Computer Science

Colloquium Details

Understanding strategic adaptation in dual-task situations as cognitively bounded rational behavior

Abstract

Multitasking often involves making trade-offs about the level of performance on each task, as expressed in for example speed and accuracy of performance (e.g., Norman & Bobrow, 1975; Navon & Gopher, 1979). Given these trade-offs, multiple strategies for interleaving the tasks are often available. In a given setting, what strategy do people settle on? In this talk I will discuss how the trade-off that people make can be understood as being "cognitively bounded rational". Performance is limited by constraints that come from the task environment and cognition. If, given these constraints, multiple strategies for interleaving tasks are available, then people will interleave tasks in a way that aligns with their local priority objective, or which maximizes the value of an objective payoff function that evaluates performance. I will provide an overview of a series of studies (and associated cognitive models) that I conducted as part of my PhD research to investigate this hypothesis. Limitations and implications will be discussed.

Biography

Christian Janssen recently received his PhD in Human-Computer Interaction with cognitive science from University College London, where he worked with Duncan Brumby, John Dowell, Nick Chater (U. Warwick), and Andrew Howes (U. Birmingham). Chris' interests are in understanding human adaptive performance. He studies this using a combination of experimental studies and computational cognitive models. Before starting his PhD research, Chris studied at the University of Groningen (with Niels Taatgen and Hedderik van Rijn) and interned at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (with Wayne Gray). At the moment he is interning at Microsoft Research in Redmond, WA.