On doing multi-act arithmetic: A multitrait-multimethod approach of performance dimensions in integrated multitasking.

Here we present a systematic plan to the experimental study of test-retest reliability in the multitasking domain, adopting the multitrait-multimethod (MTMM) approach to evaluate the psychometric properties of performance in Düker-type speeded multiple-act mental arithmetic. These form of tasks capacitate the experimental analysis of integrated multi-step processing by combining multiple mental operations in flexible ways in the service of the overarching goal of completing the task. A particular focus was on scoring methodology, particularly measures of response speed variability. To this end, we present data of two experiments with regard to (a) test-retest reliability, (b) between-measures correlational structure, (c) and stability (test-retest practice effects). Finally, we compared participants with high versus low performance variability to assess ability-related differences in measurement precision (typically used as proxy to "simulate" patient populations), which is especially relevant in the applied fields of clinical neuropsychology. The participants performed two classic integrated multi-act arithmetic tasks, combining addition and verification (Exp. 1) and addition and comparison (Exp. 2). The results revealed excellent test-retest reliability for the standard and the variability measures. The analysis of between-measures correlational structure revealed the typical pattern of convergent and discriminant relationships, and also, that absolute response speed variability was highly correlated with average speed (r > 0.85), indicating that these measures mainly deliver redundant information. In contrast, speed-adjusted (relativized) variability revealed discriminant validity being correlated to a much lesser degree with average speed, indicating that this measure delivers additional information not already provided by the speed measure. Furthermore, speed-adjusted variability was virtually unaffected by test-retest practice, which makes this measure interesting in situations with repeated testing.

Restoration of Attention by Rest in a Multitasking World: Theory, Methodology, and Empirical Evidence.

In this work, we evaluate the status of both theory and empirical evidence in the field of experimental rest-break research based on a framework that combines mental-chronometry and psychometric-measurement theory. To this end, we (1) provide a taxonomy of rest breaks according to which empirical studies can be classified (e.g., by differentiating between long, short, and micro-rest breaks based on context and temporal properties). Then, we (2) evaluate the theorizing in both the basic and applied fields of research and explain how popular concepts (e.g., ego depletion model, opportunity cost theory, attention restoration theory, action readiness, etc.) relate to each other in contemporary theoretical debates. Here, we highlight differences between all these models in the light of two symbolic categories, termed the resource-based and satiation-based model, including aspects related to the dynamics and the control (strategic or non-strategic) mechanisms at work. Based on a critical assessment of existing methodological and theoretical approaches, we finally (3) provide a set of guidelines for both theory building and future empirical approaches to the experimental study of rest breaks. We conclude that a psychometrically advanced and theoretically focused research of rest and recovery has the potential to finally provide a sound scientific basis to eventually mitigate the adverse effects of ever increasing task demands on performance and well-being in a multitasking world at work and leisure.

Delusional thinking and action binding in healthy individuals.

Action binding is the effect that the perceived time of an action is shifted towards the action related feedback. A much larger action binding effect in schizophrenia compared to normal controls has been shown, which might be due to positive symptoms like delusions. Here we investigated the relationship between delusional thinking and action binding in healthy individuals, predicting a positive correlation between them. The action binding effect was evaluated by comparing the perceived time of a keypress between an operant (keypress triggering a sound) and a baseline condition (keypress alone), with a novel testing method that massively improved the precision of the subjective timing measurement. A positive correlation was found between the tendency of delusional thinking (measured by the 21-item Peters et al. delusions inventory) and action binding across participants after controlling for the effect of testing order between operant and baseline conditions. The results indicate that delusional thinking in particular influences action time perception and support the notion of a continuous distribution of schizotypal traits with normal controls at one end and clinical patients at the other end.

Socially alerted cognition evoked by a confederate's mere presence: analysis of reaction-time distributions and delta plots.

We examined aspects of social alerting as induced through the presence of an attentive but non-evaluative confederate on mental efficiency. To this end, individuals were administered with a chained mental-arithmetic task (levels: low vs. high demand) in two contextual conditions (levels: alone vs. presence). In addition, we examined self-report measures of subjective state for purposes of control. As a result, the presence (vs. alone) condition improved (not hampered) processing speed (while error rate remained low overall), and this effect was differentially more pronounced for high (vs. low) demand. Reaction-time distributional analyses revealed that improvements in average performance actually originated from a selective speeding-up in the slower percentiles, indicating that social alerting promotes stability of information-processing throughput. These results challenge prevalent theoretical notions of mere-presence effects as individuals became consistently faster and less vulnerable to commit attention failure. Our findings indicate that social presence promotes not only processing speed but volitional steadiness.

When specific action biases meet nonspecific preparation: Event repetition modulates the variable-foreperiod effect.

Preparing for the moment of action speeds up reaction time (RT) performance even if the particular response is unknown beforehand. When the preparatory interval, or foreperiod (FP), varies unpredictably between trials, responses usually become faster with increasing FP length. This variable-FP effect has been demonstrated to partly originate from trial-to-trial sequential effects of FP length, which are asymmetric as they occur mainly in short-FP but not in long-FP trials. In two experiments, we examined whether and how event-specific biases arising from previous target processing and responding affect both variable-FP and sequential FP effects. We found that trial-to-trial repetitions (vs. alternations) of imperative events produced response time benefits in short-FP but not in long-FP trials, almost eliminating the variable-FP effect, while the sequential FP effect remained intact. This asymmetric contribution to speeded performance in variable-FP settings suggests that sequential event-specific biases may be highly transient and not necessarily an integral part of the mental representations that guide time-based expectancy, or may be overridden by high levels of nonspecific preparation in long-FP trials. In conclusion, temporal preparation appears to be a nonspecific mechanism (i.e., generally not bound to particular event features) for prioritizing certain positions on the mental time line, on which event-specific short-term biases are superimposed if time-based preparation is weak. (PsycINFO Database Record

Methodology of performance scoring in the d2 sustained-attention test: Cumulative-reliability functions and practical guidelines.

We provide a psychometric analysis of commonly used performance indices of the d2 sustained-attention test, and give methodical guidelines and recommendations, based on this research. We examined experimental effects of repeated testing on performance speed and accuracy (omission and commission errors), and further evaluated aspects of test reliability by means of cumulative reliability function (CRF) analysis. These aspects were also examined for a number of alternative (yet commonly used) scoring techniques and valuation methods. Results indicate that performance is sensitive to change, both differentially within (time-on-task) and between (test-retest) sessions. These effects did not severely affect test reliability, since perfect score reliability was observed for measures of speed (and was even preserved with half the test length) while variability and error scores were more problematic with respect to reliability. Notably, limitations particularly hold for commission but less so for omission errors. Our recommendations to researchers and practitioners are that (a) only the speed score (and error-corrected speed score) is eligible for highly reliable assessment, that (b) error scores might be used as a secondary measure (e.g., to check for aberrant behavior), that (c) variability scores might not be used at all. Given the exceptional reliability of performance speed, and (d) test length may be reduced up to 50%, if necessary for time-economic reasons, to serve purposes of population screening and field assessment. (PsycINFO Database Record

Phone Conversation while Processing Information: Chronometric Analysis of Load Effects in Everyday-media Multitasking.

This is a pilot study that examined the effect of cell-phone conversation on cognition using a continuous multitasking paradigm. Current theorizing argues that phone conversation affects behavior (e.g., driving) by interfering at a level of cognitive processes (not peripheral activity) and by implying an attentional-failure account. Within the framework of an intermittent spare-utilized capacity threading model, we examined the effect of aspects of (secondary-task) phone conversation on (primary-task) continuous arithmetic performance, asking whether phone use makes components of automatic and controlled information-processing (i.e., easy vs. hard mental arithmetic) run more slowly, or alternatively, makes processing run less reliably albeit with the same processing speed. The results can be summarized as follows: While neither expecting a text message nor expecting an impending phone call had any detrimental effects on performance, active phone conversation was clearly detrimental to primary-task performance. Crucially, the decrement imposed by secondary-task (conversation) was not due to a constant slowdown but is better be characterized by an occasional breakdown of information processing, which differentially affected automatic and controlled components of primary-task processing. In conclusion, these findings support the notion that phone conversation makes individuals not constantly slower but more vulnerable to commit attention failure, and in this way, hampers stability of (primary-task) information processing.

Mobilizing cognition for speeded action: try-harder instructions promote motivated readiness in the constant-foreperiod paradigm.

We examined the effect of motivational readiness on cognitive performance. An important but still not sufficiently elaborated question is whether individuals can voluntarily increase cognitive efficiency for an impending target event, given sufficient preparation time. Within the framework of the constant-foreperiod design (comparing reaction time performance in blocks of short and long foreperiod intervals, FPs), we examined the effect of an instruction to try harder (instructional cue: standard vs. effort) in a choice-reaction task on performance speed and variability. Proceeding from previous theoretical considerations, we expected the instruction to speed-up processing irrespective of FP length, while error rate should be increased in the short-FP but decreased in the long-FP condition. Overall, the results confirmed this prediction. Importantly, the distributional (ex-Gaussian and delta plot) analysis revealed that the instruction to try harder decreased distributional skewness (i.e., longer percentiles were more affected), indicating that mobilization ensured temporal performance stability (persistence).

Error reactivity in self-paced performance: Highly-accurate individuals exhibit largest post-error slowing.

Reaction time is typically increased following an erroneous response. This post-error slowing is traditionally explained by a strategic adjustment of response threshold towards more conservative behaviour. A recently proposed orienting account provides an alternative explanation for post-error slowing. According to this account, committing an error evokes an orienting response (OR), which inhibits information processing in the subsequent trial, resulting in slow and inaccurate performance. We tested a straightforward prediction of the orienting account in the context of self-paced performance, adopting an individual-differences approach: Post-error slowing should be larger the less frequent an error is. To this end, participants were classified into three groups differing in overall performance accuracy. Larger post-error slowing and stronger post-error accuracy decrease were observed for the high-accuracy group than for the two other groups. Practice pronounced the post-error accuracy decline, especially for the high-accuracy group. The results are consistent with the orienting account of post-error slowing but are problematic for accounts based on strategic evaluation mechanisms.

Effects of sleep loss and circadian rhythm on executive inhibitory control in the Stroop and Simon tasks.

This study assessed the influence of sleep loss and circadian rhythm on executive inhibitory control (i.e., the ability to inhibit conflicting response tendencies due to irrelevant information). Twelve ordinarily diurnally active, healthy young male participants performed the Stroop and the Simon task every 3 h in a 40-h constant routine protocol that comprised constant wakefulness under controlled behavioral and environmental conditions. In both tasks, overall performance showed clear circadian rhythm and sleep-loss effects. However, both Stroop and Simon interference remained unchanged across the 40 h of wakefulness, suggesting that neither cumulative sleep loss nor the circadian clock affects executive inhibitory control. The present findings challenge the widely held view that executive functions are especially vulnerable to the influence of sleep loss and circadian rhythm.

Arousal modulates temporal preparation under increased time uncertainty: Evidence from higher-order sequential foreperiod effects.

When the foreperiod (FP) is unpredictably varied in reaction-time tasks, responses are slow at short but fast at long FPs (variable-FP effect), and further vary asymmetrically as a function of FP sequence (sequential FP effect). A trace-conditioning model attributes these phenomena to time-related associative learning, while a dual-process model views them as resulting from combined effects of strategic preparation and trial-to-trial changes in arousal. Sometimes, responses are slower in long-long than in short-long FP sequences. This pattern is not predicted from the trace-conditioning account, since FP repetitions should speed up, rather than slow down, responses (due to reinforcement). The effect, however, might indicate the contribution of arousal, which according to the dual-process model, is heightened after a short FP(n-1) but decreased after a long FP(n-1). In five experiments, we examined higher-order sequential FP effects on performance, with a particular emphasis on analyzing performance in long-FP(n) trials as a function of FP length in the two preceding trials, varying temporal FP context (i.e. average FP length) and reaction mode (simple vs. choice reaction). Slower responses in long-long-long (compared with short-short-long) FP sequences were not found within a short-FP context (Exps. 1 & 2) but clearly emerged within a long-FP context (Exps. 3-5). This pattern supports the notion that transient arousal changes contribute to sequential performance effects in variable-FP tasks, in line with the dual-process account of temporal preparation.

Mental fatigue modulates dynamic adaptation to perceptual demand in speeded detection.

When stimulus intensity in simple reaction-time tasks randomly varies across trials, detection speed usually improves after a low-intensity trial. With auditory stimuli, this improvement was often found to be asymmetric, being greater on current low-intensity trials. Our study investigated (1) whether asymmetric sequential intensity adaptation also occurs with visual stimuli; (2) whether these adjustments reflect decision-criterion shifts or, rather, a modulation of perceptual sensitivity; and (3) how sequential intensity adaptation and its underlying mechanisms are affected by mental fatigue induced through prolonged performance. In a continuous speeded detection task with randomly alternating high- and low-intensity visual stimuli, the reaction-time benefit after low-intensity trials was greater on subsequent low- than high-intensity trials. This asymmetry, however, only developed with time on task (TOT). Signal-detection analyses showed that the decision criterion transiently became more liberal after a low-intensity trial, whereas observer sensitivity increased when the preceding and current stimulus were of equal intensity. TOT-induced mental fatigue only affected sensitivity, which dropped more on low- than on high-intensity trials. This differential fatigue-related sensitivity decrease selectively enhanced the impact of criterion down-shifts on low-intensity trials, revealing how the interplay of two perceptual mechanisms and their modulation by fatigue combine to produce the observed overall pattern of asymmetric performance adjustments to varying visual intensity in continuous speeded detection. Our results have implications for similar patterns of sequential demand adaptation in other cognitive domains as well as for real-world prolonged detection performance.

Distraction by irrelevant sound during foreperiods selectively impairs temporal preparation.

When the interval between a warning signal (WS) and an imperative signal (IS), termed the foreperiod (FP), is variable across trials, reaction time (RT) to the IS typically decreases with increasing FP length. Here we examined the auditory filled-FP effect, which refers to a performance decrement after FPs filled with irrelevant auditory stimulation compared to FPs without additional stimulation. According to one account, irrelevant stimulation distracts individuals from processing time and probability information during the FP (distraction-during-FP hypothesis). This should predominantly affect long-FP trials. Alternatively, the filled-FP effect may arise from a failure to shift attention from FP modality to IS modality (attention-to-modality hypothesis). The first hypothesis focuses on preparatory processing, predicting a selective RT increase on long-FP trials, whereas the second hypothesis focuses on target processing, only predicting a global RT increase irrespective of FP length. Across four experiments, a filled-FP (compared to a blank-FP) condition consistently yielded a selective RT increase on long-FP trials, irrespective of FP-IS modality pairing. This pattern of results contradicts the attention-to-modality hypothesis but corroborates the distraction-during-FP hypothesis. More generally, these data have theoretical implications by supporting a multi-process view of temporal preparation under time uncertainty.

Differential effects of prolonged work on performance measures in self-paced speed tests.

Time-related changes in the speeded performance of complex cognitive tasks are considered to arise from the combined effects of practice and mental fatigue. Here we explored the differential contributions of practice and fatigue to performance changes in a self-paced speeded mental addition and comparison task of about 50 min duration, administered twice within one week's time. Performance measures included average response speed, accuracy, and response speed variability. The results revealed differential effects of prolonged work on different performance indices: Practice effects, being more pronounced in the first session, were reflected in an improvement of average response speed, whereas mental fatigue, occurring in both sessions, was reflected in an increase of response speed variability. This demonstrates that effects of mental fatigue on average speed of performance may be masked by practice effects but still be detectable in the variability of performance. Therefore, besides experimental factors such as the length and complexity of tasks, indices of response speed variability should be taken into consideration when interpreting different aspects of performance in self-paced speed tests.

The effect of 40 hours of constant wakefulness on number comparison performance.

We investigated the effects of sleep loss and circadian rhythm on number comparison performance. Magnitude comparison of single-digits is robustly characterized by a distance effect: Close numbers (e.g., 5 versus 6) produce longer reaction times than numbers further apart (e.g., 2 versus 8). This distance effect is assumed to reflect the difficulty of a comparison process based on an analogous representation of general magnitude. Twelve male participants were required to stay awake for 40 h in a quasi-constant-routine protocol. Response speed and accuracy deteriorated between 00:00 and 06:00 h but recovered afterwards during the next day, indicating a circadian rhythm of elementary cognitive function (i.e., attention and speed of mental processing). The symbolic distance effect, however, did not increase during the nighttime, indicating that neither cumulative sleep loss nor the circadian clock prolongs numerical comparison processes. The present findings provide first evidence for a relative insensitivity of symbolic magnitude processing against the temporal variation in energy state.

The effect of a cross-trial shift of auditory warning signals on the sequential foreperiod effect.

When a warning signal (WS) precedes an imperative signal (IS) by a certain amount of time (the foreperiod, FP), responses are speeded. Moreover, this effect is modulated by the FP length in the previous trial. This sequential FP effect has lately been attributed to a trace-conditioning mechanism according to which individuals learn (and re-learn) temporal relationships between the WS and the IS. Recent evidence suggests that sensory WS attributes are critical to trigger time-related response activation. Specifically, when WS modality is shifted in subsequent trials (e.g., from auditory to visual modality), the sequential FP effect becomes attenuated. This study examined whether the sequential FP effect is reduced only by between-modality shifts or whether this attenuation generalizes to cross-trial shifts of WS attributes within modalities. We compared dimensional (low vs. high tone frequency) and qualitative shifts (pure tone vs. noise) of equal-intense auditory WS events. The results of four experiments revealed that shifts of tone frequency did not, whereas shifts of qualitative tone characteristics did attenuate the sequential FP effect. These results support the view that the WS acts as a trigger cue that unintentionally activates responses at previously reinforced critical moments.

Mental fatigue and temporal preparation in simple reaction-time performance.

Performance decrements attributed to mental fatigue have been found to be especially pronounced in tasks that involve the voluntary control of attention. Here we explored whether mental fatigue from prolonged time on task (TOT) also impairs temporal preparation for speeded action in a simple reaction-time task. Temporal preparation is enabled by a warning signal presented before the imperative stimulus and usually results in shorter reaction time (RT). When the delay between warning and imperative stimuli - the foreperiod (FP) - varies between trials, responses are faster with longer FPs. This pattern has been proposed to arise from either voluntary attentional processes (temporal orienting) or automatic trial-to-trial learning (trace conditioning). The former account suggests a selective RT increase on long-FP trials with fatigue; the latter account suggests no such change. Over a work period of 51 min, we found the typical increase in overall RT but no selective RT increase after long FPs. This additivity indicates that TOT-induced mental fatigue generally reduces cognitive efficiency but leaves temporal preparation under time uncertainty unaffected. We consider this result more consistent with the trace-conditioning account of temporal preparation.

The effect of 40 h constant wakefulness on task-switching efficiency.

This study investigated efficiency of switching between different tasks in 12 male participants (19-30 years) during 40 h of constant wakefulness. As index of task-switching efficiency, switch costs in reaction time were assessed every 3 h under controlled behavioural and environmental conditions. Overall reaction times and switch costs showed a temporal pattern consistent with the assumption of a combined influence of a sleep homeostatic and a circadian process. An additional analysis indicated that the variation in switch costs could not be attributed to interference of the current task with persisting activation from preceding tasks. We therefore conclude that sleep loss and the circadian system affect the ability to prepare the current task rather than automatic processing of irrelevant stimulus information.

Dynamic adjustment of temporal preparation: shifting warning signal modality attenuates the sequential foreperiod effect.

We examined sequential effects in the variable foreperiod (FP) paradigm, which refer to the finding that responses to an imperative signal (IS) are fast when a short FP trial is repeated but slow when it is preceded by a long FP trial. The effect has been attributed to a trace-conditioning mechanism in which individuals learn the temporal relationship between a warning signal (WS) and the IS in a trial-by-trial manner. An important assumption is that the WS in a current trial (i.e., trial FP(n)) acts as a conditioned stimulus, such that it automatically triggers the conditioned response at the exact critical moment that was imperative in the previous trial (i.e., trial FP(n-1)). According to this assumption, a shift from one WS modality in trial FP(n-1) to another modality in trial FP(n) is expected to eliminate or at least reduce the sequential FP effect. This prediction was tested in three experiments that included a random variation of WS modality and FP length within blocks of trials. In agreement with the prediction, a shift in WS modality attenuated the asymmetry of the sequential FP effect.