Deutsch Intern
Department of Psychology (III) - Psychological Methods, Cognition, and Applied Research

Multitasking

Basic mechanisms and applied aspects (with an emphasis on oculomotor control)

With respect to multitasking, we are primarily interested in how multiple action demands can be coordinated concurrently. Specific research topics include the question of whether we are able to select several actions simultaneously, and how action demands are processed across different response modalities (e.g., speaking while concurrently moving ourhands). Additionally, we are interested in how exactly we are able to prioritize specific action modalities. For example, our data suggest that we principally place more weight on eye movement control than on vocal control, whereas vocal control appears to dominate manual control. Within this field of research, we strongly emphasizethe (previously neglected) study ofeye movements: Are eye movements (which usually occur all the time) controlled in an automatic fashion, or are they prone to interference from other action demands? Interestingly, we could show that even tiny movements of the eye (i.e., saccades) can reliably interfere with small finger movements. On the other hand, voluntary inhibition of eye movements (remaining fixated) can also result in performance costs regarding other simultaneous action demands. Taken together, these observations touch on the more general issue of to what extent our mental representations of output (effector) systems are organized in a modular or, alternatively, in a highly interactive manner (crosstalk). Apart from these basic research questions, we are also interested in how these basic phenomena transfer to more realistic, everyday scenarios (e.g., reading aloud, where we simultaneously move our eyes through the text and vocalize the sentences).

Literature

2014[ to top ]
  • Huestegge, L., Pieczykolan, A., & Koch, I. (2014). Talking While Looking: On the Encapsulation of Output System RepresentationsCognitive Psychology, 73, 73–91.
  • Huestegge, L., & Koch, I. (2014). When two actions are easier than one: How inhibitory control demands affect response processingActa Psychologica, 151, 230–236.
  • Pieczykolan, A., & Huestegge, L. (2014). Oculomotor Dominance in Multitasking - Mechanisms of Conflict Resolution in Cross-Modal ActionJournal of Vision, 14, 1–17.
2013[ to top ]
  • Stephan, D. N., Koch, I., Hendler, J., & Huestegge, L. (2013). Task switching, modality compatibility, and the supra-modal function of eye movementsExperimental Psychology, 60, 90–99.
  • Huestegge, L., & Koch, I. (2013). Constraints in task-set control: Modality dominance patterns among effector systemsJournal of Experimental Psychology: General, 142, 633–637.
2011[ to top ]
  • Huestegge, L., & Adam, J. J. (2011). Oculomotor interference during manual response preparation: Evidence from the response cueing paradigmAttention, Perception, and Psychophysics, 73, 702–707.
  • Huestegge, L. (2011). The role of saccades during multitasking: Towards an output-related view of eye movementsPsychological Research, 75, 452–465.
  • Huestegge, L., & Hazeltine, E. (2011). Crossmodal action: Modality mattersPsychological Research, 75, 445–451.
2010[ to top ]
  • Huestegge, L. (2010). Effects of vowel length on gaze durations in silent and oral readingJournal of Eye Movement Research, 3(5):5, 1–18.
  • Huestegge, L., & Koch, I. (2010). Crossmodal action selection: Evidence from dual-task compatibilityMemory and Cognition, 38, 493–501.
2009[ to top ]
  • Huestegge, L., & Koch, I. (2009). Dual-task crosstalk between saccades and manual responsesJournal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception & Performance, 35, 352–362.