Abstract
Recent research has demonstrated that dual-task performance with two simultaneously presented tasks can be substantially improved as a result of practice. Among other mechanisms, theories of dual-task practice-relate this improvement to the acquisition of task coordination skills. These skills are assumed (1) to result from dual-task practice, but not from single-task practice, and (2) to be independent from the specific stimulus and response mappings during the practice situation and, therefore, transferable to new dual task situations. The present study is the first that provides an elaborated test of these assumptions in a context with well-controllable practice and transfer situations. To this end, we compared the effects of dual-task and single-task practice with a visual and an auditory sensory-motor component task on the dual-task performance in a subsequent transfer session. Importantly, stimulus and stimulus-response mapping conditions in the two component tasks changed repeatedly during practice sessions, which prevents that automatized stimulus-response associations may be transferred from practice to transfer. Dual-task performance was found to be improved after practice with the dual tasks in contrast to the single-task practice. These findings are consistent with the assumption that coordination skills had been acquired, which can be transferred to other dual-task situations independently on the specific stimulus and response mapping conditions of the practiced component tasks.
Highlights
Performing two component tasks simultaneously at the same time can be extremely difficult but this difficulty is often reduced after practice
We explored whether persons with experience in simultaneous interpreting possess superior skills in coordination of multiple tasks and whether they are able to transfer these skills to Psychological Refractory Period (PRP) dual tasks (Strobach et al, 2015a; Becker et al, 2016)
The results showed further that this transfer requires more than eight sessions of practice in the current protocol of hybrid practice
Summary
Performing two component tasks simultaneously at the same time (i.e., dual tasks) can be extremely difficult but this difficulty is often reduced after practice. During the first lessons of driving school students find it challenging to coordinate the large number of different activities and components of car driving (e.g., changing gear, lane change, navigation, etc.). An improved coordination of multiple task requirements may result from ongoing practice and may lead to improved performance in dual-task-like situations of car driving at the end of practice. While this example illustrates a plausible every day situation of practice-related improvement in dual-task coordination, findings in the literature are not conclusive concerning empirical evidence for the acquisition of task coordination skills to explain dual-task improvement
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