POCs and Performance Decrements: A Reply to Kantowitz and Weldon

Abstract

This paper responds to some of the criticisms presented by Kantowitz and Weldon (1985) that have been directed toward the methodology used in a 1981 article by Wickens, Mount-ford, and Schreiner. We state here that some of their criticisms are valid: A performance operating characteristic (POC) cannot be derived from a single point in a POC space, and therefore resource competition cannot be separated from concurrence cost as a source of task interference. However, we also note that the primary issue of importance to system designers---how to compare interference between different tasks---is not answered by Kantowitz and Weldon's critique. That issue requires that some technique for standardizing performance decrements across tasks be assumed. Two alternate techniques for standardizing are described in the present paper.

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