Cue Utilization and Cognitive Load in Novel Task Performance

Brouwers, Sue; Wiggins, Mark W.; Helton, William S.; O’Hare, David; Griffin, Barbara · 2016 · OpenAlex-citations

DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2016.00435

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Summary

This study investigates whether individual differences in cue utilization capacity influence performance and cognitive load management during a novel, simulated rail control task. The research is motivated by the hypothesis that individuals with a higher capacity for cue utilization can rapidly identify predictive environmental features, thereby reducing demands on working memory and adopting strategies that minimize cognitive effort. The authors sought to determine if this capacity leads to more efficient performance in a low-workload, sustained attention context. The study comprised two experiments involving 58 university students with driving experience but no prior rail control exposure. Participants were assessed for cue utilization using the EXPERTise 1.0 battery, which includes tasks measuring paired association, feature discrimination, feature identification, and information acquisition. Based on these scores, participants were clustered into "greater" or "lesser" cue utilization groups. In Experiment 1, participants performed a 20-minute simulated rail control task requiring them to reroute misrouted trains (odd-numbered trains to odd tracks, even to even) within a seven-second window. Performance was measured by response latency and accuracy. Experiment 2 introduced a concurrent secondary task to explicitly increase cognitive load. Additional measures included the Raven’s Standard Progressive Matrices for cognitive ability and the Group Embedded Figures Test for cognitive style. In Experiment 1, results showed that participants with greater cue utilization exhibited consistently longer response latencies than those with lesser cue utilization, despite maintaining high accuracy. This pattern suggests that high cue-utilizers adopted a strategy of deliberate processing to conserve cognitive resources rather than rushing responses. There was no significant interaction between cue utilization and time blocks, indicating that both groups experienced similar vigilance decrements over time, though high cue-utilizers maintained their slower, more deliberate pace. Cognitive ability and style did not correlate with performance. In Experiment 2, the introduction of a secondary task revealed a significant interaction: participants with lesser cue utilization experienced a substantial increase in response latency, whereas those with greater cue utilization maintained relatively consistent latencies. This indicates that high cue-utilizers were better able to shield their primary task performance from the additional cognitive load imposed by the secondary task. The findings suggest that a general capacity for cue utilization allows individuals to adopt adaptive strategies that minimize the impact of cognitive load on performance. High cue-utilizers appear to prioritize resource conservation, resulting in slower but stable performance under pressure, whereas low cue-utilizers are more susceptible to performance degradation when cognitive demands increase. These results imply that cue utilization is a distinct factor in skill acquisition and workload management, independent of general cognitive ability or style, and may be critical for training interventions aimed at improving performance in complex, dynamic environments.

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• mental demand