Is Multitasking good for your brain?

March 31, 2010 Posted in: General Interest Tags: Multitasking 0 Comments

Believe it or not, even Wikipedia has an article for Multitasking. Here is the definition provided by Wikipedia:

Human multitasking is the performance by an individual of appearing to handle more than one task at the same time. The term is derived from computer multitasking. An example of multitasking is listening to a radio interview while typing an email. Some believe that multitasking can result in time wasted due to human context switching and apparently causing more errors due to insufficient attention. Other research illustrates our brains are capable dealing with certain ‘dual multiple tasks’ at the same time.

Notice the use of the term “appearing” when referring to handling more than one task at the same time. Indeed, while some state that task-juggling makes you feel great (busy, energised, fulfilled, as if  you are living three lives in the space of one), others say when you multitask you are scattered, overloading overloading your circuits.

I must admit that most of the information I have read on the topic states that multitasking is —in most cases—  inefficient. When we multitask, we are in a way less able to connect with people and form a conscience. Right, multitasking makes us feel more efficient, but it actually slows down our thinking. For most tasks, it i could be said that our brains can’t handle more than one higher cognitive function at a time. We may think we’re multitasking, but in fact we’re switchtasking, toggling between one task and another. The phone, the email, the phone, back to the email. And each time we switch, there’s a few milliseconds of start-up cost. The neurons need time to rev up. Some have gone so far as to describe multitasking as a “mythical activity in which people believe they can perform two or more tasks simultaneously.”

However, I don’t think things have to be black or white. We all have experienced certain circumstances in which multitasking can work well enough. Say, for example, that you are listening to a news program on the radio while cooking. You can do both tasks successfully at the same time. The key, in my opinion, is that one of the tasks (in this case, listening to the radio) is not crucial, so it does not matter if you do not pay full attention to it. On the other hand, a motor task (such as cooking) and a listening task (such as listening to the radio) can be more successfully combined than other tasks which use more related functions of your brain.

A very interesting topic related tom multitasking is Continuous partial attention, which usually involves skimming the surface of the incoming data, picking out the relevant details, and moving on to the next stream:

Continuous partial attention describes how many of us use our attention today. It is different from multi-tasking. The two are differentiated by the impulse that motivates them. When we multi-task, we are motivated by a desire to be more productive and more efficient. We’re often doing things that are automatic, that require very little cognitive processing. We give the same priority to much of what we do when we multi-task — we file and copy papers, talk on the phone, eat lunch — we get as many things done at one time as we possibly can in order to make more time for ourselves and in order to be more efficient and more productive. To pay continuous partial attention is to pay partial attention — CONTINUOUSLY. It is motivated by a desire to be a LIVE node on the network. Another way of saying this is that we want to connect and be connected. We want to effectively scan for opportunity and optimize for the best opportunities, activities, and contacts, in any given moment. To be busy, to be connected, is to be alive, to be recognized, and to matter.

For those who want to read more on the topic, I would recommend this article on How NOT to Multitask.