46. People Can't Actually Multitask

46: People Can't Actually Multitask

• There is a common misconception that humans are able to multitask when in fact, this is not the case.
• For many years psychology research has shown that people can only attend to one task at a time.
• We are pretty good a switching back and forth quickly, so we think we are multi tasking, but in reality we are not

Do Age and Experience Make a Difference

• Eyal Ophir and Clifford Nass conducted a series of studies in 2009 on college students and determined that they were no better at multitasking than the general population. that focused on two groups of people; Heavy Media Multitaskers (HMM) and Light Media Multitaskers. (LMM)
• What they found was opposite to what they thought they would find. LMMs Performed better with the different tests than the HMMs.

Ophir and Nass Research

• Media Multitaskers Pay Mental Price (Einbetten)