Modeling Human and Organizational Behavior Application to Military Simulations (1998) / Chapter Skim
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4 Attention and Multitasking
4 Attention and Multitasking
Pages 112-128
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From page 112... ...
When engaging multiple targets, a tank crew must continuously navigate and control the vehicle, search for targets, aim and fire the gun, and assess battle damage. A pilot must simultaneously control his aircraft, plan maneuvers, navigate, communicate with his wingman, control sensors, aim and fire weapons, and monitor and manage other aircraft systems.
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From page 113... ...
Suppose that after the initial engagement, the tank platoon has moved to battle position 1 (Ball. All tanks have moved into initial hide positions, and all tank commanders have identified fire and alternative hide positions.
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From page 114... ...
Part of this gain in skill is known to depend on the storage in memory of a vast amount of relevant knowledge and behavioral procedures that can be accessed and executed with relatively low demands on attention (e.g., see Chase and Simon, 1973~. Other researchers have studied the degree to which training allows performers to accomplish two largely unrelated simultaneous tasks.
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From page 115... ...
However, it has been traditional to talk about selective attention with respect to tasks that involve perception and motor performance and are usually fairly simple; to talk about multitasking with respect to several tasks or processes that are complex, relatively independent, and distinct; and to talk about working memory with respect to tasks involving coding, learning, and retrieval from memory. Although these terms are used in this chapter (and in Chapter 5)
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From page 116... ...
For example, driving a tank requires that multiple concurrent tasks be accomplished; a novice must usually focus on just one task at a time, such as steering. After extended training, a skilled tank crewmember may be carrying out 10 or more tasks in a generally concurrent fashion, sharing attention among them, and even have enough attention left over to carry on a simultaneous conversation on an unrelated topic.
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From page 117... ...
Thus the term originally referred to decisions to attend to some stimuli, or to some aspects or attributes of stimuli, in preference to others (Kahneman,1973:3~. Examples of selective attention drawn from our vignette would include visual sampling (in which the platoon leader, early in the vignette, selectively attends to his integrated display)
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From page 118... ...
. Theories and Models of Selective Attention Theories and models of selective attention are still in an early formative stage (as are the models of working memory of which they are a subset)
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From page 119... ...
Whether in the guise of a model of working memory or of selective attention or multitasking, this modeling will have similar conceptual underpinnings. Applications are sometimes needed when there are two or more externally defined and somewhat independent tasks to be accomplished, and sometimes when one (complex)
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From page 120... ...
Queuing theory was first applied to the domain of human operator modeling by Carbonell and colleagues, who used it to model the visual scanning behavior of a pilot or other operator obtaining information from several different displays (Carbonell, 1966; Carbonell et al., 1968~. Their theory was that the operator's visual attention could be described as a server and the instruments to be read as customers queuing for service.
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From page 121... ...
However, these queuing-based theories and models of multitasking behavior provide one basis for the higher-resolution, discrete-event computational models described briefly below and in more detail in Chapter 3 of this report. For a more thorough review of queuing theory models, see Liu (1996~.
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From page 122... ...
Like queuing theory models of multitasking, control and estimation theory models can yield estimates of overall human performance, especially for welltrained individuals or groups. Since they are applicable to hardware and software controllers that must operate in real time (or more rapidly)
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From page 123... ...
The multiple resource theory and derivative theories of mental workload have been at least partially validated in realistically complex domains and are already in use in applications designed to evaluate human-machine interfaces and operator procedures (e.g., W/INDEX, North and Riley, 1989~. It is important to realize that both the theory of automatic and controlled processing and multiple resource theory are really general frameworks and for the most part do not provide specific models for new tasks and task environments.
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From page 124... ...
In a simulator study of airline pilot multitasking behavior, Latorella (1996a, 1996b) found that task modality, level of goals in the mission goal hierarchy, task interrelationships, and level of environmental stress affect the way humans handle interrupting tasks and the ongoing tasks that are interrupted.
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From page 125... ...
Their approach was to review existing psychological literature, to extend and extrapolate research findings to realistically complex domains, and to present a framework for understanding multitasking and task
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From page 126... ...
Task management involves task prioritization. Task prioritization depends on situation awareness, which in turn depends on perception.
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From page 127... ...
is an early example. CONCLUSIONS AND GOALS Modeling of multitasking is clearly relevant to military simulations and to human performance generally.
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From page 128... ...
on attention allocation strategies. Long-Term Goals · Develop models of multitasking behavior in realistically complex military domains, incorporating a wide range of cognitive and motor processes that are affected by attention and resource allocation.
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