{"id":279,"date":"2008-11-11T03:48:35","date_gmt":"2008-11-11T03:48:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/amperzen.com\/blog\/?p=279"},"modified":"2008-11-11T03:48:35","modified_gmt":"2008-11-11T03:48:35","slug":"multitasking-does-it-exist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/amperzen.com\/blog\/multitasking-does-it-exist\/","title":{"rendered":"Multitasking — Does it exist?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Brain<\/a>A friend sent me a link to this NPR report on “Think You’re Multitasking? Think Again<\/a>.” I was told at a previous job that it was not humanly possible to multitask, so we were to do one thing at a time. Of course that ignored the fact that we’d be fired if we actually waited to finish one task before beginning or working on another one.<\/p>\n

I found it interesting in this report that they say humans don’t multitask, we switch quickly between tasks, focusing first on one thing then another. So, we don’t really multitask. Whoever thought that multitasking was anything other than rapidly switching attention from one task to another? Though I wonder, is folding laundry while watching a movie rapid switching between tasks or true multitasking.\u00a0 I’d say knitting or spinning while watching a movie is rapidly switching focus because I do need to keep a minimal degree of concentration on the knitting or spinning so I don’t get lost, but it’s almost negligible to someone watching from the outside looking at me doing it.<\/p>\n

On the other hand, I’ve noticed that women are much better at switching attention from task to task so that they seem to truly multitask. I often will pick something up and move it to another point when going to do something so that the item gets closer to where it needs to be for a later task. I usually don’t even think about what I’m doing. It happens almost as if I didn’t plan it out at all. On the other hand, my son and husband can’t seem to get the hang of it. If they’re going upstairs for X, and Y needs to go up too, unless you stop them and ask them to take Y with them they don’t even think of it because their focus is on X. Women on the other hand would start out to do X and bring Y with them to save a trip.<\/p>\n

Do women switch focus on tasks easier? If we think about stereotypical roles then women are certainly expected to do multiple tasks at the same time: cook a meal, watch the children, supervise homework, answer the phone, and talk to a spouse all at once. Granted it all happens over two hours or so but all the tasks overlap and that’s just picking one part of a day. Think of administrative assistants who answer phones, take notes, type letters\/memo\/etc, make reservations while talking to someone in the office, and so on. I think that’s a job with built in need for rapidly switching focus on tasks. Short order cooks aren’t the only ones. Waiters do the same: take orders, refresh coffee while moving to another table, clearing tables, watching the tables to see if anything is needed and delivering it while on the way to another table — and so it goes.<\/p>\n

So, why do so many researchers feel it necessary to find<\/em> or prove<\/em> that multitasking is impossible? Is it because it’s a skill that’s mostly related to women rather than men? Or is it because if they can debunk it in favor of rapidly switching attention between tasks it sounds better? Why did they ever think it was anything more than rapidly switching attention between tasks? I think if you define something that doesn’t exist and no one claimed it did then perhaps you found what was actually happening. I wonder how many people can rapidly switch their attention between tasks and how often or how constantly they can do it without feeling like they’re overwhelmed.<\/p>\n

\"\" Yo, it’s your friendly neighborhood lynx here, and I have a couple of comments on this topic.\u00a0 First of all, if what they were saying were totally true, nobody would be able to walk and talk at the same time.\u00a0 Humans do a lot of things all at the same time, in a way that can’t be called anything but multitasking; and by that, I mean at the exact same time.\u00a0 But mostly those things are behaviors we’ve done so many times that we don’t have to consciously think of them anymore; some call it muscle memory.\u00a0 When you’re learning to drive a car, you keep careful track of every little detail.\u00a0 That’s why beginning drivers are so bad … they’re being swamped with input and they can’t process all the different parts fast enough to make proper decisions when things get hairy.\u00a0\u00a0 But after a while, large portions of the driving experience become second nature.\u00a0 You don’t even notice that you’re doing them anymore (which is why I turn onto the road leading to work, when I’m suppose to be turning the other way towards the grocery store).\u00a0 Portions of your brain are just imprinted with that function and you do it.\u00a0\u00a0 Note that when you get put in a crisis situation, you’re back to being a novice again: too many new things coming too quickly.<\/p>\n

Now that doesn’t mean that you’re not limited in just how many things you can do.\u00a0 Eventually you do get overwhelmed, but as things become second nature, you can do more and more of them without having to stop and think.<\/p>\n

Now, from what I can see, what the report is really talking about is cognitive tasks.\u00a0 These are highly complex things that require large amounts of your attention, especially when you’re new to them.\u00a0 And what could be more new and complex than being stuck in an MRI machine and given arbitrary commands to perform when you see colors?\u00a0 Of course the brain is going to stutter and pause.\u00a0 And yet, aren’t these the same kind of things technicians are trained to do when they’re watching status boards?\u00a0 If this turns red, do this, if that needle moves here, do this other thing.\u00a0 But even here, after a while, they’re just twisting knobs and flicking switches, and discussing the big game with their friends.\u00a0 Even these things can become second nature after a while, it just takes longer.<\/p>\n

Anyway, I really think they need to define their terms better and actually get some better controls on what they’re actually trying to study.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A friend sent me a link to this NPR report on “Think You’re Multitasking? Think Again.” I was told at a previous job that it was not humanly possible to multitask, so we were to do one thing at a time. Of course that ignored the fact that we’d be fired if we actually waited […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,25],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-279","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-csa","category-science"],"aioseo_notices":[],"yoast_head":"\nMultitasking - Does it exist? - A Curious Statistical Anomaly<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/amperzen.com\/blog\/multitasking-does-it-exist\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"davinci\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/amperzen.com\\\/blog\\\/multitasking-does-it-exist\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/amperzen.com\\\/blog\\\/multitasking-does-it-exist\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"davinci\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/amperzen.com\\\/blog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/4344e39b0408fba0234cf68dcf6ea62e\"},\"headline\":\"Multitasking — Does it exist?\",\"datePublished\":\"2008-11-11T03:48:35+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/amperzen.com\\\/blog\\\/multitasking-does-it-exist\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":1074,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/amperzen.com\\\/blog\\\/multitasking-does-it-exist\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"http:\\\/\\\/media.npr.org\\\/news\\\/images\\\/2008\\\/oct\\\/01\\\/frontallobe_200.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"CSA\",\"Science\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/amperzen.com\\\/blog\\\/multitasking-does-it-exist\\\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/amperzen.com\\\/blog\\\/multitasking-does-it-exist\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/amperzen.com\\\/blog\\\/multitasking-does-it-exist\\\/\",\"name\":\"Multitasking - Does it exist? 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