THE DIFFERENTIAL EFFECTS OF SPEED AND LOAD STRESS ON TASK PERFORMANCE

摘要

This study investigated effects of speed-load stress (input rate and variety) on performance in an information-processing task requiring discrimina¬tion of pairs of identical symbols within matrices of three levels of word length and five levels of presentation rate. Error scores and a derived information measure were used to assess performance.nResults indicated that increases in both speed and load seriously impair performance. The data fitted to an information specification of the stimulus situation failed to provide a unitary function. Information scores plotted against mean number of paired comparisons per second, however, yielded a single function which described all conditions and accounted for the high interaction component.