Multicode Vibrotactile Displays to Support Mulitasking Performance in Complex Domains
Abstract
The task sets for operators in many data-rich domains are characterized by high mental workload and the need for effective attention management, so the ability to effectively divide attention among multiple tasks and sources of task-relevant data is essential. With increasing technological advances, more and more sources of task-relevant data are being introduced in these already complex domains, thus introducing an increased risk of “data overload” – a cognitive burden which can lead to a substantial decline in operator performance. To combat this risk, it is important to consider how to best display the information for more efficient attention allocation and task management and thus improved overall multitask performance. A great deal of display design research has been centered around redundancy in multisensory information presentation, i.e., the presentation of identical information via two or more sensory channels, as a means to better support multitasking performance. One example is a display that delivers the same message via auditory speech and visual text. This redundant display of information may allow a multitasking operator to access the message via either channel, presumably the one less-loaded at the time. However, models of human information processing (such as multiple resource theory; MRT) as well as prior studies demonstrate a need for more than consideration of the sensory modality, but also consideration of the working memory functions engaged to interpret the encoded message.
This dissertation proposal expounds the concept of multi-processing code redundancy, which makes use of both spatial and nonspatial working memory functions to deliver information. The primary aim of this research is to investigate how the introduction of a multicode vibrotactile display (one that presents identical information using two dimensions of tactile display) will affect overall multitasking performance when processing demands for concurrent tasks vary over time. Three studies were performed to gain an understating of the benefits and limitations of a discrete and a continuously-informing multicode display when concurrent tasks have changing processing demands. Findings of this dissertation illustrate that multicode redundancy shows promise for combating processing code interference described by MRT (by allowing either processing code to be engaged in message interpretation) and may prove beneficial in complex domains that involve concurrent tasks with competing working memory resources.
Citation
White, Wil-Johneen Ardoin (2018). Multicode Vibrotactile Displays to Support Mulitasking Performance in Complex Domains. Doctoral dissertation, Texas A & M University. Available electronically from https : / /hdl .handle .net /1969 .1 /173966.