DC Shifts and Event-related Potentials Associated with Workload in a Dual Task Situation

TL;DRAbstract

McCallum et al. (1988) reported the appearance of negative DC shifts associated with involvement in a manual tracking task. Subjects tracked a moving letter across a screen under conditions in which tracking difficulty was systematically manipulated and various decisions and responses were demanded. Each tracking trial lasted approximately 28 sec during which a progressive negative shift of cortical potential was observed as the level of task involvement increased. In the more difficult trials, these negative shifts were of significantly greater amplitude than in easier trials. Toward the beginning of each trial transient positive-going shifts were associated with the visual presentation and memorization of sets of letters that had to be utilized in target decisions during the course of tracking. Letter-set size was varied from 1 to 6 to create a memory paradigm of the type described by Sternberg (1969). McCallum et al. found that the level of positivity was directly related to set siz

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