Study of the Single Channel Hypothesis and Input Regulation within a Continuous,Simultaneous Task Situation

Abstract

Subjects performed simultaneously on an auditory tracking and an auditory discrimination task, with each, task presented to a separate ear. Information transmitted on the tasks was measured as a function of ability to predict task characteristics, input information-rate, and input discriminability. Based on comparison of single-versus simultaneous-task performance, support was found for a single, central decision-type channel in information processing, having as one primary limit the rate at which information can be accepted. Discriminability of inputs also was found to be a limit on information processing rate. Although ability to predict a task's characteristics facilitated performance on that task, in this experiment it did not result in facilitation of performance on the second task. Relevance of these findings to certain aspects of Broadbent's information-processing model is discussed.

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Broadbent

D. E.

(1958). Perception and Communication. Oxford.

Crossman

E. R. F. W.

(1960). The information capacity of the human motor-system in pursuit tracking. Quart. J. exp. Psychol. 13, 103–9.

Davis

(1957). The human operator as a single channel information system. Quart. J. exp. Psychol. 9, 119–29.

Fletcher

(1953). Speech and Hearing in Communication. New York.

Griew

(1959). Set to respond and the effect of interrupting signals upon tracking performance. J. exp. Psychol. 57, 333–7.

Herman

L. M.

(1961). Processing of Information on an Auditory Tracking Task and an Auditory Judgment Task Presented Simultaneously The Pennsylvania State University Unpublished doctoral dissertation.

Leonard

J. A.

(1955). Factors which influence channel capacity. Information Theory in Psychology Quastler

Glencoe, Ill.

306–14.

Poulton

E. C.

(1952). The basis of perceptual anticipation in tracking. Brit. J. Psychol. 43, 295–302.

Welford

A. T.

(1952). The “psychological refractory period” and the timing of high speed performance—a review and a theory. Brit. J. Psychol. 43, 2–19.

10.

Welford

A. T.

(1959). Evidence of a single channel decision mechanism limiting performance in a serial reaction task. Quart. J. exp. Psychol. 11, 193–210.

11.

Welford

A. T.

(1960). The mechanism of sensory-motor performance: survey and reappraisal of twelve years' progress. Ergonomics 3, 189–230.