Voice and Manual Control in Dual Task Situations

Abstract

The objective of this research was to replicate and extend an investigation of Voice and Manual Control in Dual Task Situations previously performed by Wickens et al. (1985). This study incorporated both the previous within-subject design with a much larger sample size and a novel between-subject paradigm. The repeated measures investigation minimizing asymmetric transfer between response conditions revealed significantly better performance when a verbal Sternberg task was voice controlled in combination with a manually controlled spatial tracking task. The between-subject study likewise supported this finding. The previous 1985 study's findings favoring hemispherically compatible left-handed tracking were not supported in this investigation.