Understanding the Viewing Behaviour and Knowledge Acquisition in Multitasking: An Eye-Tracking Study
(2024) PSYP01 20241Department of Psychology
- Abstract
- Multitasking, increasingly prevalent with the rise of digital tools and fast-paced environments, has become integral to daily life. Although it enhances our ability to manage several tasks simultaneously, it also poses challenges to learning and information acquisition. This study investigates how multitasking impacts the formation of relational memories, focusing on the role of eye movements. Participants engaged in a dual-task paradigm where their primary task involved encoding associations among three task-relevant visual elements. Concurrently, during certain experimental phases, they were required to perform an attention-demanding secondary task. Results indicated no significant effect of multitasking on associative memory... (More)
- Multitasking, increasingly prevalent with the rise of digital tools and fast-paced environments, has become integral to daily life. Although it enhances our ability to manage several tasks simultaneously, it also poses challenges to learning and information acquisition. This study investigates how multitasking impacts the formation of relational memories, focusing on the role of eye movements. Participants engaged in a dual-task paradigm where their primary task involved encoding associations among three task-relevant visual elements. Concurrently, during certain experimental phases, they were required to perform an attention-demanding secondary task. Results indicated no significant effect of multitasking on associative memory performance, nor on the number of gaze transitions between task-relevant elements, which support element binding required for efficient relational encoding. Nevertheless, multitasking significantly altered gaze behaviour during encoding. Participants exhibited fewer fixations and reduced viewing time on task-relevant elements, instead directing more attention to areas where the secondary task might appear and to task-irrelevant information. Notably, the reduction in viewing time during multitasking occurred primarily early in the encoding process, suggesting that multitasking shifts initial viewing behaviour towards a more exploratory rather than exploitative approach. Additionally, no significant relationship was found between individual differences in multitasking tendencies or personality traits and associative memory. These findings contribute to the existing literature by elucidating how multitasking contexts influence and adapt the dynamic interplay between gaze patterns and relational memory formation. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
http://lup.lub.lu.se/student-papers/record/9175013
- author
- Guven Akin, Aybuke LU
- supervisor
- organization
- course
- PSYP01 20241
- year
- 2024
- type
- H2 - Master's Degree (Two Years)
- subject
- keywords
- multitasking, episodic memory, learning, viewing behaviour, personality traits
- language
- English
- id
- 9175013
- date added to LUP
- 2024-09-20 15:16:20
- date last changed
- 2024-09-20 15:16:20
@misc{9175013, abstract = {{Multitasking, increasingly prevalent with the rise of digital tools and fast-paced environments, has become integral to daily life. Although it enhances our ability to manage several tasks simultaneously, it also poses challenges to learning and information acquisition. This study investigates how multitasking impacts the formation of relational memories, focusing on the role of eye movements. Participants engaged in a dual-task paradigm where their primary task involved encoding associations among three task-relevant visual elements. Concurrently, during certain experimental phases, they were required to perform an attention-demanding secondary task. Results indicated no significant effect of multitasking on associative memory performance, nor on the number of gaze transitions between task-relevant elements, which support element binding required for efficient relational encoding. Nevertheless, multitasking significantly altered gaze behaviour during encoding. Participants exhibited fewer fixations and reduced viewing time on task-relevant elements, instead directing more attention to areas where the secondary task might appear and to task-irrelevant information. Notably, the reduction in viewing time during multitasking occurred primarily early in the encoding process, suggesting that multitasking shifts initial viewing behaviour towards a more exploratory rather than exploitative approach. Additionally, no significant relationship was found between individual differences in multitasking tendencies or personality traits and associative memory. These findings contribute to the existing literature by elucidating how multitasking contexts influence and adapt the dynamic interplay between gaze patterns and relational memory formation.}}, author = {{Guven Akin, Aybuke}}, language = {{eng}}, note = {{Student Paper}}, title = {{Understanding the Viewing Behaviour and Knowledge Acquisition in Multitasking: An Eye-Tracking Study}}, year = {{2024}}, }