Psychological Issues in Support of Multiple Activities

That people engage in multiple activities at the same time should not be surprising. Nonetheless, little is known in contemporary psychology about either the phenomena that result or of the underlying mental structures. In this chapter we present a quick tour of the psychological theory relevant to the understanding of people's actions and of multiple activities. Consider this an "approximate theory" that is sufficiently accurate and relevant for the analysis of the basic phenomena. We conclude with a discussion of how the theoretical ideas can be applied for system support of multiple activities.