MEASURING DUAL TASK COST USING THE PERFORMANCE OPERATING CHARACTERISTIC: THE EFFECT OF EMOTIONAL WORDS ON ONE'S FUNCTIONAL FIELD OF VIEW

Abstract

Discusses design elements that should be utilized for optimal measurement of dual task performance, and reviews literature suggesting that these elements are underutilized. Participants seem to be able to effectively "tune out" one or the other task in a dual task paradigm, though traditional analyses and POC analyses converge to inform us that under these experimental conditions (which may not require adequate cognitive load), UFOV performance is not as greatly impacted by concurrent verbal tasks as pilot data and theory suggest. While smaller than expected, these dual task costs have implications in an applied setting, as 19% of subjects exhibited UFOV scores under dual task conditions that would predict more than double the risk of injurious accident. Finally, highly arousing negatively valent verbal stimuli may lead to greatest interference with visual attention performance.