The thirty-two contributions discuss evidence from psychological experiments with healthy and brain-damaged subjects, functional imaging, electrophysiology, and computational modeling.

"A fresh take on the problem of time wasters in our corporate and personal lives, "The Myth of Multitasking" will change your paradigm about what is productive and what is not."--Hyrum Smith, co-founder, Franklin Covey.

This book presents the theory of threaded cognition, a theory that aims to explain the multitasking mind. The theory states that multitasking behavior can be expressed as cognitive threads-independent streams of thought that weave through the mind's processing resources to produce multitasking behavior, and sometimes experience conflicts to produce multitasking interference. Grounded in the ACT-R cognitive architecture, threaded cognition incorporates computational representations and mechanisms used to simulate and predict multitasking behavior and performance.

This edited collection combines contributions from academics and human factor specialists upon the theme of multiple-task performance - the ability of the mind to control several actions simultaneously.

Simulations are widely used in the military for training personnel, analyzing proposed equipment, and rehearsing missions, and these simulations need realistic models of human behavior. This book draws together a wide variety of theoretical and applied research in human behavior modeling that can be considered for use in those simulations. It covers behavior at the individual, unit, and command level. At the individual soldier level, the topics covered include attention, learning, memory, decisionmaking, perception, situation awareness, and planning. At the unit level, the focus is on command and control. The book provides short-, medium-, and long-term goals for research and development of more realistic models of human behavior.

Multitasking refers to performance of multiple tasks. The most prominent types of multitasking are situations including either temporal overlap of the execution of multiple tasks (i.e., dual tasking) or executing multiple tasks in varying sequences (i.e., task switching). In the literature, numerous attempts have aimed at theorizing about the specific characteristics of executive functions that control interference between simultaneously and/or sequentially active component of task-sets in these situations. However, these approaches have been rather vague regarding explanatory concepts (e.g., task-set inhibition, preparation, shielding, capacity limitation), widely lacking theories on detailed mechanisms and/ or empirical evidence for specific subcomponents. The present research topic aims at providing a selection of contributions on the details of executive functioning in dual-task and task switching situations. The contributions specify these executive functions by focusing on (1) fractionating assumed mechanisms into constituent subcomponents, (2) their variations by age or in clinical subpopulations, and/ or (3) their plasticity as a response to practice and training.

Forming connections between human performance and design, this new edition of Engineering Psychology and Human Performance examines human–machine interaction. The book is organized directly from a psychological perspective of human information processing, and chapters correspond to the flow of information as it is processed by a human being—from the senses, through the brain, to action—rather than from the perspective of system components or engineering design concepts. Upon completing this book, readers will be able to identify how human ability contributes to the design of technology; understand the connections within human information processing and human performance; challenge the way they think about technology’s influence on human performance; and show how theoretical advances have been, or might be, applied to improving human–machine interactions. This new edition includes the following key features: A new chapter on research methods Sections on interruption management and distracted driving as cogent examples of applications of engineering psychology theory to societal problems A greatly increased number of references to pandemics, technostress, and misinformation New applications Amplified emphasis on readability and commonsense examples Updated and new references throughout the text This book is ideal for psychology and engineering students, as well as practitioners in engineering psychology, human performance, and human factors. The text is also supplemented by online resources for students and instructors.