San Diego State University
Department
of Psychology
Jeffrey M. Conte
Ishizaka, K., Marshall, S.
P., & Conte, J. M. (2001). Individual differences in attentional strategies
in multitasking situations. Human Performance, 14, 339-358.
Abstract
This study compared attentional strategies in prioritized and un-prioritized
multitasking situations using individual differences in the Type A behavior
pattern (TABP) as predictors. The study, which utilized 118 undergraduate
students, expanded previous studies by using a triple task situation that
presented two visual tasks and one auditory task simultaneously.
One group received instructions for all tasks and their relative importance
to each other for achieving a full performance score. The other group
received instructions for the visual tasks only, and no information about
their relative importance was given, creating ambiguity about priorities
among the tasks. Global TABP and its subcomponents (time urgency,
achievement strivings, impatience/irritability, polychronicity) were utilized
as predictors of task performance. Significant correlations were
found between the TABP subcomponents and different performance indices,
but such a relationship was not found between global TABP and performance.
Applied implications of these findings and directions for the future research
are discussed. (Copyright 2001, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc.).
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