Streamline Training & Documentation: Multitasking Ability

Tuesday, June 12, 2007

Multitasking Ability

Prompted by an article in the June issue of the Proceedings of the US Naval Institute,¹ I looked into research that has been carried out over the last decade aiming to identify individuals with above-average ability to make good decisions in high-stress, information-rich environments.

The first publication in this line of research was a 1998 article by Susan Joslyn and Earl Hunt of the University of Washington.² With funding from the Office of Naval Research, Joslyn and Hunt devised a test — the Abstract Decision Making task — to measure rapid decision-making skills under heavy information load. The test is described here.

Among those building on the Joslyn/Hunt research are Susan Fischer and Patricia Mautone, who conducted a study for the US Army. Fischer and Mautone's report, "Multi-tasking Assessment for Personnel Selection and Development,"³ describes the test they conceived for assessing both the nature of a multitasking (MT) environment and individuals faced with a need to multitask:

The MTAS [Multi-Tasking Assessment System] consists of two main components: the Environment Assessment Tool (ENVAT), which assesses the MT requirements of work environments, and a test component that includes three basic versions of a Multi-Tasking Ability Test (MTAT), each of which assesses individuals' performance in a particular type of MT environment. The testing component also includes three sub-versions of each MTAT test, which are adaptively administered and are designed to tap performance differences associated with environmental variation at three levels of intensity. (emphasis added)

The three types of MT environment Fischer and Mautone identified require:

high levels of decision-making capability due to ambiguous prioritization, a need to make resource allocation decisions, multiple options, unpredictability, and a need for rapid assessment.

managing a flow of tasks in which workers encounter well-defined problems that require them to make and check routine decisions.

monitoring multiple sources of information, meaning competing demands on attention and a need to integrate information.

Fischer and Mautone note, "The three types of environments appeared to place differing emphasis on the ability to prioritize, make decisions, and manage time, among other key job demands."

Variables which determine the intensity of an MT environment include:

rapd vs. relaxed pacing

consistent vs. erratic switching

task duration

frequency of interruption

Having conceived their Multi-Tasking Assessment System, Fischer and Mautone hoped to be funded to develop and validate it, a phase of their research for which I have yet to locate a report.

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¹ Michael J. Dobbs, "How the Twig is Bent: Developing Young Bubbleheads for the Challenges of Command," Proceedings, US Naval Institute, Vol. 133, June 2007, pp. 28-33.

² Susan L. Joslyn and Earl Hunt, "Evaluating Individual Differences in Response to Emergency Situations," Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied, Vol. 4, March 1998, pp. 16-43.

³ Susan C. Fischer and Patricia D. Mautone, "Multi-tasking Assessment for Personnel Selection and Development," United States Army Research Institute for the Behavioral and Social Sciences, August 2005. Available online here (pdf).

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Labels: Decision-making, Hiring and getting hired, Military training

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