MULTITASKING, WORKING MEMORY AND REMEMBERING INTENTIONS

Abstract

Multitasking refers to the performance of a range of tasks that have to be completed within a limited time period. It differs from dual task paradigms in that tasks are performed not in parallel, but by interleaving, switching from one to the other. It differs also from task switching paradigms in that the time scale is very much longer, multiple different tasks are involved, and most tasks have a clear end point. Multitasking has been studied extensively with particular sets of experts such as in aviation and in the military, and impairments of multitasking performance have been studied in patients with frontal lobe lesions. Much less is known as to how multitasking is achieved in healthy a..