Multitasking performance deficits: Forging links between the attentional blink and the psychological refractory period

This chapter presents new empirical work that bears on the issue of whether multitasking performance deficits are a byproduct of strategic control as opposed to structural capacity limitations. Accuracy in reporting the identity of a masked visual target was measured at various delays following an auditory stimulus that required an immediate speeded response. A larger attentional blink (AB) effect was found when the auditory task had four possible stimuli and response alternatives than when it had only two. In a PRP (psychological refractory period) experiment, two speeded responses were required to stimuli presented in rapid succession. The auditory task that was used as Task1 of the AB experiment was now the second task in the PRP experiment. Effects of number of response alternatives in Task2 were additive with SOA, suggesting that the manipulation had an effect at or after the locus of PRP interference. The results suggest the existence of a locus of AB interference that occurs either at or after a locus of interference causing the PRP effect. Implications for the role of control vs structural limitations are discussed.