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Emily Supertaskers: Why Some Can Do Two Things at Once
This piece from Time Magazine caught my eye. Here's the start of it.
Multitasking has become a way of life. Most of us think nothing of juggling a couple of chores at once, whether at home or in the office or, most dangerously, on the road. And despite some states' bans on talking while driving, as well as a raft of studies showing the potential deadliness of distracted driving, chances are good that you still have cell-phone conversations behind the wheel.
Chances are also good that you think it's O.K. because you're a truly capable multitasker. Maybe you even consider yourself one of the few supertaskers who, unlike the rest of us, are so mentally agile that they can safely talk or text — or pen a novel — while driving.
A new University of Utah study on distraction in the driver's seat finds that such virtuosos do exist: the paper, which has been accepted for publication this year in the journal Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, found that a very small percentage of participants — 2.5% to be exact — were able to do other things successfully while driving (in the study, it was solving math problems and memorizing words) without a drop in performance on any task.
In fact, some of these supertaskers performed better while multitasking than they did while completing the tasks alone. The authors of the study suggest that there may be a set of biological, genetic and perhaps behavioral factors that contribute to efficient multitasking, and that maybe some of these factors can even be learned to make the rest of us better at doing two things at once.
Here's the link to the rest of the story: http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1977523,00.html
about 1 year ago - Comment
Deborah The "multi-tasking" term that so many have embraced, seems a term over-used and applauded. Mostly by women, it seems to me. *aghast* (I have heard countless women brag about this) Perhaps out of neccessity? I don't know, I hate it. Hate it. Multi-taksing generally means that NOTHING really gets the attention it deserves or requires. So, now we're surprised that people are doing 12 things while driving? I'm not buying this study.
about 1 year ago