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“If You Can Avoid It, Don’t Multitask” --What?
9/22/2004
From time to time you see a spate of articles sweep through the mainstream media decrying multitasking and the apparent conclusion from scientific research that multitasking leads to a reduction in overall accomplishment. I’ve seen headlines like “Multitasking is Counterproductive,” “Multitasking Creates Health Problems,” “Multitasking Makes You Stupid,” and “The Thief of Time: Multitasking is Inefficient.” Those headlines make my blood boil and chill at the same time (multitasking)!
These newspaper, television, radio, and Internet flurries are almost entirely
either from or about the article, “Executive Control of Cognitive Processes
in Task Switching,” in the Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human
Perception and Performance. Someone from the Knowledge Age had to get to
the bottom of this. So, I submerged myself in the dense, 34-page original article
and found out that, among other things, the research in question d'esn’t
relate in any realistic way to either the headlines or to the content of the
news articles.
A full citation to Executive
Control of Cognitive Processes in Task Switching this can be found at the
end of this column. (There’s another article about brain imaging that
I will write about some other time. Together they are cited as “a growing
body of scientific evidence.”)
You would think from news articles that anyone who multitasks is totally wasting
their time. My take on it is that the media is playing up to peoples’ fears
about not being able to keep up. And I remember recent history, when multitasking
was often intensely discouraged by bosses and colleagues. (Luckily that’s changed
now, check out the image of a very productive recent SCUP staff meeting.)
The first thing I found out, when I did a little research into the source,
was that the American Psychological Association (APA) isn’t at all averse
to putting a media-friendly, hype-it-up “spin” on things.
The headline on its press release when the article was published says, “Is
Multitasking More Efficient? Shifting Mental Gears Costs Time, Especially When
Shifting to Less Familiar Tasks.”
The press release subtitle, which more accurately reflects the thrust of the
research findings, says “Studying the ‘Inner CEO’ Can Improve
Interface Design, Personnel Training, and Diagnosis of Brain Damage.”
Nothing about the hyped intro. Here, read the actual scientifically published
abstract and try to find anything in it about inefficiency and multitasking:
In 4 experiments, participants alternated between different tasks or performed the same task repeatedly. The tasks for 2 of the experiments required responding to geometric objects in terms of alternative classification rules, and the tasks for the other 2 experiments required solving arithmetic problems in terms of alternative numerical operations.
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