摘要：Objective: This study aimed to identify children’s cognitive processing and performance characteristics while multiple task performance. It confirmed whether their multiple task performance and psychological refractory period (PRP) varied by task condition (stimulus onset asynchrony [SOA] and task difficulty) and stimulus modality. Methods: Seventy 5-year-olds were recruited. Multi-task tools were developed using the E-prime software. The children were required to respond to two stimuli (visual or auditory) presented with microscopic time difference and their response times (RTs) were recorded. Results: As the SOA increased, the RTs in the first task increased, while the RTs in the second task and PRP decreased. The RTs of the first and second tasks, and the PRP for difficult tasks, were significantly longer than those for easy tasks were. Additionally, there was an interaction effect between the SOA and task difficulty. Although there was no main effect of stimulus modality, task difficulty moderated the modality effect. In the high difficulty condition, the RTs of the first and second tasks and PRP for the visual-visual task were significantly longer than those for auditory-auditory task were. Conclusion: These results inform theoretical discussions on children’s multi-task mechanism, and the loss of multiple task performance. Additionally, they provide practical implications and information on the composition of multi-tasks suitable for children in educational environments.
