Identifying optimum performance trade-offs using a cognitively bounded rational analysis model of discretionary task interleaving

Christian P. Janssen*, Duncan P. Brumby, John Dowell, Nick Chater, Andrew Howes

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleAcademicpeer-review

Abstract

We report the results of a dual-task study in which participants performed a tracking and typing task under various experimental conditions. An objective payoff function was used to provide explicit feedback on how participants should trade off performance between the tasks. Results show that participants' dual-task interleaving strategy was sensitive to changes in the difficulty of the tracking task and resulted in differences in overall task performance. To test the hypothesis that people select strategies that maximize payoff, a Cognitively Bounded Rational Analysis model was developed. This analysis evaluated a variety of dual-task interleaving strategies to identify the optimal strategy for maximizing payoff in each condition. The model predicts that the region of optimum performance is different between experimental conditions. The correspondence between human data and the prediction of the optimal strategy is found to be remarkably high across a number of performance measures. This suggests that participants were honing their behavior to maximize payoff. Limitations are discussed.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)123-139
Number of pages17
JournalTopics in Cognitive Science
Volume3
Issue number1
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2011

Keywords

  • Cognitive modeling
  • Cognitively bounded rational analysis
  • Multitasking
  • Performance operating characteristic
  • Performance trade-offs

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