Theories Of Divided Attention
Psyc essay semester 2 block 3 – psyc2020 2014
Dear Sir,
I am writing to you, to discuss why a hands - free cellular phone kit should not be allowed to be used, whilst driving a vehicle. As we know, that driving is a complex activity in itself, and therefore no other secondary activity should take place during the course of this task, which may put the drivers life in danger as well as others. Using a mobile phone, often causes the driver to take their hands off the steering wheel, their minds off the road and their eyes off the road. In this letter I will discuss the principles underlying capacity and resource theories of divided attention, with reference to the multiple resource model, the impact of inattention blindess and change blindess, …show more content…
Attention is defined as the ‘process of concentrating on specific stimuli or activities within the environment’ (Goldstein, 2011), when driving a vehicle and engaging in a conversation we are now trying to concentrate on two different activities that each require their own attention. Divided attention, there are two different types of resource theories that explain divided attention; the general mental resource theory and the task specific resource theory. The general mental resource theory, suggests that tasks are easier to perform simultaneously when the tasks are different and have different modalities, therefore this theory suggests that two different tasks can be performed simultaneously as long as they are structured differently (Goldstein, 2011). Research has shown that, individuals are able to attend to two different tasks at the same time, such as driving and using a hands – free set, although this may result in careless and degraded driving performance, and if the strategies used to perform both tasks simultaneously fail, than this will result in dangerous consequences and degraded driving (Young, & Regan., 2007) .The task specific resource theory, suggests that two tasks won’t interfere with one another if they compete for different resources, and if they engage in the same resource than it is seen to fall under the general mental resource theory (Goldstein, 2011). This theory does not take into perspective for; different task environments and the task complexity. When engaging in peforming two different tasks, we need to consider the task
Dear Sir,
I am writing to you, to discuss why a hands - free cellular phone kit should not be allowed to be used, whilst driving a vehicle. As we know, that driving is a complex activity in itself, and therefore no other secondary activity should take place during the course of this task, which may put the drivers life in danger as well as others. Using a mobile phone, often causes the driver to take their hands off the steering wheel, their minds off the road and their eyes off the road. In this letter I will discuss the principles underlying capacity and resource theories of divided attention, with reference to the multiple resource model, the impact of inattention blindess and change blindess, …show more content…
Attention is defined as the ‘process of concentrating on specific stimuli or activities within the environment’ (Goldstein, 2011), when driving a vehicle and engaging in a conversation we are now trying to concentrate on two different activities that each require their own attention. Divided attention, there are two different types of resource theories that explain divided attention; the general mental resource theory and the task specific resource theory. The general mental resource theory, suggests that tasks are easier to perform simultaneously when the tasks are different and have different modalities, therefore this theory suggests that two different tasks can be performed simultaneously as long as they are structured differently (Goldstein, 2011). Research has shown that, individuals are able to attend to two different tasks at the same time, such as driving and using a hands – free set, although this may result in careless and degraded driving performance, and if the strategies used to perform both tasks simultaneously fail, than this will result in dangerous consequences and degraded driving (Young, & Regan., 2007) .The task specific resource theory, suggests that two tasks won’t interfere with one another if they compete for different resources, and if they engage in the same resource than it is seen to fall under the general mental resource theory (Goldstein, 2011). This theory does not take into perspective for; different task environments and the task complexity. When engaging in peforming two different tasks, we need to consider the task