The Role of Attention in Automatic Skills.

Abstract

This research project investigated the nature of performance in highly practiced detection and recognition skills. We found that several tasks that were reputed to be automatic were susceptible to dual-task interference. Two separate limited capacity systems were identified as important in these tasks. The first is a response system and the second is a modality-specific spatial attention system. The latter system is thought to be necessary for conjunction of separable features such as color and form. Recent work on this contract shows, however, that at least some preattentive systems have access to conjunction information automatically. Future work should be directed at determining which feature conjunctions are present preattentively and which require attention.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Aug 01, 1986
Accession Number
ADA173190

Entities

People

  • James E. Hoffman

Organizations

  • University of Delaware

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Human Systems

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Accuracy
  • Acquisition
  • Automatic
  • Brain
  • Classification
  • Contracts
  • Contrast
  • Detection
  • Detectors
  • Military Research
  • New York
  • Perception
  • Psychology
  • Recognition
  • Scientists
  • Task Performance And Analysis
  • Universities

Readers

  • Instructional Design and Training Evaluation.
  • Neural Network Machine Learning.
  • Systems Analysis and Design