Sirevaag E J, Kramer A F, Coles M G, Donchin E
Acta Psychol (Amst). 1989 Feb;70(1):77-97. doi: 10.1016/0001-6918(89)90061-9.
The amplitude of the P300 component of the Event-Related Potential (ERP) has proven useful in identifying the resource requirements of complex perceptual-motor tasks. In dual-task conditions, increases in primary task difficulty result in decreases in the amplitude of P300s elicited by secondary tasks. Furthermore, P300s elicited by discrete primary task events increase in amplitude with increases in the difficulty of the primary task. The reciprocity in P300 amplitudes has been used to infer the processing tradeoffs that occur during dual-task performance. The present study was designed to investigate further the P300 amplitude reciprocity effect under conditions in which primary and secondary task ERPs could be concurrently recorded within the same experimental situation. Forty subjects participated in the study. Measures of P300 amplitude and performance were obtained within the context of a pursuit step tracking task (the primary task) performed alone and with a concurrent auditory discrimination task (the secondary task). Primary task difficulty was manipulated by varying both the number of dimensions to be tracked (from one to two), and the control dynamics of the system (velocity or acceleration). ERPs were obtained from both secondary task tones and primary task step changes. Average root-mean-square (RMS) error estimates were also obtained for each tracking condition. Increased primary task difficulty, reflected in increased RMS error scores, was associated with decreased secondary task P300 amplitudes and increased primary task P300 amplitudes. The increases in primary task P300 amplitudes were complementary to the decrements obtained for the secondary task, supporting the hypothesis of reciprocity between primary and secondary task P300 amplitudes across different manipulations of primary task difficulty.
事件相关电位（ERP）的P300成分的波幅已被证明有助于识别复杂感知运动任务的资源需求。在双任务条件下，主要任务难度的增加会导致次要任务诱发的P300波幅减小。此外，离散主要任务事件诱发的P300波幅会随着主要任务难度的增加而增大。P300波幅的这种相互关系已被用于推断双任务执行过程中发生的加工权衡。本研究旨在进一步探究在同一实验情境中能够同时记录主要任务和次要任务ERP的条件下的P300波幅相互关系效应。40名受试者参与了该研究。在单独执行以及与同时进行的听觉辨别任务（次要任务）一起执行追踪步长跟踪任务（主要任务）的背景下，获取了P300波幅和表现的测量值。通过改变要跟踪的维度数量（从一个到两个）以及系统的控制动态（速度或加速度）来操纵主要任务的难度。从次要任务音调以及主要任务步长变化中获取ERP。还针对每种跟踪条件获得了平均均方根（RMS）误差估计值。主要任务难度的增加表现为RMS误差分数的增加，这与次要任务P300波幅的减小以及主要任务P300波幅的增加相关。主要任务P300波幅的增加与次要任务获得的减小相互补充，支持了在主要任务难度的不同操纵下主要任务和次要任务P300波幅之间存在相互关系的假设。
