Bourke, Patrick A. and Duncan, John (2005) Effect of template complexity on visual search and dual-task performance. Psychological science, 16 (3). pp. 208-213. ISSN 0956-7976
Full content URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.0956-7976.2005.00805.x
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Item Type: | Article |
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Item Status: | Live Archive |
Abstract
Even dissimilar tasks interfere with one another when done together. We used visual search to examine the underlying cause of such interference. In many models, visual search is a process of biased competition controlled by a template describing the target to be sought. When the display is processed, matching against this template guides attention to the target. We show that increasing template complexity increased interference with a dissimilar concurrent task, story memory. This result was independent of reaction time: Increases in template complexity were associated with no increase in search time in Experiment 1 and with a decrease in search time in Experiment 2. The results show that the dual-task demands of visual search reflect the complexity of the template used in task control, and that this factor can be isolated from other sources of difficulty.
Additional Information: | Even dissimilar tasks interfere with one another when done together. We used visual search to examine the underlying cause of such interference. In many models, visual search is a process of biased competition controlled by a template describing the target to be sought. When the display is processed, matching against this template guides attention to the target. We show that increasing template complexity increased interference with a dissimilar concurrent task, story memory. This result was independent of reaction time: Increases in template complexity were associated with no increase in search time in Experiment 1 and with a decrease in search time in Experiment 2. The results show that the dual-task demands of visual search reflect the complexity of the template used in task control, and that this factor can be isolated from other sources of difficulty. |
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Keywords: | Multi-tasking, Visual search, Template complexity, Search time |
Subjects: | C Biological Sciences > C800 Psychology C Biological Sciences > C850 Cognitive Psychology C Biological Sciences > C830 Experimental Psychology C Biological Sciences > C810 Applied Psychology |
Divisions: | College of Social Science > School of Psychology |
ID Code: | 714 |
Deposited On: | 25 Jun 2007 |
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