Inter-Individual Differences in Executive Functions Predict Multitasking Performance – Implications for the Central Attentional Bottleneck

Abstract

Human multitasking suffers from a central attentional bottleneck preventing parallel performance of central mental operations, leading to profound deferments in task performance. While previous research assumed that the deferment is caused by a mere waiting time (refractory period), we show that the bottleneck requires executive functions (EF; active scheduling account) accounting for a profound part of the deferment. Three participant groups with EF impairments (dyslexics, highly neurotics, deprived smokers) showed worse multitasking performance than respective control groups. Three further groups with EF improvements (video-gamers, bilinguals, coffee consumers) showed improved multitasking. Finally, three groups performed a dual-task and different measures of EF (reading span, rotation span, symmetry span) and showed significant correlations between multitasking performance and working memory capacity. Demands on EF during multitasking may cause more errors, mental fatigue and stress, with parts of the population being considerably more prone to this.

Cognitive load, working memory capacity and driving performance: A preliminary fNIRS and eye tracking study

“…Specifically, individuals with high WM capacity are generally better able to maintain cognitive control and remain task-focused (Engle, 2002;Engle & Kane, 2004). Therefore, it is suggested that participants with high WM capacity should exhibit fewer performance decrements in a primary task when concurrently performing a demanding secondary task (Szameitat et al, 2022).…”

Brain functional characterization of response-code conflict in dual-tasking and its modulation by age

“…In a second step, we investigated how task brain activity was modulated by individual differences in dual-task performance itself and other cognitive abilities. As mentioned earlier, dual-tasking implicates several cognitive processes (Worringer et al 2019) and shares variance with other subdomains of executive functioning (Himi et al 2019; Saylik et al 2022; Szameitat and Brunel Students 2022) to activate and maintain two task sets in parallel, control attentional processes and coordinate multiple actions. Furthermore, dual-task interference is affected by inter-individual differences and diverse contextual strategies to accomplish the tasks (Lehle and Hübner 2009; Hoffmann et al 2020).…”