Influences of Task Management Strategy on Performance and Workload for Supervisory Control

Abstract

Individual differences between task management strategies in a dual task environment – as a possible contributing factor to failures in supervisory control – have not been heavily researched. The purpose of this study was to identify strategies utilized by human subjects operating in a dual task environment to determine the effect of task management strategy on performance and workload outcomes. Participants monitored 8 remote processes while simultaneously executing a cognitively demanding secondary task. Researcher observation and participant feedback were used to identify specifically how tasks were managed. Four competing strategies were identified: Balanced Interleaving, Balanced Multitasking, Adaptive Attack, and Adaptive Avoidance. Findings revealed that the Adaptive Attack and Balanced Multitasking strategies demonstrated more advantageous outcomes toward performance while also resulting in lower participant perceived workload; Balanced Interleaving showed marginally higher performance, but high workload; and Adaptive Avoidance resulted in both low workload and low performance.