Improving Time-Sharing Performance by Enhancing Voluntary Control on Processing Resources.

摘要

Development of voluntary control on processing resources in concurrent task performance is studied within a training paradigm which attempts to identify the components of time-sharing skills. Two experiments are described in which subjects were trained under dual task conditions. In the first experiment three groups of subjects were trained in the concurrent performance of pursuit tracking and letter typing. One group practiced under 5 different levels of inter-task priorities with augmented on-line feedback on performance. Another group received feedback augmentation but practiced only under equal priorities conditions. A third group was allowed to develop its spontaneous strategy with no feedback augmentation or priority manipulation. In the second experiment only the first two groups were contrasted in the joint performance of letter typing and digit classification. Experimental results demonstrated that training under variable priority conditions may lead to improved performance capabilities on several aspects of the time-sharing situation. These results are interpreted to indicate that human operators can actively control their resource allocation but appear to have limited knowledge or skill to ensure the efficiency of their allocations.