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Research paper on multitasking
Multitasking has become a popular way to accomplish multiple tasks. However, the verdict is out on whether or not it is a good idea
Multitasking has become a popular way to accomplish multiple tasks. However, the verdict is out on whether or not it is a good idea
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Recommended: Research paper on multitasking
Multitasking has a long research history (e.g., McQueen, 1917) with many arguments concerning the benefits or lack thereof. While authors (e.g.Britton & Tesser, 1991) may describe multitasking as a potential time management strategy, others (e.g. Pashler, 1994) find results of studies to suggest there are limitations to a person’s ability to dual task. Although we find studies that display results that indicate multitasking is a hindrance, other studies struggle to show multitasking to pose a positive or negative. Konnig, Buhner and Murling studied multiple potential predictors of multitasking, as others prefer to focus on single items to explore. Because Konnig, Buhner, and Murling felt there was more to multitasking than a single indicator,
As human beings, it is becoming more of a second nature to us to multi-task. As the world is technologically advancing more and more every day, there are becoming more distractions. Social-media is flourishing, reality TV show ratings are going up, and humans even unintentionally check their phones every two minutes. In this day of age, multi-tasking is proving to promote inefficiency rather than productivity.
In the article, “Multitasking Can Make You Lose…Um…Focus,” Alina Tugend centralizes around the negative effects of multitasking. She shows that often with multitasking, people tend to lose focus, lack work quality, have an increase in stress, and in the end she gives a solution to all these problems. Tugend conveys her points by using understandable language, a clear division of subjects, and many reliable sources, making her article cogent.
Students may easily lose their attention and concentration with easy access to such incredibly rich store of information. With such new technologies as television, internet and social networks, people nowadays tend to multitask more often as they have easy access to a large amount of information. However, such easy access may sometimes be a distraction. Study “Your Brain on Computers” reports that heavy multitaskers perform up to 20% worse on most tests compared to performance of light multitaskers. Working efficiency of people, who multitask, is claimed to be significantly lower. The same is with concentration. (Crovitz 353) As a result, they are not engaged in working process. Students tend to be easily distr...
In the chapter “Attention Deficit: The Brain Syndrome of Our Era,” from The New Brain, written by Richard Restak, Restak makes some very good points on his view of multitasking and modern technology. He argues that multitasking is very inefficient and that our modern technology is making our minds weaker. Multitasking and modern technology is causing people to care too much what other people think of them, to not be able to focus on one topic, and to not be able to think for themselves.
Though there are some positive effects, the adverse impact of technology on education has been extraordinary. The technology community has worked hard to bring useful technology into our classrooms, all with good intentions to broaden our knowledge. With these good intentions also came about unwanted side effects such as distraction and disruption in the classroom. I can clearly remember many of my teachers yelling at us to put our cell phones, iPods, and iTouch phones away especially during lecture and exams. The yelling was not without just cause, students cheated with their devices along with updating their Facebook pages during class too.
On May 3, 2013, The New York Times had posted an article discussing the poor effects that can happen to the brain if you are multitasking and being interrupted. There have been claims from numerous Universities suggesting that multitasking can deaden our brain. Sullivan and Thompson give us the insinuated results that if one wishes to accomplish two or more tasks at once, they will not reach the maximum capacity of success that the brain offers to them. Research on this topic has been minimal so the authors decide to investigate more on this epidemic (Sullivan and Thompson).
Multitasking requires that a worker divides his/her time and energy on multiple tasks at the same time. As a result, the care and attention to detail is divided. The amount of focus that could be used to review one assignment is split. In an experiment, Patterson (2017) discovered that students who studied while participating in media multitasking took longer to complete tasks in their classes. This experiment addresses media multitasking in the case of students. While it is not a type of multitasking we normally consider, it does involve performing multiple tasks at one. Instead of putting all of their focus on their assignments, these students’ attention is on the assignment and on their social media. The results of the experiment prove that it when placed in scenarios where people are required to focus on multiple things, it takes more time to complete certain tasks. In this instance, media multitasking caused a decrease in performance. In another experiment, Paridon and Kaufmann (2010) made an observation when studying multitasking in the workplace, stating that people’s reaction time diminished when multiple tasks were completed at once. The believe that multitasking affects people’s performance has also been proven to be true in the workplace, as the speed of people’s production when down when required to complete multiple tasks. Performance can be determined by the speed in which a task is completed.
It seems our society is still trying to obtain the ever so elusive principle of time. By multitasking we’ve have developed the perception that by performing two or more different tasks simultaneously that we can reduce the amount of time it takes to complete on single task; and once we’ve familiarized ourselves with a multitasking function we can achieve our ultimate goal, increasing our productivity. For instance the workplace overemphasizes multitasking to point that it’s a must needed job requirement on job applications (Otto). Multitasking is so important in our society that it becomes a necessity and often at times is inadvertently promoted in classrooms, tell-all books or celebrity biographies. You know the ones where someone famous talks about balancing work, parenting, school and successfully fulfilling their dreams. That misconception seems to have brought on the mentality of “if they can do it, I can do it too.” And in most cases we can’t because some pieces of the puzzle were missing in the tell all.
Multitasking with non-course material results in a student’s attention being diverted from the course material that is being taught. This can result in errors in memory for the student and also a more difficult time learning the information outside of the classroom (Kraushaar & Novak, 2010, p.1). The University of Vermont completed a study in order to determine the impacts of multitasking with a laptop during a university lecture. Through the experiment they were able to determine that “students with a high [and long] frequency of software multitasking during lectures will exhibit lower academic performance than students with a low [and short] frequency of software multitasking” (Kraushaar & Novak, 2010, p.6). This shows that repeated and lengthy multitasking with technology in particular laptops during lecture times can cause extremely negative results in a students academic performances and
In this day of instant information gratification, information overload is inevitable. On the organizational level, this can lead to decreased productivity due to the constant barrage of interruptions from being continually connected. Gone are the days of being able to focus on one task at a time, and multitasking is the new norm, despite the fact that multitasking greatly decreases productivity. Research indicates that people who multitask not only take longer to complete their tasks, but they also commit more errors (Dean & Webb, 2011). In a 2006 study of how the brain functions during multitasking, it was found that the area of the brain that processes information, bottlenecks the information; thus the brain cannot process information concurrently, causing a delay in being able to complete concurrent tasks. (Asplund, Dux, Ivanoff, & Marois, 2006). Also, information overloa...
In this article that was about being a multitasker, it stated that with studies and research
Although there is controversy over whether multitasking is possible or if it saves time or increases productivity, people still continue to attempt to multitask. In a survey that I conducted, given to ten people, all ten people said they multitask; however not everyone agreed on whether or not it saved time or made them more productive. Interestingly, one person said he multitasked all the time, but stated it did not work at all, nor did it save time or make him more productive. Another person who said he multitasked occasionally suggested it did make him more productive, but he could not think of an example of when he multitasked. Three people even put limits on the number of tasks or amount of time you have in order to determine when multitasking can make you more productive or saves time. According to the American Psychological Association’s (APA) article “Multitasking: Switching Costs,” however, multitasking makes you less productive because your brain switches from one task to another relatively slowly. The reason behind this differing opinion could be the various definition of multitasking. There are many conflicting ideas on what multitasking is and whether or not it can be done.
Technology has always been improving over the decades, and now it has improved to the point where it’s a part of a human being’s life. People can’t imagine living without technology anymore nowadays, and especially college students who are always on their phones and laptops during lectures. That leads to what is known as multitasking, which is the ability to take care of more than one task at the same time. Multitasking has been popularized by students, and specifically college students, who think that they are actually successful at doing it. Unfortunately, according to Digital Nation: Life on the Virtual Frontier, after testing students who think they are brilliant at multitasking, results showed that they are terrible at every aspect of multitasking; consequently, it is not successful.
The popular belief that multitasking is efficient, and the new-age generation is hard wired for multitasking, is highly misguided. Truth is, effective multitasking is an oxymoron. It’s not uncommon to see a person texting while walking down the street, listening to music while doing homework, or staring at a computer screen with multiple tabs and windows open. It’s hard not to multitask, given the amount of work people have to do and the non-stop information being thrown at them. People will do it as a force of habit; they think it will help them accomplish more tasks in a shorter time period. More often than not, they find it being the complete opposite. The brain can only process one activity at a time; instead, it switches gears, which takes time, reduces accuracy, distracts, and hinders creative thoughts. So, the real question should be: is multitasking actually worth the time? No, multitasking negatively affects people in all aspects of their life.
University of California - Los Angeles (2006, July 26). Multi-tasking Adversely Affects Brain's Learning, UCLA Psycholo