The Effects of Cuing in Time-Shared Tasks

Abstract

Two divided-attention experiments were performed to evaluate the effectiveness of verbal and symbolic cuing on the primary task of editing flight route-way-point information. Cuing conditions were contrasted with a no-cue control. Symbolic cuing consisted of directing the operators to the appropriate keys throughout the sequence of primary task steps. Verbal cuing consisted of a short instruction displayed on the CRT just prior to the next step. In Experiment 1, symbolic cuing proved effective in improving editing accuracy. In Experiment 2, symbolic cuing resulted in reduced early-trial edit-completion time. Verbal cuing, however, was not effective on these tasks in either experiment. It is theorized that symbolic cuing lightened the cognitive load, whereas verbal cuing did not reduce the cognitive load since it still required attention to read the verbal message.