Walk, Text, and Chew Gum: A Computational Approach to Understanding Human Multitasking Dario Salvucci, Drexel University Abstract: Multitasking pervades our daily lives in many forms: walking and talking, listening and note-taking, even (say it ain't so!) dialing and driving. In this talk, I will describe the theory of "threaded cognition," which states that multitasking can be represented as the interleaving of multiple cognitive "threads." Threaded cognition uses computational cognitive models to simulate multitasking behavior and account for potential interference between two tasks. I will outline the theory and discuss a number of computational accounts of multitasking phenomena in both laboratory and applied tasks, especially in the context of driver distraction and human-computer interaction. Biography: Dario Salvucci is an Associate Professor of Computer Science at Drexel University in Philadelphia, PA. He received a B.S.E. from Princeton University in 1994 and a Ph.D. from Carnegie Mellon University in 1999, both in Computer Science. His work explores computational models of human behavior in complex tasks, with particular emphasis on multitasking and driving. Dr. Salvucci has authored a number of papers in the areas of cognitive science, human factors, and human-computer interaction, and has received a National Science Foundation CAREER Award, the Drexel College of Engineering Outstanding Teaching Award, and the Siegel-Wolf Prize from the International Conference on Cognitive Modeling.