AN EMPIRICAL-EVALUATION OF THE SYNWORK1 MULTIPLE-TASK WORK-ENVIRONMENT

SYNWORK1 is a multiple-task work environment that allows up to four ta sks (memory search, arithmetic, visual monitoring, and auditory monito ring) to be performed concurrently. Experiments were conducted to eval uate performance and subjective workload for each individual task and all combinations of tasks at two presentation rates. At the slower def ault rates, the three experiment-paced tasks were not very demanding, and improvements with practice were due primarily to the subject-paced arithmetic task. Doubling the presentation rates made the demands of all tasks more comparable and decreased the influence of arithmetic pe rformance. SYNWORK1 is useful for comparisons between populations of i ndividuals and evaluations of arousal-related variables, and, with mod ification, could provide a tool for assessing basic issues in multiple -task performance.