Contributions of open-loop and closed-loop control in a continuous tracking task differ depending on attentional demands during practice.

Improving tracking performance requires numerous adjustments in the motor system, including peripheral muscle functions and central motor commands. These commands can rely on sensory feedback processing during tracking, i.e.

Switch rates vary due to expected payoff but not due to individual risk tendency.

When switching between different tasks, the initiation of task switches may depend on task characteristics (difficulty, salient cues, etc.) or reasons within the person performing the task (decisions, behavioral variability, etc.).

Ways to Improve Multitasking: Effects of Predictability after Single- and Dual-Task Training.

In this study we investigated the effect of predictability on dual-task performance in two experiments. In the first experiment 33 participants separately practiced a continuous tracking task and an auditory reaction time task. Both tasks had a repeating element that made them predictable; in the tracking task this was a repeating segment, and in the auditory task this was an auditory sequence.

The impact of predictability on dual-task performance and implications for resource-sharing accounts.

The aim of this study was to examine the impact of predictability on dual-task performance by systematically manipulating predictability in either one of two tasks, as well as between tasks. According to capacity-sharing accounts of multitasking, assuming a general pool of resources two tasks can draw upon, predictability should reduce the need for resources and allow more resources to be used by the other task. However, it is currently not well understood what drives resource-allocation policy in dual tasks and which resource allocation policies participants pursue.

Additive Effects of Prior Knowledge and Predictive Visual Information in Improving Continuous Tracking Performance.

Visual information and prior knowledge represent two different sources of predictability for tasks which each have been reported to have a beneficial effect on dual-task performance. What if the two were combined? Adding multiple sources of predictability might, on the one hand, lead to additive, beneficial effects on dual-tasking. On the other hand, it is conceivable that multiple sources of predictability do not increase dual-task performance further, as they complicate performance due to having to process information from multiple sources.

No impact of instructions and feedback on task integration in motor learning.

This study examined the effect of instructions and feedback on the integration of two tasks. Task-integration of covarying tasks are thought to help dual-task performance. With complete task integration of covarying dual tasks, a dual task becomes more like a single task and dual-task costs should be reduced as it is no longer conceptualized as a dual task.

How visual information influences dual-task driving and tracking.

The study examined the impact of visual predictability on dual-task performance in driving and tracking tasks. Participants (N = 27) performed a simulated driving task and a pursuit tracking task. In either task, visual predictability was manipulated by systematically varying the amount of advance visual information: in the driving task, participants drove at night with low beam, at night with high beam, or in daylight; in the tracking task, participants saw a white line that specified the future target trajectory for 200, 400 or 800 ms.

Implicit and Explicit Knowledge Both Improve Dual Task Performance in a Continuous Pursuit Tracking Task.

The goal of this study was to investigate the effect of predictability on dual-task performance in a continuous tracking task. Participants practiced either informed (explicit group) or uninformed (implicit group) about a repeated segment in the curves they had to track. In Experiment 1 participants practices the tracking task only, dual-task performance was assessed after by combining the tracking task with an auditory reaction time task.

What is a task? An ideomotor perspective.

Although multitasking has been the subject of a large number of papers and experiments, the term task is still not well defined. In this opinion paper, we adopt the ideomotor perspective to define the term task and distinguish it from the terms goal and action. In our opinion, actions are movements executed by an actor to achieve a concrete goal.

Multitasking as a choice: a perspective.

Performance decrements in multitasking have been explained by limitations in cognitive capacity, either modelled as static structural bottlenecks or as the scarcity of overall cognitive resources that prevent humans, or at least restrict them, from processing two tasks at the same time. However, recent research has shown that individual differences, flexible resource allocation, and prioritization of tasks cannot be fully explained by these accounts. We argue that understanding human multitasking as a choice and examining multitasking performance from the perspective of judgment and decision-making (JDM), may complement current dual-task theories.

Validation of the Continuous Tracking Paradigm for Studying Implicit Motor Learning.

A continuous pursuit-tracking task is the typical experimental paradigm to investigate implicit motor learning. Implicit motor learning is proven by a greater improvement in tracking of a repeated segment of a target path compared to random segments ( Pew, 1974 ). Recently, doubts about the validity of results obtained with this paradigm have been raised.