The Downside to Multitasking

With the advent of technology the push seems to be on to get more done... be more productive... It is supposed to be "time saving." Personally, I don't think it does save you any time in the long run. And studies have shown that you are less efficient when you multitask.

There was a study that came out in 2001 and presented by the APA.... I have to report on it simply because it is the APA. Before I mention the findings I want to point out that this was initially published back in 2001... and yet the push continues to multitask more... not less. In the study subjects switched between tasks. The researchers measured speed of performance as a function of whether successive tasks were familiar or unfamiliar, and whether the rules for performing them were simple or complex. What they found is that subjects lost time when they had to switch from one task to another, and the time costs increased with the complexity of the tasks. There was also a greater time cost when the task was unfamiliar. Their conclusion was that while multi-tasking may appear more efficient on the surface it may actually take more time in the end. As the author points out that 1/2 second of task switching may mean the difference between life and death for the driver that is also talking on a cell phone as you are not totally in control during that time.

As a side note... and only sort of related.... I was watching Mythbusters the other day and they were discussing the effect of talking on a cell phone and being intoxicated while driving. Basically they did a road course under three conditions: Control, Cell Phone and Alcohol. Under the control condition they passed all of the driving tests. Next up was the cell phone use. They failed over half the course. Then there was the alcohol. I should point out that they were not over the legal limit before driving. They also failed over half the course. So which one had a bigger impact? Cell phone usage. There was an interesting point brought up however. At least with a cell phone you can put it down or turn it off. You can't instantaniously sober up.

In another study they examined learning and discovered that distractions affect the way you learn and can make it more difficult to recall the information later on. It seems there are 2 ways to learn: declarative learning involving the medial temporal lobe and deals with learning facts in an active manner and habit learning involving the striatum. Take learning a phone number for instance. You can either memorize it (declarative learning) or punch it in 1000 times (habit learning). Obviously, if you memorize it then you can always recall it later. Habit learning, is situation specific. You have to be at the phone to recall it. When subjects were distracted while learning a new concept they were more likely to use habit learning instead of declarative learning. As a result it made it more difficult to recall it later on when not under the same conditions.

A New York Times article talked about leaving the multitasking to the computer. A Microsoft research scientist found that when interrupted by a phone call, email, or instant message it took an average of 15 minutes to return to the task at hand. What he was surprised by is how easily someone was distracted and how long it took to get back to the task.

I am currently at work. While I am not taking any calls at the moment I am getting distracted by conversations, questions, and random web sites. As a result it's probably taken me about 2 hours to write this when if I was focused just on it I probably would've been done in about 15 minutes. So back to my thoughts that the Saturn ad is right and maybe we should be getting back to single tasking.