The role of practice in dual-task performance : toward workload modelling in a connectionist control architecture

Abstract: "The literature on practice effects and transfer from single- to dual-task performance and part-whole task learning are briefly reviewed. The results suggest that single-task training produces limited transfer to dual-task performance. Past theoretical frameworks for multi-task performance are reviewed. A connectionist/control architecture for skill acquistion is presented. The architecture involves neural-like units at the microlevel, with information transmitted on vectors between modules at the macrolevel. The simulation of the model exhibits five phases of skill acquisition. Dual-task interference and performance are predicted as a function of the phase of practice the skill has reached.Seven compensatory activities occur in the model during dual-task training that do not appear in single-task training: 1) task shedding, delay and buffer pre-loading; 2) letting go of high-workload strategies; 3) utilizing noncompeting resources; 4) time multiplexing; 5) shortening transmissions; 6) converting interference from concurrent transmissions; and 7) chunking transmissions. Future research issues suggested by the architecture include: Mapping out the marginal utility of single- to multi-task transfer; investigating the classificationof multi-task compensatory activities; evaluating the role of part-task trainers for multi-task skills; and developing and testing quantitative models of skill acquisition."