Task-Sharing within and between Hemispheres: A Multiple-Resources Approach

The assumption that there are qualitatively different information-processing resources has important implications for human performance. We first review some issues involved in isolating independent resource types and then present our own model, which proposes that each cerebral hemisphere accesses an independent resource supply that can be shared among many types of tasks, including those with no obvious similarities. The available evidence indicates that the model is viable. Its implications for human factors are, first, that tasks mayor may not overlap in their resource demand, and the only way to determine this reliably is with a task emphasis manipulation. Second, neither modality (visual versus auditory) nor code (verbal versus nonverbal) predicts interference as well as the particular hemisphere(s) involved in processing. Limitations of a multiple-resources approach are also discussed.

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