Frontiers in Psychology (May 2022)

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

  • André J. Szameitat,
  • Brunel Students,
  • Caitlin Ball,
  • Jessica Boyce,
  • Mark Buckley,
  • Rahmi Saylik,
  • Nargis Ghani,
  • Ayan Omar,
  • Luwam Simon,
  • Asli Senkoy,
  • Kirti Kumar,
  • Barry Smith,
  • Kai Tyler

DOI
https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.778966
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 13

Abstract

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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.

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