Cockpit Task Management Bibliography

Strayer, D.L. and Kramer, A.F. (1990)

TITLE:	Attentional Requirements of Automatic and Controlled Processing
PUBLISHER:	Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 1990, Vol. 16, No. 1, 67-82.
KEYWORDS:	variable mapping VM, consistent mapping CM, automatic, controlled, processing, single, dual, P300

SUMMARY:	An experiment to determine how much attention is allocated to automatic processing tasks. Used reaction time, accuracy and the P300 component of Event-Related Potential (ERP) of the brain as metrics. They review lots of research of the process of a task going from controlled to automatic processing. They introduce 2 rules to determine if a task is in automatic or control mode. They find support for rule 1, but not rule 2 (see below).

SIGNIFICANT CONCEPTS/EXCERPTS:

Sternberg (1966) memory search task:
Variable Mapping (VM) - targets and distractors exchange roles over trials
Consistent Mapping (CM) - consistent stimulus-response relations

4 transition phases from controlled to automatic processing:

characterized by an effect of memory load on performance

performance is a mixture of the two modes, automatic components finish first, followed by the controlled components.

characterized by the lack of memory load on performance, but attention is still allocated to the task

pure automatic processing, characterized by perfect time-sharing between automatic processing and other tasks that require attention.

2 rules to determine if a task is automatic:

Rule 1: Any process that does not use general, nonspecific processing resources and does not decrease the general, nonspecific processing capacity available for other processes is automatic.

Rule 2: Any process that always uses general resources and decreases general processing capacity whenever a given set of external initiating stimuli is presented, regardless of a subject's attempt to ignore or bypass the distraction, is automatic.

Good explanation of P300 on page 68-69.

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