Post #3: Multitasking?

Image Source: Buckets

After reading the Bowman, Levine, Waite, and Gendron (2010) article "Can students really multitask? An experimental study of instant messaging while reading" about multitasking, along with several peer blogs with reactions to this article, I chose to focus this week's blog topic on exploring multitasking further.  While the article focused on individuals completing multiple literacy-oriented tasks at once which results in lower performance, I would like to generalize to any activities that can be multitasked.  In this day and age, Information and Communications Technologies (ICTs) platforms like televisions, computers, phones, etc. allow us an increased opportunity for multitasking every day.  It seems obvious that splitting focus on any tasks will result in decreased performance, yet we still attempt it every day and the variety of technologies available make it easier to do so.

National Geographic's series "Brain Games" explores cognitive science by focusing on illusions, psychological experiments, and counterintuitive thinking.  Multiple episodes in this series address multitasking, including one titled "Focus Pocus" and one titled "Pay Attention!"  This series can be seen on National Geographic or Netflix, and if you haven't seen it I would strongly recommend watching - it's fascinating! 

Another video that addresses our inability to multitask would be Big Think's "Multitasking is a Myth, and to Attempt it Comes at a Neurobiological Cost".  Interestingly, this video explains that in jobs where it's important to focus on one task at a time for an extended period of time with high precision, such as air traffic controllers, it is required to take periodic breaks to refresh the mind.  Lifeguarding is another example of a job in which a break is required after being "on" for a specified period of time. 

Huffington Post shared a video called "Your Multitasking Brain: 3 Tips & 3 Insights in 3 Minutes" by the Global Center for Resiliency and Well-Being which also details our brains inability to multitask. They break the concept down further by explaining that technically, our brains cannot multitask on more than one "conscious" task, like reading or watching TV, but the brain can handle multitasking when it comes to "automatic" tasks such as breathing, walking, or eating.

According to Business Insider, not only does multitasking lower performance, it seems that it can also hurt the brain by causing it to run slower, make more mistakes, and being less creative.  In turn, individuals experience "inattentional blindness,"meaning that they are able to see a variety of things but don't process them or take them in as effectively.