Metacognitive predictions and strategic adaptation to distractors

ABSTRACT

Multitasking is ubiquitous, and substantial evidence has documented the impact on cognitive performance. People do not seem to recognize their multitasking deficits, however, as there is a lack of correspondence between predicted and actualperformance. We have less clarity about how people adapt to multitasking, and howthis varies with age. Thisstudy investigated metacognitive predictions and strategic adaptation in old and young adults using concurrent laboratory tasks. The primary task was visuospatial navigation and the secondary task was visual serial addition. Participants completed each task alone, and then two blocks concurrently. The second dual task block allowed participants to adapt the speed of the navigation task. Young adults performed better than old, and performance suffered with dual tasks for both ages. Predictions were loosely calibrated to navigation performance. Both age groups adapted to multitasking via speed selection, with greater conservatism by older adults, but adapation was not related to predictions.

KEYWORDS:

• Metacognition
• multitasking
• strategies
• aging

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.