Re: [Phys-L] multitasking

["John Clement" <clement@hal-pc.org>]

Scanning is actually partially an automatic task.  Once you learn the normal
patterns, you don't have to use cognition.  It is only when there is an
abnormal event.  In other words you use pattern recognition which does not
require concious thinking.  I do this when I scan a photo to be able to fix
it.  I just look at it without thinking about what I am seeing.  Defects
just jump out because I have trained myself to notice them.  Stereo photos
are even easier because defects in one image pop out immediately.  I can do
one of those "what is different" puzzles instantaneously by freeviewing it
as if it were a stereo image.

John M. Clement
Houston, TX


> Scanning is exactly the verb pilots use to describe that part 
> of the process.
> Scanning for traffic.  Scanning the instruments.
>
> I would hasten to a that "scanning" describes only part of 
> the process.
> You have to scan the inputs and _interpret_ what you see so 
> as to build a
> mental model of what's going on.  The mental model is primary 
> and fundamental.
> One of the functions of the mental model is to tell you what 
> needs scanning
> right now and what doesn't.