Dual-Task Interference: A Personal Driving and Reading Experiment
This paper presents a first-person experiment investigating dual-task interference through the simultaneous performance of driving and reading. The author drove a familiar 35-minute route while reading a magazine article, treating driving as a near-automatic task and reading as the novel stimulus. Behavioral and cognitive findings — including slowed reading, impaired memory retention, and attention drawn from other drivers — are analyzed in relation to Pashler's psychological refractory phenomena, the bottleneck model, and research on memory retrieval limitations. The paper concludes by considering implications for professional practice and the broader characteristics of conscious and unconscious cognition.
- Introduction and Experiment Design: Driving and reading chosen as dual tasks
- Reactions and Behavioral Findings: Behavioral and cognitive outcomes of the experiment
- Relationship of Findings to the Readings: Findings linked to PFP and memory theory
- Implications for Understanding Human Experience and Professional Practice: Bottleneck model and practice as mitigation
- Concluding Remarks: Consciousness, limits, and the unconscious mind
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What makes this paper effective
- The author grounds abstract psychological theory in a concrete, self-conducted experiment, making the concepts immediately tangible and relatable.
- Behavioral evidence (honking drivers, post-drive recall test) is clearly separated from internal/cognitive observations, demonstrating methodological awareness.
- Citations from Pashler, Baars, and Ruthruff are woven organically into the analysis rather than dropped as isolated quotations, supporting each claim with specific page references.
Key academic technique demonstrated
The paper exemplifies experiential learning as evidence: the author uses a self-designed informal experiment to generate primary data, then systematically maps those observations onto established theoretical frameworks (the bottleneck model and psychological refractory phenomena). This moves the paper beyond mere summary by positioning personal findings as a test case for existing theory.
Structure breakdown
The paper opens by describing the experiment's design rationale, then reports behavioral and cognitive reactions. A dedicated middle section explicitly connects findings to course readings. The penultimate section extrapolates practical and professional implications, including discussion of both main theoretical explanations. A brief conclusion situates dual-task interference within the broader question of conscious versus unconscious cognition. Total length is concise, suitable for a reflection or short research paper at the undergraduate level.
Introduction and Experiment Design
The two-channel experiment I attempted involved driving and reading. Both of these actions are decidedly conscious. However, to establish a primary and a secondary action — or "stream" (Baars, 1997, p. 39) — I chose to drive an exceedingly familiar route: from my part-time job to home. This is a lengthy journey requiring a minimum of 35 minutes. Moreover, I engage in it daily during most of the summer and am thoroughly familiar with the surroundings on both sides of the vehicle. More importantly, I have been driving this particular car for the past two years. As such, its novelty has worn off. I am well acquainted with all of the controls, the gadgets, and the levers needed to operate it, so that in this experiment, driving functioned as a control of sorts — a task that, while conscious, is closer to involving the unconscious mind.
The novel action I engaged in was reading. Although I am a good reader, I tested myself by reading a piece of literature I had never before encountered — a lengthy article from an arts and entertainment magazine. I was able to read this article intermittently while simultaneously, and largely unconsciously, gauging the distance of other vehicles and monitoring my surroundings while driving on the freeway at a moderate speed of 55 miles per hour. I attempted to focus on the magazine article as much as possible while still driving safely. Because the subject of the article was music, I was thoroughly engaged with it — far more so than with driving. To assist with the driving aspect, I set the car on cruise control and maintained 55 miles per hour in the second lane in order to avoid oncoming and outgoing freeway traffic.
References
Baars, B. (1997). In the Theater of Consciousness: The Workspace of the Mind. San Diego: Oxford University Press.
Davis, L. L., & Lennon, S. J. (1988). Social cognition and the study of clothing and human behavior. Social Behavior and Personality, 16(2), 175–186.
Pashler, H. (1994). Dual-task interference in simple tasks: Data and theory. Psychological Bulletin, 116(2), 220–244.
Pashler, H., & Johnson, J. C. (no date). Attentional limitations in dual-task performance.
Ruthruff, E., Van Selst, M., Johnston, J. C., & Remington, R. (2004). How does practice reduce dual-task interference: Integrating, automatization, or just stage-shortening? Psychological Research.
Vilardaga, R., Hayes, S. C., Levin, M. E., & Muto, T. (2009). Creating a strategy for progress: A contextual behavioral science approach. The Behavior Analyst, 32(1), 105–133.
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