Performance-Based Adaptability Profiles in Multitasking

Assessing a person’s ability to multitask is a topic that is gaining increased attention. However, task constraints and difficulty rarely remain constant in real-world environments; when task constraints change, people must adapt to avoid diminished task performance or failure. But can we identify and predict differences in multitasking adaptability? This question was assessed in an experiment wherein participants multitasked in a flight simulator. Task difficulty was incrementally increased across three experimental manipulations. We measured participants' performance on tasks with baseline versus increased difficulty. Cluster analyses on performance identified three distinct adaptability groups in each condition, irrespective of performance at baseline. Furthermore, individual membership in each cluster was quite consistent across different difficulty conditions. Cluster membership in this task was predicted by spatial ability, which is a cognitive ability not related to general multitasking ability.