Deadlines in space: Selective effects of coordinate spatial processing in multitasking

Abstract

Many everyday activities require coordination and monitoring of multiple deadlines. One way to handle these temporal demands might be to represent future goals and deadlines as a pattern of spatial relations. We examined the hypothesis that spatial ability, in addition to executive functioning, contributes to individual differences in multitasking. In two studies, participants completed a multitasking session in which they monitored four digital clocks running at different rates. In Study 1, we found that individual differences in spatial ability and executive functions were independent predictors of multiple-task performance. In Study 2, we found that individual differences in specific spatial abilities were selectively related to multiple-task performance, as only coordinate spatial processing, but not categorical, predicted multitasking, even beyond executive functioning and numeracy. In both studies, males outperformed females in spatial ability and multitasking and in Study 2 these sex differences generalized to a simulation of everyday multitasking. Menstrual changes moderated the effects on multitasking, in that sex differences in coordinate spatial processing and multitasking were observed between males and females in the luteal phase of the menstrual cycle, but not between males and females at menses. Overall, these findings suggest that multiple-task performance reflects independent contributions of spatial ability and executive functioning. Furthermore, our results support the distinction of categorical versus coordinate spatial processing, and suggest that these two basic relational processes are selectively affected by female sex hormones and differentially effective in transforming and handling temporal patterns as spatial relations in the context of multitasking.

Spatial offloading in multiple task monitoring

“…As a direct support for this spatial offloading hypothesis, we have reported several studies (with Swedish and Italian participants) showing that spatial ability and executive functioning are independent predictors of multitasking performance, and that spatial ability predicts multitasking over and beyond executive functioning (Mäntylä, 2013;Mäntylä, Coni, Kubik, Todorov, & Del Missier, 2017;Todorov, Del Missier, & Mäntylä, 2014;Todorov, Del Missier, Konke, & Mäntylä, 2015).…”

“…Multitasking performance was based on a combined score of the four counter tasks (see also Todorov et al, 2015), with response accuracy and monitoring frequency as dependent measures. A response was considered correct if the spacebar was pressed within 1 digit of the target (e.g.…”

“…Another aim of Experiment 1 was to test the hypothesis that spatial ability contributes to multiple-task performance beyond executive functioning because only its updating component was considered in our previous studies (see also Todorov et al, 2015). Considering the central role of updating in cognitive control, including its close association with both working memory and fluid intelligence (e g., Shipstead, Harrison, & Engle, 2016), the updating component of executive functioning should be the best predictor of individual differences in multitasking.…”

Explaining the SPoARC and SNARC effects with knowledge structures: An expertise account

“…Indeed, we propose, as in Norman and Shallice's (1986) supervisory attentional system, that learned spatial schemas (or schemata, in Norman and Shallice's theory) enable people to be less dependent on attentional resources. Recent results by Mäntylä and colleagues (e.g., Mäntylä, 2013;Mäntylä, Coni, Kubik, Todorov, & Del Missier, 2017;Todorov, Del Missier, Konke, & Mäntylä, 2015;Todorov, Kubik, Carelli, Del Missier, & Mäntylä, 2018) seem compatible with this idea. They showed that spatial abilities contribute to multitasking, and that when spatial coding was impeded, multitasking performance dropped.…”

Time takes space: selective effects of multitasking on concurrent spatial processing

“…We have recently suggested that one way to reduce these executive control demands is to represent the temporal pattern of deadlines and task goals in spatial terms (Mäntylä 2013; Mäntylä and Todorov 2013; Todorov et al 2014; Todorov et al 2015). Indirect support for this spatiotemporal view of multitasking is provided by behavioral and neurocognitive studies demonstrating that we understand and handle aspects of time (e.g., duration, sequence) by representing them in a spatial reference frame (for similar views, see, e.g., Bonato et al 2012; Casasanto and Boroditsky 2008; Dehaene and Brannon 2011).…”