Processing capacity requirements of stimulus encoding.

Abstract Processing capacity requirements of stimulus encoding are examined in the light of conflicting evidence from studies by Posner and Boies (1971) and Comstock (1973). Capacity demand is assessed by impairment in performance on a secondary probe detection task at the moment of encoding on the primary task. The results support Comstock's (1973) conclusion that stimulus encoding does require processing capacity and relate capacity demand to the level of encoding difficulty. Evidence suggests that it costs more capacity to share attention between two modalities rather than within one. The importance of secondary task sensitivity in assessing capacity requirements is also illustrated.

[1]  E. C. Poulton,et al.  ON INCREASING THE SENSITIVITY OF MEASURES OF PERFORMANCE , 1965 .

[2]  M. V. Rhoades,et al.  On the Reduction of Choice Reaction Times with Practice , 1959 .

[3]  Allen L. Edwards,et al.  Experimental Design in Psychological Research. , 1951 .

[4]  A. Welford.  THE ‘PSYCHOLOGICAL REFRACTORY PERIOD’ AND THE TIMING OF HIGH‐SPEED PERFORMANCE—A REVIEW AND A THEORY , 1952 .

[5]  D. Alanallport.  Parallel encoding within and between elementary stimulus dimensions , 1971 .

[6]  N Moray,et al.  Where is capacity limited? A survey and a model. , 1967, Acta psychologica.

[7]  Don Trumbo,et al.  Primary task performance as a function of encoding, retention, and recall in a secondary task. , 1971 .

[8]  M C Smith.  Effect of varying channel capacity on stimulus detection and discrimination. , 1969, Journal of experimental psychology.

[9]  Stephen J. Boies,et al.  Components of attention. , 1971 .

[10]  P. H. Lindsay,et al.  Quantification of shared capacity processing in auditory and visual discrimination. , 1967, Acta psychologica.

[11]  D. Kahneman,et al.  Attention and Effort , 1973 .

[12]  Steven W. Keele,et al.  Attention and human performance , 1973 .

[13]  H. Scheffé.  A METHOD FOR JUDGING ALL CONTRASTS IN THE ANALYSIS OF VARIANCE , 1953 .

[14]  G. H. Mowbray,et al.  Subjective Expectancy and Choice Reaction Times , 1964 .

[15]  E M Comstock,et al.  Processing capacity in a letter-matching task. , 1973, Journal of experimental psychology.

[16]  B. Kerr,et al.  Processing demands during mental operations , 1973, Memory & cognition.