是人类认知研究的中心问题。这些知识对应用认知和基础认知都很重要，因为它可以帮助我们理解人类认知的局限性。在实验室中，双任务范式经常被用来研究在并发任务之间共享或分配注意的能力。双任务研究中的一个主要争议来源是两个任务是否真的可以并行执行，或者双任务完成是否基于转换策略，例如在完成第二个任务的同时将一个任务的答案保存在记忆中。近年来，为了更好地理解双任务绩效的基本认知机制，研究者们评估了广泛练习对双任务绩效的影响。一些研究报告说，练习使参与者能够在两个并发任务之间完美地分享他们的注意力。然而，相互矛盾的结果已被报道，并已观察到协调两项任务的能力存在很大的个体间差异。另一个重要的问题是，在实验室中更快、更准确地执行并发任务是否会带来推广到未经训练的多任务的好处。拟议的研究计划将调查这种潜在的迁移效果后，基于计算机的双任务培训。该研究计划还将解决在任务之间分享注意力的能力以及从分散注意力训练中受益的个体差异。这里提出的实验旨在加强对多任务表现背后的心理过程的理解，以及如何开发和提高多任务技能。这种方法将用于年轻人和老年人，因为双重任务技能会受到年龄的影响。研究老年人的双重任务困难和其他注意力缺陷之间的关系可以帮助我们理解基本的认知机制如何维持多任务表现，以及认知训练如何帮助维持和提高这种能力。

The ability of an individual to carry out multiple tasks concurrently has long been a central question in human cognition research. Such knowledge is important for both applied and fundamental cognition, as it may assist in our understanding of the limits of human cognition. In the laboratory, the dual-task paradigm is frequently used to study the ability to share or divide attention between concurrent tasks. A major source of debate in dual-task studies is whether two tasks really can be executed in parallel, or whether dual-task completion is rather based on switching strategies, such as holding the answer to one task in memory while completing a second task. Recently, studies have assessed the effect of extensive practice on dual-task performance in order to better understand the basic cognitive mechanisms underlying dual-task performance. Some studies have reported that practice enables participants to perfectly share their attention between two concurrent tasks. However, conflicting results have been reported, and substantial interindividual differences in the ability to coordinate two tasks have been observed. Another important question is whether getting faster and more accurate in the execution of concurrent tasks in the laboratory leads to benefits that generalize to multiple-tasks that have not been trained. The proposed research program will investigate such potential transfer effects after computer-based dual-task training. The research program will also address interindividual differences in the ability to share attention between tasks and to benefit from divided-attention training. The experiments proposed here are designed to enhance understanding of the mental processes underlying multiple-task performance, and how multi-tasking skills can be developed and improved. This approach will be used with both younger and older adults, as dual-task skills are affected by aging. It is believed that studying the relation that may exist between dual-tasking difficulties and other attentional deficits in older adults could help us understand how basic cognitive mechanisms sustain multiple-task performance, and how cognitive training can help to maintain and improve this ability.