AUTHOR=Szameitat André J. , Brunel Students , Ball Caitlin , Boyce Jessica , Buckley Mark , Saylik Rahmi , Ghani Nargis , Omar Ayan , Simon Luwam , Senkoy Asli , Kumar Kirti , Smith Barry , Tyler Kai TITLE=Inter-Individual Differences in Executive Functions Predict Multitasking Performance – Implications for the Central Attentional Bottleneck JOURNAL=Frontiers in Psychology VOLUME=13 YEAR=2022 URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/psychology/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.778966 DOI=10.3389/fpsyg.2022.778966 ISSN=1664-1078 ABSTRACT=

Human multitasking suffers from a central attentional bottleneck preventing parallel performance of central mental operations, leading to profound deferments in task performance. While previous research assumed that the deferment is caused by a mere waiting time (refractory period), we show that the bottleneck requires executive functions (EF; active scheduling account) accounting for a profound part of the deferment. Three participant groups with EF impairments (dyslexics, highly neurotics, deprived smokers) showed worse multitasking performance than respective control groups. Three further groups with EF improvements (video-gamers, bilinguals, coffee consumers) showed improved multitasking. Finally, three groups performed a dual-task and different measures of EF (reading span, rotation span, symmetry span) and showed significant correlations between multitasking performance and working memory capacity. Demands on EF during multitasking may cause more errors, mental fatigue and stress, with parts of the population being considerably more prone to this.