tag:theconversation.com,2011:/us/topics/multitasking-7165/articlesMultitasking – The Conversation2024-03-11T16:11:24Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2254812024-03-11T16:11:24Z2024-03-11T16:11:24ZMental workload: how can we prevent our brains from overheating?<p>Is it possible to read your e-mails while keeping weekend plans in mind and listening to someone on the phone? Multitasking is part and parcel of our daily lives, with teleworking and the rapid expansion – if not invasion – of digital technology. </p>
<p>We may feel like we’re doing two things at the same time, but in reality our brain unconsciously shifts its attention from one task to another very quickly. After more than 50 years of scientific research, the expression <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/engineering/mental-workload">“mental workload”</a> is starting to be heard in everyday life and a variety of professional contexts. But the concept still raises many questions, both about its precise definition and about how to study it or manage it on a day-to-day basis.</p>
<p>Also known as cognitive workload, mental workload corresponds to a <a href="http://arpege-recherche.org/user/pages/06.activites/03.colloques-epique/11.10e-colloque-epique/Actes_EPIQUE_2019.pdf">quantity of mental work to be done in a given time</a>, with potential consequences for the individual, such as rising fatigue or the number of errors in carrying out tasks. Examples include searching through a cluttered visual display, taking a difficult exam or driving on a busy motorway. These and other activities call on perceptual, cognitive and/or motor processes to produce <a href="https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-295X.84.1.1">flexible and adaptive behaviour</a>. </p>
<p>The engagement, maintenance and control of these processes require different levels of mental effort depending on the circumstances (routine activities versus sudden events). Sometimes this massive mental effort leads to what scientists call “cognitive overload” or “mental overload”.</p>
<h2>Searching for a universal definition</h2>
<p>Researchers are still struggling to come up with a universal definition that cuts across the disciplines concerned with mental workload, including psychology, management and cognitive science. For some, it corresponds to the notion of an individual’s <a href="https://kahneman.scholar.princeton.edu/sites/g/files/toruqf3831/files/kahneman/files/attention_lo_quality.pdf">limited capacity</a> to process information – a “reservoir” of attentional resources. For others, it refers to the management of attentional resources and focuses on the <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1518/001872008X288394">demands of the task in hand</a>. Among the many <a href="https://apps.dtic.mil/sti/pdfs/ADA474193.pdf">definitions proposed</a>, mental workload can be defined as the effort invested by the individual in carrying out a task as a function of the resources available and the characteristics of the task.</p>
<p>In neuroscience, cognitive psychology and ergonomics (the scientific discipline concerned with the relationship between human beings and their work), the study of mental workload relates in particular to so-called safety-critical applications.</p>
<p>When the cognitive cost exceeds the available resources, the result can be <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0018720813510735">“inattentional deafness”</a>.</p>
<p>The overload produced accentuates the risk of accidents. In fields such as aviation, space flight, defence and medicine, the result can be catastrophic – for example, when a pilot is landing in poor weather conditions.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Pilot landing an airplane" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/580925/original/file-20240311-24-d7ujzf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/580925/original/file-20240311-24-d7ujzf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/580925/original/file-20240311-24-d7ujzf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/580925/original/file-20240311-24-d7ujzf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/580925/original/file-20240311-24-d7ujzf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/580925/original/file-20240311-24-d7ujzf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/580925/original/file-20240311-24-d7ujzf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Aviation is filled with</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.pexels.com/photo/pilot-flying-airplane-5129525/">Roger Brown/Pexels</a>, <a class="license" href="http://artlibre.org/licence/lal/en">FAL</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>While laboratory studies have advanced our knowledge of brain function during a given task, it is important to assess an individual’s performance and mental load in the complex work environments encountered in everyday life. The discipline of neuroergonomics, which was founded in the late 20th century, brings together the approaches and tools of neuroscience, ergonomics and engineering. It’s defined as the <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0963721411409176">study of the human brain in relation to performance at work and in everyday life</a>. One example is the measurement of brain activity in surgeons, for whom <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2405844023064666">increased mental workload can lead to errors and adversely affect performance</a>.</p>
<h2>How can mental workload be studied?</h2>
<p>No single tool or method can give a complete picture of how an individual responds to a particular task. Approaches that combine <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41583-023-00692-y">data from several sensors or measurements</a> can be more accurate and reliable for estimating mental workload in real time. This is all the more true in changing environments (fluctuations in lighting, temperature, noise, etc.) or contexts requiring adaptation to the situation (discomfort, technical incidents, etc.).</p>
<p>Self-assessment questionnaires can be used to collect people’s perceptions of the task they are performing. For example, by incorporating a multidimensional evaluation procedure, the <a href="https://humansystems.arc.nasa.gov/groups/tlx/downloads/TLXScale.pdf">NASA-TLX questionnaire</a> provides an overall mental workload score during or after the task. It is based on a weighted average of the scores (from 0 to 100) of six subjective areas. These are:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>Mental demand: level of mental activity.</p></li>
<li><p>Physical demand: level of physical activity.</p></li>
<li><p>Temporal demand: feeling of pressure to complete the task within a given time.</p></li>
<li><p>Performance: level of achievement of the task objectives.</p></li>
<li><p>Effort: amount of effort involved.</p></li>
<li><p>Frustration: feeling of dissatisfaction while completing the task.</p></li>
</ul>
<p>Analysing performance on a single task can also help to estimate mental workload. For example, more frequent errors or a reduction in the speed with which information is processed may indicate a higher mental load if the demands of the task increase. In the case of a dual cognitive-motor task (phoning while driving, <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0001457516304389">finding your way while cycling or walking</a>…), the sharing of resources thus created can lead to a drop in performance compared with performing each of the two tasks separately.</p>
<p>Neuroergonomics also proposes the integration of objective measures to assess mental workload <a href="https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fnhum.2019.00375/full">using several techniques</a> in environments that vary over time – workplaces, classrooms, hospitals, motorways, and so on. For example, eye-tracking analysis can provide information on mental workload by measuring where an individual directs her or his attention. Physiological measures such as heart rate and its variability, electrodermal activity and even portable brain imaging can provide specific neurophysiological indicators of mental workload.</p>
<h2>The brain’s prefrontal cortex is a key indicator</h2>
<p>Mental workload manifests itself particularly in the prefrontal cortex, the area of the brain that has undergone the greatest development in human beings over the last few million years. This part of our brain is heavily involved in <a href="https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.1088545">cognitive control</a>, a mechanism for supervising and managing the decision-making process. It involves conflict resolution, error detection and inhibition, and aims to guarantee a sufficient level of performance in relation to the demands of the task and unforeseen events, while maintaining an acceptable cognitive cost.</p>
<p>Measuring the activation of the prefrontal cortex can provide information about the quantity of resources mobilised. Indeed, difficult tasks or those requiring sustained attention lead to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/cercor/bht206">more pronounced activation of the prefrontal cortex and associated brain networks</a>.</p>
<p>This also occurs during demanding physical effort in complex environments, such as in traffic situations with a bicycle, where each cyclist acts individually, weighing up the costs and benefits of each choice. In this dual-task situation, both physical and cognitive, the <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0001457514003157">speed choice decision</a> is cognitively controlled.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Man working being distracted by two people talking nearby" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/580935/original/file-20240311-16-jsqj90.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/580935/original/file-20240311-16-jsqj90.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/580935/original/file-20240311-16-jsqj90.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/580935/original/file-20240311-16-jsqj90.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/580935/original/file-20240311-16-jsqj90.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/580935/original/file-20240311-16-jsqj90.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/580935/original/file-20240311-16-jsqj90.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Something as simple as two coworkers talking nearby can complicate tasks that are normally managable.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.pexels.com/photo/a-stressed-employee-at-work-7640731/">Yan Krukau/Pexels</a>, <a class="license" href="http://artlibre.org/licence/lal/en">FAL</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Managing the load</h2>
<p>In demanding contexts, our mental load can shift under the influence of various external and internal factors. So how do we deal with the multitude of factors to which we have to pay attention? Here are four specific suggestions:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>Draw up an overview of all the tasks that need to be done and prioritise them. This allows building up a sequence of tasks to be completed in order, and to set aside the nonessential ones.</p></li>
<li><p>Each task should correspond to specific short-term objectives of 20 minutes or so.</p></li>
<li><p>Adapt work breaks to the task in hand. This allows you to manage mental workload effectively and reduce distracting interruptions.</p></li>
<li><p>Always allow yourself adequate recovery time (reading, sport, etc.).</p></li>
</ul>
<p>Applying the principles of neuroergonomics can provide personalised and effective solutions for managing mental workload. Research remains extremely relevant, particularly when taking account individual ways people process information and interact with the environment. In this respect, <a href="https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fnhum.2020.609096/full">the use of artificial intelligence methods</a> to extract information from several measurements is an interesting way of continuously assessing the mental load of an individual engaged in a task.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/225481/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Stéphane Perrey ne travaille pas, ne conseille pas, ne possède pas de parts, ne reçoit pas de fonds d'une organisation qui pourrait tirer profit de cet article, et n'a déclaré aucune autre affiliation que son organisme de recherche.</span></em></p>Despite being a central concept in the digital age, mental workload remains difficult to define and study in real-life situations.Stéphane Perrey, Professeur des Universités en Physiologie de l'Exercice / Neurosciences Intégratives, Directeur Unité Recherche EuroMov Digital Health in Motion, Université de MontpellierLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2183432024-01-01T20:35:27Z2024-01-01T20:35:27ZThink you’re good at multi-tasking? Here’s how your brain compensates – and how this changes with age<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/565375/original/file-20231213-19-b09oz2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C197%2C2995%2C1800&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://unsplash.com/photos/unknown-persons-using-computer-indoors-nFLmPAf9dVc">Arlington Research/Unsplash</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>We’re all time-poor, so multi-tasking is seen as a necessity of modern living. We answer work emails while watching TV, make shopping lists in meetings and listen to podcasts when doing the dishes. We attempt to split our attention countless times a day when juggling both mundane and important tasks. </p>
<p>But doing two things at the same time isn’t always as productive or safe as focusing on one thing at a time.</p>
<p>The dilemma with multi-tasking is that when tasks become complex or energy-demanding, like driving a car while talking on the phone, our performance often drops on one or both. </p>
<p>Here’s why – and how our ability to multi-task changes as we age. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/women-arent-better-multitaskers-than-men-theyre-just-doing-more-work-121620">Women aren't better multitaskers than men – they're just doing more work</a>
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<h2>Doing more things, but less effectively</h2>
<p>The issue with multi-tasking at a brain level, is that two tasks performed at the same time often compete for common neural pathways – like two intersecting streams of traffic on a road. </p>
<p>In particular, the brain’s <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0149763416300604">planning centres</a> in the frontal cortex (and connections to parieto-cerebellar system, among others) are needed for both motor and cognitive tasks. The more tasks rely on the same sensory system, like vision, the greater the interference. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Regions of the brain" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/566167/original/file-20231217-25-l8zcdp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/566167/original/file-20231217-25-l8zcdp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=420&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566167/original/file-20231217-25-l8zcdp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=420&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566167/original/file-20231217-25-l8zcdp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=420&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566167/original/file-20231217-25-l8zcdp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=528&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566167/original/file-20231217-25-l8zcdp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=528&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566167/original/file-20231217-25-l8zcdp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=528&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The brain’s action planning centres are in the frontal cortex (blue), with reciprocal connections to parietal cortex (yellow) and the cerebellum (grey), among others.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-vector/brain-areas-parts-functions-regions-anatomy-2159624763">grayjay/Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>This is why multi-tasking, such as talking on the phone, while driving can be risky. It <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6521777/#:%7E:text=These%20findings%20show%20that%20when,dangerous%20or%20risky%20behavioral%20responses.">takes longer</a> to react to critical events, such as a car braking suddenly, and you have a higher risk of missing critical signals, such as a red light. </p>
<p>The more involved the phone conversation, the <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/7487625_Using_Mobile_Telephones_Cognitive_Workload_and_Attention_Resource_Allocation">higher the accident risk</a>, even when talking “hands-free”.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Man drives car, while chatting" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/565378/original/file-20231213-26-mh6h0x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/565378/original/file-20231213-26-mh6h0x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/565378/original/file-20231213-26-mh6h0x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/565378/original/file-20231213-26-mh6h0x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/565378/original/file-20231213-26-mh6h0x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/565378/original/file-20231213-26-mh6h0x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/565378/original/file-20231213-26-mh6h0x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Having a conversation while driving slows your reaction time.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/young-asian-man-drives-car-on-2291045823">GBJSTOCK/Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Generally, the more skilled you are on a primary motor task, the better able you are to juggle another task at the same time. Skilled surgeons, for example, can <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1553350611430673">multitask more effectively</a> than residents, which is reassuring in a busy operating suite. </p>
<p>Highly automated skills and efficient brain processes mean <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0304394023003671?via%3Dihub">greater</a> flexibility when multi-tasking. </p>
<h2>Adults are better at multi-tasking than kids</h2>
<p>Both brain capacity and experience endow adults with a greater capacity for multi-tasking compared with children. </p>
<p>You may have noticed that when you start thinking about a problem, you walk more slowly, and sometimes to a standstill if deep in thought. The ability to walk and think at the same time gets better over childhood and adolescence, as do other types of multi-tasking. </p>
<p>When <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00222895.2020.1791038">children</a> do these two things at once, their walking speed and smoothness both wane, particularly when also doing a memory task (like recalling a sequence of numbers), verbal fluency task (like naming animals) or a fine-motor task (like buttoning up a shirt). Alternately, outside the lab, the cognitive task might fall by wayside as the motor goal takes precedence. </p>
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<p>
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Read more:
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</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Brain maturation has a lot to do with these age differences. A larger prefrontal cortex helps share cognitive resources between tasks, thereby reducing the costs. This means better capacity to maintain performance at or near single-task levels. </p>
<p>The white matter tract that connects our two hemispheres (the corpus callosum) also takes a long time to fully mature, placing limits on how well children can walk around and do manual tasks (like texting on a phone) together. </p>
<p>For a child or adult with motor skill difficulties, or <a href="https://canchild.ca/en/diagnoses/developmental-coordination-disorder">developmental coordination disorder</a>, multi-tastking errors are more common. Simply standing still while solving a visual task (like judging which of two lines is longer) is hard. When walking, it takes <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/27428781/">much longer</a> to complete a path if it also involves cognitive effort along the way. So you can imagine how difficult walking to school could be. </p>
<h2>What about as we approach older age?</h2>
<p>Older adults are more prone to multi-tasking errors. When walking, for example, adding another task generally means older adults walk much slower and with less fluid movement than younger adults. </p>
<p>These age differences are <a href="https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fneur.2018.00913/full">even more pronounced</a> when obstacles must be avoided or the path is winding or uneven. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Two older people walk together" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/565383/original/file-20231213-25-6cs3l0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/565383/original/file-20231213-25-6cs3l0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/565383/original/file-20231213-25-6cs3l0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/565383/original/file-20231213-25-6cs3l0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/565383/original/file-20231213-25-6cs3l0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/565383/original/file-20231213-25-6cs3l0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/565383/original/file-20231213-25-6cs3l0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Our ability to multi-task reduces with age.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/couple-elderly-people-walk-park-748880338">Shutterstock/Grizanda</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Older adults <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/20445911.2022.2143788">tend to</a> enlist more of their prefrontal cortex when walking and, especially, when multi-tasking. This creates more interference when the same brain networks are also enlisted to perform a cognitive task. </p>
<p>These age differences in performance of <a href="https://journals.humankinetics.com/view/journals/japa/25/4/article-p671.xml">multi-tasking</a> might be more “compensatory” than anything else, allowing older adults more time and safety when negotiating events around them. </p>
<h2>Older people can practise and improve</h2>
<p>Testing multi-tasking capabilities can <a href="https://bmcgeriatr.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12877-022-03271-5">tell clinicians</a> about an older patient’s risk of future falls better than an assessment of walking alone, even for healthy people living in the community. </p>
<p>Testing can be as simple as asking someone to walk a path while either mentally subtracting by sevens, carrying a cup and saucer, or balancing a ball on a tray. </p>
<p>Patients can then <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-022-11489-x">practise and improve these abilities</a> by, for example, pedalling an exercise bike or walking on a treadmill while composing a poem, making a shopping list, or playing a word game. </p>
<p>The goal is for patients to be able to divide their attention more efficiently across two tasks and to ignore distractions, <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/37772294/">improving</a> speed and balance.</p>
<h2>There are times when we do think better when moving</h2>
<p>Let’s not forget that a good walk can help unclutter our mind and promote creative thought. And, <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0966636221001156?via%3Dihub">some research shows</a> walking can improve our ability to search and respond to visual events in the environment.</p>
<h2>But often, it’s better to focus on one thing at a time</h2>
<p>We often overlook the emotional and energy costs of multi-tasking when time-pressured. In many areas of life – home, work and school – we think it will save us time and energy. But the reality can be different. </p>
<p>Multi-tasking can sometimes sap our reserves and <a href="https://www.mdpi.com/2076-3425/9/11/290">create stress</a>, raising our cortisol levels, especially when we’re <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/17437199.2022.2071323">time-pressured</a>. If such performance is sustained over long periods, it can leave you feeling fatigued or just plain empty. </p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-much-energy-do-we-expend-thinking-and-using-our-brain-197990">How much energy do we expend thinking and using our brain?</a>
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<p>Deep thinking is energy demanding by itself and so caution is sometimes warranted when acting at the same time – such as being immersed in deep thought while crossing a busy road, descending steep stairs, using power tools, or climbing a ladder. </p>
<p>So, pick a good time to ask someone a vexed question – perhaps not while they’re cutting vegetables with a sharp knife. Sometimes, it’s better to focus on one thing at a time.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/218343/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Peter Wilson has received prior funding from the Australian Research Council (ARC), studying the motor and cognitive development of children. He currently receives funding from the Australian Automobile Association (AAA), studying hazard perception in older adult pedestrians. </span></em></p>Doing two things at the same time isn’t always as productive, healthy or safe as focusing on one thing at a time.Peter Wilson, Professor of Developmental Psychology, Australian Catholic UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1979902023-04-25T20:01:07Z2023-04-25T20:01:07ZHow much energy do we expend thinking and using our brain?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/519712/original/file-20230406-26-suabo0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=89%2C148%2C6488%2C4223&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://unsplash.com/photos/rAT6FJ6wltE">Soundtrap/Unsplash</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>After a long day of work or study, your brain might feel like it has been drained of energy. But does our brain burn more energy when engaging in mental athletics than it does during other activities, such as watching TV?</p>
<p>To answer this question, we have to look at the engine room of our brain: the nerve cells. The main energy currency of our brain cells is a molecule called adenosine triphosphate (or ATP), which our body makes from sugar and oxygen.</p>
<p>Tracing brain energy consumption can be done using both sugar and oxygen, but oxygen is the more accessible option.</p>
<p>Tracing oxygen consumption, the brain <a href="https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.172399499">accounts for</a> about 20% of the body’s energy consumption, despite only representing 2% of its weight. </p>
<p>That’s around 0.3 kilowatt hours (kWh) per day for an average adult, more than 100 times what the <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/christopherhelman/2013/09/07/how-much-energy-does-your-iphone-and-other-devices-use-and-what-to-do-about-it/">typical smartphone requires</a> daily. And it’s equivalent to 260 calories or 1,088 kilojoules (kJ) a day (an average adult’s total energy intake is around 8,700 kJ a day).</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/curious-kids-how-much-does-a-brain-weigh-112000">Curious Kids: how much does a brain weigh?</a>
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<h2>How do we know?</h2>
<p>In 2012, British neuroscientist David Attwell and colleagues <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3390818/">measured oxygen consumption</a> in slices of rat brains. </p>
<p>They determined that while 25% of energy needs are used for housekeeping activities, like maintenance of cell walls, the bulk 75% is used for information processing, such as computing and transmitting neural signals.</p>
<p>We can’t measure brain energy consumption in humans in this way, but we can follow the oxygen, as increased brain activity requires more oxygen.</p>
<p>One approach to measuring our bodies’ oxygen consumption changes is to measure CO₂ levels via a capnography device (where air goes into a tube). This requires participants to wear a mask but is otherwise <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capnography">non-invasive</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Woman works at a multi-screen computer" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/519713/original/file-20230406-18-qwccg2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/519713/original/file-20230406-18-qwccg2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/519713/original/file-20230406-18-qwccg2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/519713/original/file-20230406-18-qwccg2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/519713/original/file-20230406-18-qwccg2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/519713/original/file-20230406-18-qwccg2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/519713/original/file-20230406-18-qwccg2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Our brains use more oxygen when performing more challenging tasks.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.pexels.com/photo/woman-coding-on-computer-3861958/">This is Engineering/Pexels</a></span>
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<p>Research indeed shows increased mental load (such as performing mental arithmetic, reasoning, or multitasking) is linked to increased oxygen consumption (measured via <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4923594/">CO₂ release</a>). </p>
<p>However, the increased oxygen consumption could also be due to the whole body reacting to an emotional, stressful situation and not reflecting actual changes in brain activity.</p>
<h2>Can we measure oxygen use just in the brain?</h2>
<p>It’s complicated. Increased brain activity triggers an increased supply of oxygen-rich blood. That extra supply of oxygen-rich blood is region specific and can be (literally) channelled with micrometre precision to active neurons.</p>
<p>Since blood and its oxygen are weakly attracted by <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paramagnetism">magnetic fields</a>, we can use MRI (magnetic resonance imaging), a radiation-free tool, to obtain an, albeit indirect, measure of brain activity.</p>
<p>But unfortunately, we can’t use MRI to tell us how much energy our brain uses for different mental activities. MRI studies can only identify relative differences in brain activity and energy consumption rather than absolute values. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/5-reasons-why-zoom-meetings-are-so-exhausting-137404">5 reasons why Zoom meetings are so exhausting</a>
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<p>This makes sense, however, given that our brain is always on and therefore always has energy needs. Even in moments, we might casually consider idle-mind states, we still process vast amounts of information. </p>
<p>First, there is the ever-present sensory input: we typically don’t spend our day in a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isolation_tank">dark floatation tank</a>. </p>
<p>Second, our mental activity, even in a seemingly task-less state, will bounce from us reminiscing about past events and planning our future. </p>
<p>Last, there are our emotions, which, even when subtle (such as feelings of serenity or uncertainty), are the products of brain activity and therefore come with an ongoing energy cost.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Adult and child do a crossword on the loungeroom floor" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/519709/original/file-20230406-16-4a74vi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/519709/original/file-20230406-16-4a74vi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/519709/original/file-20230406-16-4a74vi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/519709/original/file-20230406-16-4a74vi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/519709/original/file-20230406-16-4a74vi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/519709/original/file-20230406-16-4a74vi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/519709/original/file-20230406-16-4a74vi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">We’re always processing vast amounts of information.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://unsplash.com/photos/wLpRFHJ_d24">Anthony Wade/Unsplash</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>So, how much does brain activity increase?</h2>
<p>Let’s take something simple, such as paying attention. MRI studies have shown attentively monitoring moving objects compared to passively watching them increases brain activity in our visual cortex by <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/cercor/13.4.340">around 1%</a>. </p>
<p>This doesn’t seem very much, especially considering that the occipital lobe, which houses the visual cortex (which makes sense of what we see), only makes up <a href="https://faculty.washington.edu/chudler/facts.html">about 18%</a> of our brain mass. </p>
<p>But interestingly, processing visual information leads to a <a href="https://direct.mit.edu/jocn/article-abstract/14/3/420/3621/Deactivation-of-Sensory-Specific-Cortex-by-Cross">reduction of activity</a> in auditory areas, meaning we spend less energy processing the sounds in our environment. This works the other way around as well: when we attend to auditory information, we reduce our visual processing activity. </p>
<p>On a whole-brain level, the cost of attention to a visual stimulus is probably already offset by savings in auditory processing. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Regions of the brain" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/520390/original/file-20230412-28-r07o9w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/520390/original/file-20230412-28-r07o9w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=448&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/520390/original/file-20230412-28-r07o9w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=448&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/520390/original/file-20230412-28-r07o9w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=448&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/520390/original/file-20230412-28-r07o9w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=563&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/520390/original/file-20230412-28-r07o9w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=563&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/520390/original/file-20230412-28-r07o9w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=563&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Our brain makes trade-offs when we focus on different things.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-illustration/functional-areas-brain-labeled-155445707">Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>So, in a nutshell, research tells us mental activity is indeed related to increased energy consumption. Still, the increase is minimal, region-specific and often offset by energy decreases in other areas.</p>
<h2>Then why do we feel exhausted after too much mental activity?</h2>
<p>It’s likely a result of mental stress. Complex mental tasks are typically also emotionally challenging and lead to <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3113724/">increased activation</a> of our sympathetic nervous system, ultimately leading to mental and physical fatigue.</p>
<p>The good news is we don’t have to worry that too much mental activity will drain our brain energy. But it’s still a good idea to pace yourself to avoid mental overload, stress and fatigue.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/we-studied-mental-toughness-in-ultra-marathon-runners-mind-over-matter-is-real-but-wont-take-you-all-the-way-149447">We studied mental toughness in ultra-marathon runners. Mind over matter is real — but won't take you all the way</a>
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<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/197990/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Oliver Baumann does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>We often feel drained of energy after a long day of work or study. Here’s how we measure what’s going on in our brain.Oliver Baumann, Assistant Professor, School of Psychology, Bond UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2031562023-04-06T21:39:37Z2023-04-06T21:39:37ZTikTok may be bad for privacy, but is it also harming our cognitive abilities?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/519909/original/file-20230406-20-mdf5s9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=447%2C0%2C4494%2C2961&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Attention isn't a single mechanism, but rather the result of a number of different mechanisms across various areas of the brain.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The United States government is <a href="https://theconversation.com/should-the-us-ban-tiktok-can-it-a-cybersecurity-expert-explains-the-risks-the-app-poses-and-the-challenges-to-blocking-it-202300">considering a national ban of TikTok</a>, a social media application used by <a href="https://newsroom.tiktok.com/en-us/150-m-us-users">over 150 million Americans</a>. Although the primary reason for the ban is privacy concerns, it presents an opportunity to consider other potential risks. </p>
<p>It is well known social media apps can negatively impact mental health outcomes, a fact even <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-58570353">acknowledged by Facebook’s leaked internal research</a>. The impact social media use may have on our cognitive abilities, however, is less well known.</p>
<p>As an attention researcher, I study all the different processes our brains use to focus and maintain attention. Attention isn’t a single mechanism, but rather the result of <a href="https://books.google.ca/books?hl=en&lr=&id=FNJI0Hu9-YIC&oi=fnd&pg=PA11&dq=klein+and+lawrence+attention&ots=5bvyAHCXzh&sig=m7M_bG_dNVwDZnvkLkTje3q76Ww&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=klein%20and%20lawrence%20attention&f=false">a number of different mechanisms across various areas of the brain</a>. </p>
<p>One of these mechanisms is <a href="https://dictionary.apa.org/executive-functions">executive functioning</a>, defined as our ability to focus on the task at hand and filter distractions. However, not all tasks are created equal: it’s easier to focus when the object of our attention is engaging and entertaining. </p>
<h2>Designed with attention in mind</h2>
<p>In order to keep you entertained, social media companies are <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/tiktok-algorithm-recommendation-get-bored-close-app-new-york-times-2021-12">constantly tracking the content you engage with</a>. This not only means the content you “like,” but also how long you spend on each piece of content. By doing this, the app methodically presents you with related content, to keep you on its platform as long as possible.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A section of a smartphone screen showing the TikTok logo" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/519910/original/file-20230406-24-8n6yrz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/519910/original/file-20230406-24-8n6yrz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/519910/original/file-20230406-24-8n6yrz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/519910/original/file-20230406-24-8n6yrz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/519910/original/file-20230406-24-8n6yrz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/519910/original/file-20230406-24-8n6yrz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/519910/original/file-20230406-24-8n6yrz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Social media apps methodically present related content, with the aim of keeping viewers on their platforms for as long as possible.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The way social media apps present content is crucial, as many apps now use an endless scroll feature in which users simply swipe upwards to view the next piece of content. Having a continuous stream of content is meant to absorb users into what researchers refer to as a “<a href="https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph16142612">flow state</a>.” </p>
<p>We experience flow states when we are so deeply engaged in an activity that we lose our sense of time. Flow states can be highly advantageous in a work setting, as they help us stay focused and increase efficiency in completing relevant tasks. However, social media apps try to elicit flow states to make it more difficult to leave their platform.</p>
<p>To put it briefly, companies are constantly tracking our attention and leveraging this data to keep us hooked.</p>
<p>With a majority of social media users <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/2021/04/07/social-media-use-in-2021/">logging in at least once a day</a>, and one-third of teenagers using these apps “<a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/2022/08/10/teens-social-media-and-technology-2022/">almost constantly</a>,” it raises the question of whether social media is hurting our attention abilities. </p>
<h2>The cost of task-switching</h2>
<p>Throughout the day, many individuals multitask by alternating between work-related activities and using social media platforms. According to a study conducted on middle and high school students, teenagers spend, on average, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2012.12.001">less than six minutes on a task</a> before switching to social media or texting. </p>
<p>While some forms of multitasking are harmless, like walking and chewing gum at the same time, <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/43152412">it is not possible to effectively multitask on activities that share cognitive mechanisms</a>. Instead, we engage in “task-switching,” which involves alternating between two related activities. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A woman wearing glasses sits at a laptop while looking at a smartphone and wearing a smart watch." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/519911/original/file-20230406-217-m1u4uz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/519911/original/file-20230406-217-m1u4uz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/519911/original/file-20230406-217-m1u4uz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/519911/original/file-20230406-217-m1u4uz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/519911/original/file-20230406-217-m1u4uz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/519911/original/file-20230406-217-m1u4uz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/519911/original/file-20230406-217-m1u4uz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">it is not possible to effectively multitask on activities that share cognitive mechanisms.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Think of trying to read while simultaneously engaging in conversation: it’s not possible without disengaging from one of these activities, since they both involve language processing. Social media and most forms of work fall into this category.</p>
<p>One of the problems with task switching lies in “<a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/S1364-6613(03)00028-7">switch costs</a>,” a term used to describe the negative effect that re-engaging with a task has on your cognition. This means every time you open social media while studying for school or working at your job, you will be slower and more error prone for a period of time when getting back to work. </p>
<p>Not surprisingly, people who typically engage with multiple forms of media at once show general decreases in <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2015.06.035">sustained attention</a>, or the ability to maintain focus. It is much better to block off time for work: <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/10656219.2016.1191926">20 continuous minutes of work</a> is significantly better than four five-minute blocks separated by brief social media breaks.</p>
<h2>What about executive functioning?</h2>
<p>There is limited research measuring the impact of social media use on the various aspects of executive functioning, but researchers do know a bit about how <a href="https://doi.org/10.2466/02.09.18.PR0.110.2.501-517">social media addiction</a> may impact cognition. </p>
<p>Social media addiction was determined based on a developed questionnaire which asks questions on how social media impacts mood, whether the person experiences withdrawal, and whether it negatively impacts different areas of their life. If the person scores high enough on this scale, they are considered to meet the criteria for social media addiction.</p>
<p>Those who meet that criteria tend to be more impulsive than non-addicted social media users, as measured by a <a href="https://www.oxfordreference.com/display/10.1093/oi/authority.20110803100010428">risk-assessment task</a>, in which those addicted to social media tend to make more risky choices associated with long-term losses. </p>
<p>People in the study were also more impulsive after being exposed to social media during the testing session, compared to when they were tested without exposure. However, overall, individuals with social media addiction functioned normally on many of the other cognitive assessment tasks, so it appears impulsivity is the main component of cognition being impacted with problematic social media users.</p>
<p>It’s not all bad news, though: there are possible cognitive benefits associated with social media use for some people. Researchers found social media use in middle-aged and older adults can help improve executive functioning because of <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2020.106388">the increased access to social connection it provides</a>. This offers a support channel to individuals who are <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/gps.5174">at risk for cognitive decline due to social isolation or loneliness</a>.</p>
<h2>Internet trends as a measure of attention</h2>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Students in a lecture hall all looking at their phones" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/519912/original/file-20230406-20-77rm56.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/519912/original/file-20230406-20-77rm56.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/519912/original/file-20230406-20-77rm56.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/519912/original/file-20230406-20-77rm56.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/519912/original/file-20230406-20-77rm56.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/519912/original/file-20230406-20-77rm56.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/519912/original/file-20230406-20-77rm56.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A new TikTok trend of putting multiple media in one video suggests a growing preference for content that demands less attentional effort.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Until there is more research on social media use and its effects on attention, we can look at alternate sources of data to make some early predictions. </p>
<p>One group of scientists looked at <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-019-09311-w">how long hashtags spend on the top 50 charts</a> as a measure of attention span. Researchers found that in 2013, a hashtag stayed in the top 50 for an average of 17.5 hours. This number gradually decreased to 11.9 hours by 2016. This may reflect how our capacity to engage our attention shrinks as more content becomes available.</p>
<p>More recently, there has been a trend on TikTok of <a href="https://kotaku.com/subway-surfers-tiktok-corecore-video-collage-psychology-1850061976">using split-screening to display multiple videos at once</a>. This is a new development that reflects the desire to multitask media, where a viewer can shift their eyes to another stream of content as soon as any level of boredom arises. While further research is needed to determine potential cognitive costs associated with this new style of media, the trend suggests a growing preference for content that demands less attentional effort.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/203156/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Colin McCormick receives funding from an NSERC CGS-D award. </span></em></p>With most social media users logging in at least once a day, and one-third of teens using these apps almost constantly, it raises the issue of whether social media is hurting our attention abilities.Colin McCormick, PhD Student in Cognitive Science, Dalhousie UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2028182023-03-30T15:22:15Z2023-03-30T15:22:15ZToo many digital distractions are eroding our ability to read deeply, and here’s how we can become aware of what’s happening — podcast<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/518297/original/file-20230329-24-kr4oj3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C51%2C3840%2C2103&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Constant distractions affect our ability to concentrate.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Staying focused on a single task for a long period of time is a growing concern. We are confronted with and have to process incredible amounts of information daily, and our brains are often functioning in overdrive to manage the processing and decision-making required. </p>
<p>In an era of ceaseless notifications from apps, devices and social media platforms, as well as access to more information than we could possibly consider, how do we find ways to manage? And is the way we think, focus and process information changing as a result?</p>
<p>In this episode of The Conversation Weekly, we speak with three researchers who study human-computer interaction, technology design and literacy about how all of these demands on our attention are affecting us, and what we can do about it.</p>
<iframe src="https://embed.acast.com/60087127b9687759d637bade/6425436b8168410011e26a64" frameborder="0" width="100%" height="190px"></iframe>
<p><iframe id="tc-infographic-561" class="tc-infographic" height="100" src="https://cdn.theconversation.com/infographics/561/4fbbd099d631750693d02bac632430b71b37cd5f/site/index.html" width="100%" style="border: none" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
<h2>Enhancing learning</h2>
<p>Maryanne Wolf is the director of the Center for Dyslexia, Diverse Learners and Social Justice at the University of California in the United States. Her book, <a href="https://www.harpercollins.com/products/proust-and-the-squid-maryanne-wolf"><em>Proust and the Squid</em></a>, presents a history of how the reading brain developed. Since its publication in 2008, Wolf has published extensively on literacy and reading research.</p>
<p>Wolf believes that reading is important because it contributes to a person’s potential and enhances the ability to learn, think and be discerning: </p>
<p>“I’ve become, in essence, obsessed with the deep reading processes that expand the reading brain of the child to achieve their academic potential. But that foundation expands over time with everything we read and learn, so that we begin to be human beings who have the ability to take their background knowledge, use with logical thinking to infer what is the truth — or the lack of truth — in what they are reading.”</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/518306/original/file-20230329-26-ysz14o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="a child lying on the floor reads from a book" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/518306/original/file-20230329-26-ysz14o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/518306/original/file-20230329-26-ysz14o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518306/original/file-20230329-26-ysz14o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518306/original/file-20230329-26-ysz14o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518306/original/file-20230329-26-ysz14o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518306/original/file-20230329-26-ysz14o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518306/original/file-20230329-26-ysz14o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Reading can help children develop empathy and logical thinking.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shu</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Wolf is concerned that the amount of interaction we have with our screens and devices — and the speed at which we necessarily have to function — has changed us by removing from us the ability to be present.</p>
<p>“We have all changed. We don’t even realize it, but there’s a patience that’s needed inside ourselves to give attention to inference, empathy, critical analysis. It takes effort. And we’re so accustomed to going so fast that the immersiveness is difficult.”</p>
<h2>Capturing attention</h2>
<p>Kai Lukoff is an assistant professor at Santa Clara University in the U.S., where he directs the Human-Computer Interaction Lab. He researches how apps, platform and technology designers attempt to capture a user’s attention.</p>
<p>“There are a thousand or more engineers, developers, designers on the other side of the screen who are purposefully or intentionally designing these services in order to capture your attention, to get you to spend more time on the site, to get you to click on more ads. And it can be difficult to resist or even understand what’s happening to you when you feel tempted or lost. But of course, that’s not by accident.”</p>
<p>And so as a response, we learn how to quickly sift through content. In other words, we skim as an adaptive strategy. Skimming undermines the kind of attention Wolf notes is required to reap the intellectual, mental and cognitive benefits of deeper reading.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/518296/original/file-20230329-14-qr1qnh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="a man holds two smartphones in his hand while sitting in front of a laptop showing charts on its screen" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/518296/original/file-20230329-14-qr1qnh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/518296/original/file-20230329-14-qr1qnh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518296/original/file-20230329-14-qr1qnh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518296/original/file-20230329-14-qr1qnh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518296/original/file-20230329-14-qr1qnh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518296/original/file-20230329-14-qr1qnh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518296/original/file-20230329-14-qr1qnh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">There’s a cognitive cost to media multi-tasking.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Cognitive cost</h2>
<p>Daniel Le Roux, a senior lecturer at Stellenbosch University in South Africa, is a computer scientist who investigates the psychology of human-computer interaction. He looks at the effects of what we’re doing when we’re “media multitasking,” how we navigate multiple platforms, events and processes — both online and offline — at the same time.</p>
<p>“Everybody’s doing it, and it’s, in a large way, a natural adaptation to the technological environment that that has been created around us.”</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/your-phone-and-your-brain-what-we-know-so-far-161116">Your phone and your brain - what we know so far</a>
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</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Media multi-tasking, like skimming, is an adaptive response to an environment inundated with information. And media multi-tasking comes at a cognitive cost, Le Roux points out.</p>
<p>“We incur what we might call a switch cost; that means our performance in our focal task is going to suffer. If you think of driving as the focal task, the reason we prohibit drivers from using their smartphones while they’re driving is it because it distracts them from the task of driving.”</p>
<hr>
<p>This episode was hosted by Nehal El-Hadi and written by Mend Mariwany. The executive producer is Mend Mariwany. Eloise Stevens does our sound design, and our theme music is by Neeta Sarl.</p>
<p>You can find us on Twitter <a href="https://twitter.com/TC_Audio">@TC_Audio</a>, on Instagram at <a href="https://www.instagram.com/theconversationdotcom/">theconversationdotcom</a> or <a href="mailto:podcast@theconversation.com">via email</a>. You can also subscribe to The Conversation’s <a href="https://theconversation.com/newsletter">free daily email here</a>. A transcript of this episode will be available soon.</p>
<p>Listen to “The Conversation Weekly” via any of the apps listed above, download it directly via our <a href="https://feeds.acast.com/public/shows/60087127b9687759d637bade">RSS feed</a> or find out <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-to-listen-to-the-conversations-podcasts-154131">how else to listen here</a>.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/202818/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kai Lukoff's doctoral research was funded in part by the U.S. National Science Foundation and a Google Faculty Research Award.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Daniel B. le Roux and Maryanne Wolf do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>With the proliferation of social media platforms, smart devices and apps, the demands on our attention have never been greater. But how is this affecting our ability to process and retain information?Nehal El-Hadi, Science + Technology Editor & Co-Host of The Conversation Weekly Podcast, The ConversationDaniel Merino, Associate Science Editor & Co-Host of The Conversation Weekly Podcast, The ConversationLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2011492023-03-29T12:28:19Z2023-03-29T12:28:19ZBrains also have supply chain issues – blood flows where it can, and neurons must make do with what they get<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/516713/original/file-20230321-20-at1818.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C1921%2C1561&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Blood carries oxygen and vital nutrients to the brain.
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/cerebral-angiography-image-from-fluoroscopy-in-royalty-free-image/1473413961">Mr. Suphachai Praserdumrongchai/iStock via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><a href="https://doi.org/10.3389/fnint.2022.818685">Neuroscientists have long assumed</a> that neurons are greedy, hungry units that demand more energy when they become more active, and the circulatory system complies by providing as much blood as they require to fuel their activity. Indeed, as neuronal activity increases in response to a task, blood flow to that part of the brain increases even more than its rate of energy use, leading to a surplus. This increase is the basis of common <a href="https://doi.org/10.3389/fnint.2022.818685">functional imaging technology</a> that generates colored maps of brain activity.</p>
<p>Scientists used to interpret this apparent mismatch in blood flow and energy demand as evidence that there is no shortage of blood supply to the brain. The idea of a nonlimited supply was based on the observation that <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038%2Fjcbfm.2013.181">only about 40% of the oxygen</a> delivered to each part of the brain is used – and this percentage actually drops as parts of the brain become more active. It seemed to make evolutionary sense: The brain would have evolved this faster-than-needed increase in blood flow as a safety feature that guarantees sufficient oxygen delivery at all times.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/B10pc0Kizsc?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Functional magnetic resonance imaging is one of several ways to measure the brain.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>But does blood distribution in the brain actually support a demand-based system? <a href="https://scholar.google.com.br/citations?user=cldyZo8AAAAJ&hl=en">As a neuroscientist myself</a>, I had previously examined a number of other assumptions about the most basic facts about brains and found that they didn’t pan out. To name a few: Human brains <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/cne.21974">don’t have 100 billion neurons</a>, though they do <a href="https://doi.org/10.3389/fnana.2014.00046">have the most cortical neurons</a> of any species; the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aaa9101">degree of folding of the cerebral cortex</a> does not indicate how many neurons are present; and it’s not larger animals that live longer, but <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/cne.24564">those with more neurons in their cortex</a>.</p>
<p>I believe that figuring out what determines blood supply to the brain is essential to understanding how brains work in health and disease. It’s like how cities need to figure out whether the current electrical grid will be enough to support a future population increase. Brains, like cities, only work if they have enough energy supplied.</p>
<h2>Resources as highways or rivers</h2>
<p>But how could I test whether blood flow to the brain is truly demand-based? My freezers were stocked with preserved, dead brains. How do you study energy use in a brain that is not using energy anymore?</p>
<p>Luckily, the brain leaves behind evidence of its energy use through the pattern of the vessels that distribute blood throughout it. I figured I could look at the <a href="https://doi.org/10.3389/fnint.2022.760887">density of capillaries</a> – the thin, one-cell-wide vessels that transfer gases, glucose and metabolites between brain and blood. These capillary networks would be preserved in the brains in my freezers.</p>
<p>A demand-based brain should be comparable to a road system. If arteries and veins are the major highways that carry goods to the town of specific parts of the brain, capillaries are akin to the neighborhood streets that actually deliver goods to their final users: individual neurons and the cells that work with them. Streets and highways are built on demand, and a road map shows what a demand-based system looks like: Roads are often concentrated in parts of the country where there are more people – the energy-guzzling units of society.</p>
<p>In contrast, a supply-limited brain should look like the river beds of a country, which couldn’t care less about where people are located. Water will flow where it can, and cities just have to adjust and make do with what they can get. Chances are, cities will form in the vicinity of the main arteries – but absent major, purposeful remodeling, their growth and activities are limited by how much water is available.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/516731/original/file-20230321-2166-um4qs4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Microscopy image of astrocytes contacting a capillary" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/516731/original/file-20230321-2166-um4qs4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/516731/original/file-20230321-2166-um4qs4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=383&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/516731/original/file-20230321-2166-um4qs4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=383&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/516731/original/file-20230321-2166-um4qs4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=383&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/516731/original/file-20230321-2166-um4qs4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=482&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/516731/original/file-20230321-2166-um4qs4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=482&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/516731/original/file-20230321-2166-um4qs4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=482&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">This image shows astrocytes, a type of brain cell, contacting a ravinelike capillary.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/astrocyte-in-the-brain-touching-a-capillary-250x-royalty-free-image/152883277">Ed Reschke/Stone via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Would I find that capillaries are concentrated in parts of the brain with more neurons and supposedly require more energy, like streets and highways built in a demand-based manner? Or would I find that they are more like creeks and streams that permeate the land where they can, oblivious to where the most people are, in a supply-driven manner?</p>
<p>What I found was clear evidence for the latter. For <a href="https://doi.org/10.3389/fnint.2022.760887">both mice</a> <a href="https://doi.org/10.3389/fnint.2022.821850">and rats</a>, capillary density makes up a meager 2% to 4% of brain volume, regardless of how many neurons or synapses are present. Blood flows in the brain like water down rivers: where it can, not where it is needed.</p>
<p>If blood flows regardless of need, this implies that the brain actually uses blood as it is supplied. We found that the tiny variations in capillary density across different parts of dead rat brains matched perfectly with the rates of blood flow and energy use in the same parts of other living rat brains that researchers measured 15 years prior. </p>
<h2>Resolving blood flow and energy demand</h2>
<p>Could the specific density of capillaries in each part of the brain be so limiting that it dictates how much energy that part uses? And would that apply to the brain as a whole?</p>
<p>I partnered with my colleague <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=18-0e2EAAAAJ&hl=en">Doug Rothman</a> to answer these questions. Together, we discovered that not only do both human and rat brains do what they can with what blood they get and typically work at about 85% capacity, but overall brain activity is indeed <a href="https://doi.org/10.3389/fnint.2022.818685">dictated by capillary density</a>, all else being equal. </p>
<p>The reason why only 40% of the oxygen supplied to the brain actually gets used is because this is the maximum amount that can be exchanged as blood flows by – like workers trying to pick up items on an assembly line going too fast. Local arteries can deliver more blood to neurons if they start using slightly more oxygen, but this comes at the cost of diverting blood away from other parts of the brain. Since gas exchange was already near full capacity to begin with, the fraction of oxygen extraction seems to even drop with a slight increase in delivery.</p>
<p>From afar, energy use in the brain may look demand-based – but it really is supply-limited.</p>
<h2>Blood supply influences brain activity</h2>
<p>So why does any of this matter?</p>
<p>Our findings offer a possible explanation for why the brain can’t truly multitask – only quickly alternate between focuses. Because blood flow to the entire brain is tightly regulated and remains essentially constant throughout the day as you alternate between activities, our research suggests that any part of the brain that experiences an increase in activity – because you start doing math or playing a song, for example – can only get slightly more blood flow at the expense of diverting blood flow from other parts of the brain. Thus, the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1183614">inability to do two things at the same time</a> might have its origins in blood flow to the brain being supply-limited, not demand-based. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/516735/original/file-20230321-2077-i19xsb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="MRI brain scan images" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/516735/original/file-20230321-2077-i19xsb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/516735/original/file-20230321-2077-i19xsb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=727&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/516735/original/file-20230321-2077-i19xsb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=727&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/516735/original/file-20230321-2077-i19xsb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=727&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/516735/original/file-20230321-2077-i19xsb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=914&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/516735/original/file-20230321-2077-i19xsb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=914&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/516735/original/file-20230321-2077-i19xsb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=914&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A better understanding of how the brain works could offer insights into human behavior and disease.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/brain-scan-close-up-royalty-free-image/sb10069835m-001">Peter Dazeley/The Image Bank via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Our findings also offer insight into aging. If neurons must make do with what energy they can get from a mostly constant blood supply, then the parts of the brain with the highest densities of neurons will be the first to be affected when there is a shortage – just like the largest cities feel the pain of a drought before smaller ones. </p>
<p>In the cortex, the parts with the <a href="https://doi.org/10.3389/fnint.2022.821850">highest neuron densities</a> are the hippocampus and entorhinal cortex. These areas are involved in short-term memory and the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1212%2F01.wnl.0000106462.72282.90">first to suffer in aging</a>. More research is needed to test whether the parts of the brain most vulnerable to aging and disease are the ones with the greatest number of neurons packed together and competing for a limited blood supply. </p>
<p>If it’s true that capillaries, like neurons, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cmet.2019.05.010">last a lifetime</a> in humans as they do in lab mice, then they may play a bigger role in brain health than expected. To make sure your brain neurons remain healthy in old age, taking care of the capillaries that keep them supplied with blood may be a good bet. The good news is that there are two proven ways to do this: a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1001/archneurol.2011.548">healthy diet</a> and <a href="https://doi.org/10.18632/aging.103046">exercise</a>, which are never too late to begin.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/201149/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Suzana Herculano-Houzel does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Neuroscientists have typically thought of energy supply to the brain as demand-based. A supply-limited view offers another perspective toward aging and why multitasking can be difficult.Suzana Herculano-Houzel, Associate Professor of Psychology, Vanderbilt UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1690882021-10-05T02:40:24Z2021-10-05T02:40:24ZIn a lockdown, where does work end and parenting begin? Welcome to the brave new world of ‘zigzag working’<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/424378/original/file-20211004-21-li4ets.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=13%2C0%2C4528%2C2975&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>All parents work.</p>
<p>The difference lies in the breakdown between their paid and unpaid workloads. That equation is influenced by many things, including education, qualifications, age, ethnicity, financial status, number and age of dependants, gendered and societal expectations, and personal choice.</p>
<p>But during COVID-19 lockdowns, many working parents have had to conduct their paid work – usually done in the workplace – at home.</p>
<p>Personally, professionally and geographically, this is new territory — for working parents, their loved ones and their employers.</p>
<p>It is also largely uncharted territory for researchers.</p>
<p>Previous academic studies of work-life integration have largely treated home and work as <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/03075079.2017.1396584">separate domains</a>, with clearly demarcated tasks performed in distinct locations and at different times.</p>
<p>Additionally, past research into <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/09585192.2021.1961161">balancing those roles</a> and <a href="https://search.informit.org/doi/epdf/10.3316/informit.943828246670232">working flexibly</a> (including from <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/09585192.2010.528666">home</a>) has found parents mainly worked while children were at school or day care, or that they weren’t in full-time paid work. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="children at daycare" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/424382/original/file-20211004-21-ex82af.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/424382/original/file-20211004-21-ex82af.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/424382/original/file-20211004-21-ex82af.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/424382/original/file-20211004-21-ex82af.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/424382/original/file-20211004-21-ex82af.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/424382/original/file-20211004-21-ex82af.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/424382/original/file-20211004-21-ex82af.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">The daycare divide: past research showed parents mainly worked while children were at school or day care.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">shutterstock</span></span>
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<h2>The lockdown effect</h2>
<p>Lockdowns have changed that, requiring many parents to work full-time while simultaneously schooling and caring for their children.</p>
<p>In this context, we suggest established, seemingly distinct concepts such as “work-life conflict” or “work-life balance” are limited in their ability to reflect and describe this new pandemic reality.</p>
<p>To that end, we have conceived a new concept that more accurately describes the working parent’s experience of juggling paid work (formal employment) and unpaid work (such as caregiving, household duties and volunteering) when both are being performed in the same environment during the same blocks of time.</p>
<p>We call it “zigzag working”.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-double-juggle-how-working-parents-manage-school-holidays-and-their-jobs-108080">The double juggle: how working parents manage school holidays and their jobs</a>
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<h2>The working-from-home shuffle</h2>
<p>Let’s imagine a typical example: Sarah teaches 26 nine- and 10-year-olds at a local primary school and is also mum to two kids aged 11 and 15, both studying from home during lockdown. Her husband is an essential worker, so he still goes out to work during the week.</p>
<p>One hour of her morning might look something like this:</p>
<p><em>9am</em>: set up in the kitchen, designated as her “work zone”, she begins a Zoom session with her class to facilitate a 20-minute discussion</p>
<p><em>9.07am</em>: motions to her teenage son not to eat the ingredients she is planning to use for dinner that night</p>
<p><em>9.20am</em>: leaves the Zoom call, giving her students time to complete a task and for her to hang out a load of washing and reply to an email from a parent</p>
<p><em>9.35am</em>: goes online again with her students for eight minutes to check their progress</p>
<p><em>9.41am</em>: is approached by her 11-year-old daughter who needs help with her maths </p>
<p><em>9.50am</em>: brings her class back together on Zoom to hear about their work, while also indicating to her son what he can eat from the fridge</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/working-from-home-during-covid-19-what-do-employees-really-want-148424">Working from home during COVID-19: What do employees really want?</a>
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<h2>Meeting and monitoring</h2>
<p>Or another imaginary example: Ananya is a senior team manager working in banking. She’s a solo mum of twin boys aged 16, also studying at home and really missing soccer, which both play at a high level. They have a Labrador puppy. </p>
<p><em>1.15pm</em>: listening live to her CEO update, she is texting her boys to encourage them to get out for a skate rather than spend their lunchtime gaming (they ignore her)</p>
<p><em>1.30pm</em>: after the update, she grabs some of leftovers as lunch</p>
<p><em>1.37pm</em>: takes a phone call from a team member</p>
<p><em>1.48pm</em>: now that her boys have resumed online classes she sits down to reply to several emails</p>
<p><em>2.07pm</em>: encourages one son to complete an overdue school project, as well as filling the dog’s water bowl</p>
<p><em>2.11pm</em>: starts an urgent conversation via Teams with her manager</p>
<p><em>2.17pm</em>: realises one of her twins is gaming when he’s meant to be working on his project</p>
<p><em>2.19pm</em>: courier knocks on the door, no one else hears it, she interrupts another Teams meeting</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1426642290160852998"}"></div></p>
<h2>New territory for employers</h2>
<p>These scenarios illustrate the realities of zigzag working — the continuous and concurrent diving between paid and unpaid work as micro sessions, or managing paid and unpaid tasks simultaneously.</p>
<p>During lockdowns, many of the forms of support parents rely on – including relatives, paid household services, schools, day cares centres and after-school sports – are not available.</p>
<p>This is also new territory for employers, with many making up the rules as they go along and with large numbers of staff working at home full time. </p>
<p>We encourage employers to think about the roles working parents are juggling. Some tried and true forms of <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11205-018-1875-6">organisational support</a> and being a “<a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/09585192.2020.1837200">good employer</a>” will no doubt apply here.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-to-deal-with-a-year-of-accumulated-burnout-from-working-at-home-156018">How to deal with a year of accumulated burnout from working at home</a>
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<p>Employers might also consider tweaks for lockdown working, including:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>recognising that working parents may be frequently interrupted, prolonged periods of “focused time” do not exist, and there is no such thing as “complete silence”</p></li>
<li><p>not starting online meetings exactly on the hour, when school class sessions typically start</p></li>
<li><p>checking in advance with working parents when is convenient to take a call, or scheduling a time for one</p></li>
<li><p>breaking up long online meetings with micro breaks for all participants</p></li>
<li><p>recording organisational updates so parents can tune in at a time to suit the family schedule</p></li>
<li><p>enabling and encouraging staff to take reasonable breaks, as they would do in a normal work environment</p></li>
<li><p>encouraging and facilitating discussions of “chaos” to counteract notions of being the ideal worker or parent.</p></li>
</ul>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/forget-work-life-balance-its-all-about-integration-in-the-age-of-covid-19-137386">Forget work-life balance – it's all about integration in the age of COVID-19</a>
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<h2>Researching the new reality</h2>
<p>Life was complex before COVID-19. Now it feels especially challenging.</p>
<p>We encourage employers to understand the reality of zigzag working and to play a positive part in it. As well, they should recognise zigzag working may also be experienced by working grandparents and contractors managing several jobs on top of family responsibilities.</p>
<p>For a parent, the impacts of zigzag working may be magnified if they have a partner also trying to do paid work in the home.</p>
<p>The permutations are many. So too are the research opportunities to study and understand this new zigzag reality.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/169088/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jarrod Haar receives funding from (1) Royal Society of New Zealand Te Apārangi; (2) The New Zealand Health Research Council, (3) Ngā Pae o te Māramatanga, and (4) New Zealand National Science Challenge: Science for Technological Innovation (Kia Kotahi Mai: Te Ao Pūtaiao me Te Ao Hangarau).</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Candice Harris does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Has COVID rendered concepts such as “work-life conflict” or “work-life balance” redundant?
Maybe we need new ways to describe and navigate the new pandemic reality.Candice Harris, Professor of Management, Auckland University of TechnologyJarrod Haar, Professor of Human Resource Management, Auckland University of TechnologyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1587012021-04-19T19:05:51Z2021-04-19T19:05:51ZZoom fatigue and distracted driving share a common problem: Multitasking<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/395837/original/file-20210419-13-1c5z3n5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=16%2C0%2C5447%2C3637&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Remote work — with its countless and never-ending online meetings — is taking its toll on employees. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Feeling exhausted at the end of a long day of video-conferencing? Do your back, shoulders and mind ache after a Zoom meeting marathon? Do you miss the morning chit chat at the office’s water fountain and the face-to-face interaction with your favourite colleague?</p>
<p>If you answered yes to any of these questions, believe me, you’re one of millions suffering from <a href="https://www.psychiatrictimes.com/view/psychological-exploration-zoom-fatigue">Zoom fatigue</a>, named after the popular video-conferencing app.</p>
<p>Recent figures in fact indicate that <a href="https://rh-us.mediaroom.com/2020-11-12-Nearly-4-In-10-Workers-Are-Suffering-From-Video-Call-Fatigue-Robert-Half-Research-Shows">four in 10 remote workers</a> report suffering from a sense of physical and mental exhaustion that accompanies the prolonged screen engagement and the lack of face-to-face interaction during the workday.</p>
<p>Women reportedly <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/13/us/zoom-fatigue-burn-out-gender.html">suffer even higher levels of stress during video-conferencing</a> relative to men. This is possibly <a href="http://doi.org/10.1037/tmb0000030">the result of mirror anxiety</a>, a phenomenon whereby seeing oneself in the mirror — or digitally as in the case of videocalls — triggers greater self-scrutiny.</p>
<p>With workplaces becoming increasingly virtual, my focus on understanding human cooperation with machines and systems contributes to understanding how human cognition responds to our increasingly virtual world.</p>
<h2>Drastic effects</h2>
<p>In March 2020 — <a href="https://www.who.int/director-general/speeches/detail/who-director-general-s-opening-remarks-at-the-media-briefing-on-covid-19---11-march-2020">when the World Health Organization declared the COVID-19 pandemic</a> — there was a sudden and drastic impact on work habits. Employers rushed to shift their workforce to teleworking globally, and even industries that historically relied on manual labour started pushing for more unmanned automation.</p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/covid-19-has-fuelled-automation-but-human-involvement-is-still-essential-153715">COVID-19 has fuelled automation — but human involvement is still essential</a>
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<p>Albeit the rush toward teleworking and <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/windsor/university-virtual-students-professors-windsor-1.5755690">virtual learning</a> has its advantages — think, for example, of how much shorter commutes are — it does not come without costs.</p>
<p>The clinical community has widely acknowledged the threat that Zoom fatigue poses to <a href="https://camh.echoontario.ca/COVID-Resources/zoom-fatigue/">mental health</a>, and a Google search for DIY remedies often turn up a handful of <a href="https://thriveglobal.com/stories/how-to-avoid-zoom-fatigue-while-working-from-home/">somewhat useful yet largely unproven interventions</a>, like packing daily videocalls together in one reserved time slot, or using headset rather than the computer’s built-in mic.</p>
<h2>Scales of measurement</h2>
<p>Zoom fatigue has become so prevalent that a group of scientists from the University of Gothenburg and Stanford University developed the <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3786329">Zoom Exhaustion and Fatigue Scale</a>. This scale might be used as an assessment tool to better understand the prevalence and magnitude of this condition.</p>
<p>The specific causes of Zoom fatigue are still unknown. Contributing factors include the worker’s urge to comply with proper “<a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/seven-rules-of-zoom-meeting-etiquette-from-the-pros-11594551601">Zoom etiquette</a>” and the impetus to multitask during video calls. This phenomenon, which is also common in <a href="https://doi.org/10.3758/s13423-015-0922-4">distracted driving</a>, is motivated by our tendency to stay active following boredom or perceived lulls in job performance.</p>
<p>Together, these circumstances lead to high levels of mental demand in the workplace which not only reduces productivity, but it also leads to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/0018720820929928">greater muscle exertion and poor task performance</a>.</p>
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<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/fpMWtIYGLxc?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">PBS looks at how students are combating Zoom fatigue.</span></figcaption>
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<h2>Countering the effects</h2>
<p>Research on Zoom fatigue is growing, but little is known on how to fight it or, even better, prevent it.</p>
<p>Human-machine interaction studies suggest that <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/0018720820931628">tracking one’s eyes</a> or <a href="https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fnhum.2019.00057/full">physiological state</a> can help monitor the teleworker’s fluctuation in cognitive demand. This information can then be used to develop real-time Zoom fatigue detection algorithms, and alert the remote worker about its onset. </p>
<p>While the long-term effects of the <a href="https://www.kff.org/coronavirus-covid-19/issue-brief/the-implications-of-covid-19-for-mental-health-and-substance-use/">COVID-19 pandemic on mental health</a> are still unknown, it is not too far-fetched to anticipate that should this issue not get promptly addressed, it will add onto the mental and physical burden that COVID-19 will have had on teleworkers, and the population as a whole.</p>
<p>As workplaces become more virtual and <a href="https://theconversation.com/covid-19-has-fuelled-automation-but-human-involvement-is-still-essential-153715">machine operations more remote</a>, the need for a more <a href="https://www.hslab.org/what">cross-disciplinary approach that encompasses cognition, engineering and human kinetics</a> is needed, now more than ever.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/158701/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Francesco Biondi receives funding from the Canadian Tri-Council Research Fund.
</span></em></p>As remote work continues through the pandemic, workers are experiencing burnout and fatigue brought on by excessive periods of time spent online.Francesco Biondi, Assistant Professor, Human Kinetics, University of WindsorLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1537922021-03-21T18:49:24Z2021-03-21T18:49:24ZBanning mobile phones in schools can improve students’ academic performance. This is how we know<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/389172/original/file-20210312-23-1ivvp2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/no-mobile-phone-call-warning-prohibit-1200373825">Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The effects of mobiles phones and other technology at school is a <a href="https://theconversation.com/no-education-minister-we-dont-have-enough-evidence-to-support-banning-mobile-phones-in-schools-151574">hotly debated topic</a> in many countries. Some advocate for a complete ban to limit distractions, while others suggest using technology as a teaching tool.</p>
<p>Kids in public <a href="https://www.news.com.au/lifestyle/parenting/school-life/sa-government-bans-mobile-phone-use-at-states-primary-schools/news-story/c13e01ab2c2e6d5cbd3473201dfbe70a">South Australian primary schools</a> started the school year without being allowed to bring their mobile phones to class, unless they are needed for class activity. All students in public <a href="https://www.education.wa.edu.au/mobile-phones#:%7E:text=The%20Student%20Mobile%20Phones%20in,end%20of%20the%20school%20day.">Western Australian</a> <a href="https://www.education.vic.gov.au/parents/going-to-school/Pages/Mobile-phones-in-schools.aspx">Victorian</a>, and <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-02-05/tasmania-mobile-phone-ban-in-schools-proves-a-success/13113128#:%7E:text=The%20state%20school%20ban%20on,would%20ring%20throughout%20the%20day.">Tasmanian</a> schools have a mobile phone ban in place since for all or some of 2020. New South Wales also <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-12-13/nsw-phone-ban-aims-to-reduce-bullying/10612950">banned mobile phones</a> in public primary schools, with secondary schools having the option to opt in, since the start of 2020.</p>
<p>Education departments have introduced the bans for various reasons including to improve academic outcomes and decrease bullying. </p>
<p>Several recent papers point to positive impact of banning mobile phones at school on student performance and other outcomes. Understanding the evidence is crucial for best policy. </p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/no-education-minister-we-dont-have-enough-evidence-to-support-banning-mobile-phones-in-schools-151574">No, Education Minister, we don't have enough evidence to support banning mobile phones in schools</a>
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<p>In a 2015 <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0927537116300136?casa_token=BftSuGIPHFsAAAAA:Si6NTOo4pga0c0zwLi9owgonIiECr1raGURE3FrIsbFpR9QiDlfPE8nVCygV9R9Rb3_2hvRn9Q">paper</a>, we used a method — called a <a href="https://mixtape.scunning.com/difference-in-differences.html">difference-in-difference strategy</a> — as well as student data from England to investigate the effect of banning mobile phones on student performance. In this method, we compared schools that have had phones removed to similar schools with no phone bans. This allowed us to isolate the effect of mobiles phones on student performance from other factors that could affect performance. </p>
<p>We found banning mobile phones at school leads to an increase in student performance. Our results suggest that after schools banned mobile phones, test scores of students aged 16 increased by 6.4% of a standard deviation. This is equivalent to adding five days to the school year or an additional hour a week.</p>
<p>The effects were twice as large for low-achieving students, and we found no impact on high achieving students. </p>
<p>Our results suggest low-performing students are more likely to be distracted by the presence of mobile phones, while high performing students can focus with or without mobile phones.</p>
<p>The results of our paper suggest banning mobile phones has considerable benefits including a reduction in the gap between high- and low- achieving students. This is substantial improvement for a low-cost education policy.</p>
<h2>Other studies show similar results</h2>
<p>Recent studies from <a href="https://www.erices.es/upload/workingpaper/99_99_0420.pdf">Spain</a> and <a href="https://sites.google.com/view/saraabrahamsson/research?authuser=0">Norway</a>, using a similar empirical strategy to ours, also show compelling evidence on the benefit of banning mobile phones on student performance, with similar effect size. </p>
<p>In Spain, banning mobile phones has been shown to increase students’ scores in maths and science. Researchers also documented a decrease in incidences of bullying. </p>
<p>In Norway, banning phones significantly increased middle school students’ grade point average. It also increased students’ likelihood of attending an academic high school rather than choosing a vocational school. And it decreased incidents of bullying. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/390012/original/file-20210317-21-1rl9mfk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Man's hands holding mobile phone in front of open laptop." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/390012/original/file-20210317-21-1rl9mfk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/390012/original/file-20210317-21-1rl9mfk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/390012/original/file-20210317-21-1rl9mfk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/390012/original/file-20210317-21-1rl9mfk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/390012/original/file-20210317-21-1rl9mfk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/390012/original/file-20210317-21-1rl9mfk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/390012/original/file-20210317-21-1rl9mfk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Using any form of technology in class could be seen as a form of multitasking.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/side-view-shot-mans-hands-using-268450487">Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Evidence from <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/kykl.12214?casa_token=Suyowk5wjT8AAAAA%3AOLsCQOB4FXad_mQqgez2PpOxGAhcZcRl749eAeAkZTwWEzeFAp63yrwpFsVzWoItlYskdMs8y3PljBI">Belgium</a> suggests banning mobile phones can be beneficial for college student performance. This context might be different, but still informative as students are of similar age to those in high school. </p>
<p>Research from <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0272775719303966?casa_token=GRmr3vHvbZ8AAAAA:rxP1rcaYwFSNkqqYEuD1GfCygj6qhIZS49hqG3TvU33UcGeL9QcnvrckFldDxGqCS8_PTt-6IA">Sweden</a>, however, suggests little effect of banning mobile phones in high school on student performance. It is worth noting, however, the study did not find any detrimental effect of banning mobile phones.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/dont-blame-the-teacher-student-results-are-mostly-out-of-their-hands-124177">Don't blame the teacher: student results are (mostly) out of their hands</a>
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</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>A similar conclusion can be drawn from the literature on the effect of computers used at school. Evidence from <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0272775716307129?casa_token=XPKWuMLtDfQAAAAA:Kgma8uaSuiDJsI-jowomsz2ltDAr4AAJsExfdR4VgY1g01mDjvX1qvXRF0Jw57uXhwP_-9IySQ">the US</a> suggests using laptops in class is detrimental to learning, and the effects are <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0272775716303454?casa_token=RA9CuU-d89oAAAAA:NT86LqbLuWGV1FPdxv-lbamuIc9t7_4CLR9_QZUct9jgc7dH0O__tBfeHKnyh7JAf2cJDKWdmQ">large and more damaging</a> for low-performing students.</p>
<h2>Potential psychological mechanisms involved</h2>
<p>The psychological literature might shed lights on the potential mechanisms as to why mobile phones and other technology in school might affect student performance. This literature finds multitasking is detrimental to learning and task execution. </p>
<p>Many recent experimental papers present evidence mobile phone use while executing another task decreases learning and task completion. Research also shows <a href="https://www.pnas.org/content/106/37/15583">computers might be</a> a <a href="https://www.liebertpub.com/doi/10.1089/cyber.2010.0129">less efficient</a> way <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/03634523.2013.767917">to take notes</a> than pen and paper. </p>
<p>It may be that taking notes by hand allows you to remember the material better than typing those notes on a computer. This may be because students are not just typing out every word said, but thinking of how to summarise what they’re hearing.</p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/whats-the-best-way-to-take-notes-on-your-laptop-or-tablet-43630">What's the best way to take notes on your laptop or tablet?</a>
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</em>
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<hr>
<p>These findings do not discount the possibility mobile phones and other technology could be a useful structured teaching tool. However, ignoring or misunderstanding the evidence could be harmful to students and lead to long term negative social consequences.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/153792/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Louis-Philippe Beland does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>A study compared students’ performance in schools that had banned mobiles and schools that hadn’t. They found students who weren’t allowed to use mobile phones in class had higher test scores.Louis-Philippe Beland, Assistant Professor of Economics, Carleton UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1256242019-10-22T09:45:28Z2019-10-22T09:45:28ZHow to avoid distractions while studying, according to science<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/298087/original/file-20191022-28129-1m9cq8t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Basically, don't do this.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/focused-young-african-woman-sitting-alone-668101813?src=g-dBDgwseDuXv27vDcOhdQ-1-11">Flamingo Images/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Modern life is full of distractions – and some of them can have a negative effect on our ability to concentrate when studying. The problem is that many people tend to underestimate how much they are distracted by what’s going on around them. Here’s how you can get the most from your studies by considering your environment.</p>
<p>Reading is often accompanied by background speech, such as from the television or the conversations of friends or colleagues. When trying to concentrate on a task, people <a href="https://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/dav/aaua/2002/00000088/00000004/art00010">often report</a> that the presence of nearby speech is annoying. But they are usually not very good at accurately <a href="https://asa.scitation.org/doi/10.1121/1.419596">estimating</a> how distracted they will be by such sounds. However, when measured in the lab, people’s ability to carry out study-related tasks is usually made worse by irrelevant speech in the background.</p>
<p>For example, a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1037/xhp0000680">recent study</a> recorded participants’ eye movements as they read texts and listened to irrelevant background speech. The results showed reading needed more effort because participants more often had to go back to previously read words and re-examine them. This distraction occurred because readers were inadvertently trying to listen to the irrelevant speech and process its meaning, even though it has nothing to do with what they are reading. </p>
<p>Listening to music is another common distraction that many students choose. A recent <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/1461444814531692">survey</a> found that 62% of university students were listening to music while studying or doing homework. But, again, recent <a href="https://psycnet.apa.org/doi/10.1037/xlm0000544">eye-tracking</a> evidence suggests that listening to music also reduces reading efficiency in a similar way to irrelevant speech. </p>
<p>This may occur because much music contains language in the form of lyrics that readers try to process. In fact, a <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/1745691617747398">recent summary</a> of a large number of studies on the topic has suggested that listening to lyrical music may be just as detrimental to text comprehension as listening to speech.</p>
<p>However, listening to instrumental music without lyrics appears to have little if any negative effect on comprehension. So if you must listen to music while you study, it may be better to listen to classical pieces rather than the latest pop hits.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/298088/original/file-20191022-120204-c57exs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/298088/original/file-20191022-120204-c57exs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=395&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/298088/original/file-20191022-120204-c57exs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=395&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/298088/original/file-20191022-120204-c57exs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=395&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/298088/original/file-20191022-120204-c57exs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=496&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/298088/original/file-20191022-120204-c57exs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=496&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/298088/original/file-20191022-120204-c57exs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=496&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Avoid technology altogether if you can.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/concentrated-bearded-man-reading-book-334592630?src=JWB9co5IJk9dzK2OJMj6Fw-1-3">A and I Kruk/Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>The multi-tasking problem</h2>
<p>Even if you find an empty room and take out your headphones, studying today often means dealing with a big potential distraction in the form of smartphones and social media. In one <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0360131514000384">study</a>, students conducting three hours of homework engaged with an average of 35 distractors such as using their phone, accessing the internet for non-study purposes or listening to music.</p>
<p>Such types of multi-tasking activities are usually associated with poorer studying <a href="https://educationaltechnologyjournal.springeropen.com/articles/10.1186/s41239-018-0096-z">performance</a>. For example, <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0747563214001678">one study</a> found that students who were allowed to send text messages during a lecture had lower comprehension of its contents than those who had their phones switched off. Another recent <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S036013151930034X">survey</a> found that greater daily Facebook use is associated with an increase in academic distraction.</p>
<p>But while using other media when studying is detrimental to performance, students may not always be aware of this because they tend to overestimate their ability to multi-task. For instance, one <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%252Fs10758-015-9266-4">study</a> asked participants to do either one task or two tasks at the same time. The tasks involved judging whether spoken statements are correct and counting the shape of visual objects. Although teenagers and young adults reported strong confidence in their ability to multi-task, their actual performance was almost always worse compared to when they were doing just one task.</p>
<p>Overall, these results suggest that using media when studying should be limited due to the decrease in performance when multi-tasking. One strategy to avoid the negative effects of media multi-tasking is to take short “<a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0747563212003305">technology breaks</a>” during which you access the internet, but then restrict its use for the rest of your study period. Other <a href="https://educationaltechnologyjournal.springeropen.com/articles/10.1186/s41239-018-0096-z">options</a> may be to avoid using smartphones and other devices before studying is completed for the day, or to keep such technology in communal areas away from the studying space. </p>
<p>So while you might think you can study in a busy cafe, or with the TV on, or with your phone keeping you connected to the world, the chances are that you’re not as good at getting down to work as you think. By planning studying sessions in a way that minimises external distractors, you could improve your concentration and overall performance.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/125624/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Martin Vasilev does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>You’re not as good as blocking out distractions as you think you are.Martin Vasilev, Postdoctoral researcher, Bournemouth UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1216202019-08-14T20:03:09Z2019-08-14T20:03:09ZWomen aren’t better multitaskers than men – they’re just doing more work<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/287942/original/file-20190814-9419-146tumv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=612%2C171%2C4791%2C3548&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Science doesn't appear to support the modern myth that women are super-human multitaskers.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">From shutterstock.com</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Multitasking has <a href="https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0140371">traditionally been perceived</a> as a woman’s domain. A woman, particularly one with children, will routinely be juggling a job and running a household – in itself a frantic mix of kids’ lunch boxes, housework, and organising appointments and social arrangements. </p>
<p>But a new study, published today in <a href="https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0220150">PLOS One</a>, shows women are actually no better at multitasking than men. </p>
<p>The study tested whether women were better at switching between tasks and juggling multiple tasks at the same time. The results showed women’s brains are no more efficient at either of these activities than men’s.</p>
<p>Using robust data to challenge these sorts of myths is important, especially given women continue to be bombarded with work, family and household tasks.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/health-check-can-people-actually-multitask-56677">Health Check: can people actually multitask?</a>
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<h2>No one is good at multitasking</h2>
<p>Multitasking is the act of performing several independent tasks within a short time. It requires rapidly and frequently switching attention from one task to another, increasing the cognitive demand, compared to completing single tasks in sequence. </p>
<p>This study builds on <a href="https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=95256794">an existing body of research</a> showing human brains cannot manage multiple activities at once. Particularly when two tasks are similar, they compete to use the same part of the brain, which makes multitasking very difficult.</p>
<p>But human brains are good at <a href="https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=95256794">switching between activities</a> quickly, which makes people feel like they’re multitasking. The brain, however, is working on one project at a time. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/multitasking-between-devices-is-associated-with-poorer-attention-and-memory-expert-explains-why-107481">Multitasking between devices is associated with poorer attention and memory — expert explains why</a>
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<p>In this new study, German researchers compared the abilities of 48 men and 48 women in how well they identified letters and numbers. In some experiments, participants were required to pay attention to two tasks at once (called concurrent multitasking), while in others they needed to switch attention between tasks (called sequential multitasking).</p>
<p>The researchers measured reaction time and accuracy for the multitasking experiments against a control condition (performing one task only). They found multitasking substantially affected the speed and accuracy of completing the tasks for both men and women. There was no difference between the groups.</p>
<h2>Domestic duties</h2>
<p>My colleagues and I recently busted another relevant myth – that <a href="https://theconversation.com/men-do-see-the-mess-they-just-arent-judged-for-it-the-way-women-are-118728">women are better at seeing mess</a> than men. We found men and women <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0049124119852395">equally rated a space as messy</a>. The reason men do less cleaning than women may lie in the fact that women are held to higher standards of cleanliness than men, rather than men’s “dirt blindness”.</p>
<p>Recent data shows Australian men are spending more time doing domestic work than they used to, but women still do <a href="https://melbourneinstitute.unimelb.edu.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0011/3127664/HILDA-Statistical-Report-2019.pdf">the vast majority of housework</a>. </p>
<p>Working Australian women have seen their total time across work and family activities increase over time, with bread-winning mothers spending four hours more across these activities per week than bread-winning fathers.</p>
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<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/287971/original/file-20190814-136190-1ak9iaq.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/287971/original/file-20190814-136190-1ak9iaq.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=461&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/287971/original/file-20190814-136190-1ak9iaq.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=461&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/287971/original/file-20190814-136190-1ak9iaq.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=461&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/287971/original/file-20190814-136190-1ak9iaq.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=579&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/287971/original/file-20190814-136190-1ak9iaq.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=579&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/287971/original/file-20190814-136190-1ak9iaq.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=579&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="attribution"><span class="source">HILDA/The Conversation</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
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<p>This means working mums are balancing planning birthday parties, childcare drop offs and ballet lessons all on top of their regular jobs, commutes and careers.</p>
<h2>Consequences of the myth</h2>
<p>If women’s brains are equally strained by multitasking, why do we keep asking women to do this work? And, more importantly, what are the consequences?</p>
<p>Our recent study shows <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/jomf.12531">mothers are more time pressed</a> and report poorer mental health than fathers. We found the birth of a child increases parents’ reports of feeling rushed or pressed for time, but the effect is twice the size for mothers than it is for fathers. Second children double mothers’ time pressure again and, as a consequence, <a href="https://theconversation.com/having-a-second-child-worsens-parents-mental-health-new-research-107806">lead to a deterioration in their mental health</a>. </p>
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<p>
<em>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/men-do-see-the-mess-they-just-arent-judged-for-it-the-way-women-are-118728">Men do see the mess – they just aren't judged for it the way women are</a>
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<p>Women are also <a href="https://aifs.gov.au/sites/default/files/jb(4).pdf">more likely to drop out of paid work</a> when children are born or family demands intensify. They carry a larger mental load tied to organising the needs of the family – who has clean socks, who needs to be picked up from school, whether there is enough Vegemite for lunch. All of this labour <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/health/2017-09-14/the-mental-load-and-what-to-do-about-it/8942032">is at the expense</a> of time planning for the next day’s work, the next promotion, and so on. </p>
<p>Women are also asked to multitask family demands at night. Children are <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-couples-sleep-better-in-more-gender-equal-societies-98547">more likely to interrupt</a> their mother’s than their father’s sleep. </p>
<p>Although gender roles are changing and men are assuming a larger share of the housework and childcare than in the past, gender gaps remain in many important domains of work and family life. These include the allocation of childcare, the division of housework, the wage gap, and <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/26/upshot/women-long-hours-greedy-professions.html#">the concentration of women</a> in top positions. </p>
<p>So, the multitasking myth means mothers are expected to “do it all”. But this obligation can affect women’s mental health, as well as their capacity to excel at work.</p>
<h2>Challenging misconceptions</h2>
<p>Public opinion persists that women have <a href="https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0140371">a biological edge</a> as super-efficient multitaskers. But, as this study shows, this myth is not supported by evidence.</p>
<p>This means the extra family work women perform is just that – extra work. And we need to see it as such. </p>
<p>Within the family, this work needs to be catalogued, discussed and then equally divided. More men today are invested in gender equality, equal sharing and co-parenting <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0891243216649946">than ever before</a>.</p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/we-can-we-reduce-gender-inequality-in-housework-heres-how-58130">We can we reduce gender inequality in housework – here's how</a>
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<p>As well as in the home, we need to dismantle these myths in the workplace. The assumption women are better multitaskers can influence <a href="https://www.hbs.edu/faculty/Pages/item.aspx?num=10807">the allocation of administrative tasks</a>. Tasks like taking minutes and organising meetings should not be allocated based on gender.</p>
<p>Finally, governments need to dismantle these myths within their policies. Children add work that cannot be easily multitasked. Women need affordable, high-quality, and widely available childcare. </p>
<p>Men also need access to flexible work, parental leave and childcare to share in this labour, and protections to ensure they aren’t penalised for taking time to share in the care.</p>
<p>Debunking these myths that expect women to be superheroes is a good thing, but we need to go further and create policy environments where gender equality can thrive.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/121620/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Leah Ruppanner receives funding from the Australian Research Council. </span></em></p>The myth that women are superior multitaskers has just been busted. So, let’s divide work in and out of the home so women aren’t left running themselves ragged.Leah Ruppanner, Associate Professor in Sociology and Co-Director of The Policy Lab, The University of MelbourneLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1074812018-12-13T09:49:10Z2018-12-13T09:49:10ZMultitasking between devices is associated with poorer attention and memory — expert explains why<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/250263/original/file-20181212-110231-10d68up.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Too much going on.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/busy-young-smiling-businesswoman-six-arms-673636390?src=wSUgFPyseGunjlp2yH0jpA-1-0">Andrey_Popov/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>How many times have you sat down to watch TV or a movie, only to immediately shift your attention to your smartphone or tablet? Known as <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Media_multitasking">“media multitasking”</a>, this phenomenon is so common that an estimated <a href="https://tech.co/check-phone-even-watching-tv-177-7-million-u-s-adults-2017-11">178m US adults</a> regularly use another device while watching TV. While some might assume that frequently shifting your attention between different information streams is good <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/494425a">brain training</a> for improving memory and attention, <a href="http://www.pnas.org/content/106/37/15583">studies have found the opposite</a> to be true. </p>
<p>Media multitasking is when people engage with multiple devices or content at the same time. This might be using your smartphone while watching TV, or even listening to music and text messaging friends while playing a video game. One <a href="http://www.pnas.org/content/115/40/9889.short">recent study</a> looked at the body of current research on media multitasking (consisting of 22 peer-reviewed research papers) and found that self-reported “heavy media multitaskers” performed worse on attention and working memory tests. Some even had structural brain differences.</p>
<p>The study found that “heavy” media multitaskers performed about 8-10% worse on sustained attention tests compared to “light” media multitaskers. These tests involved participants paying attention to a certain task (such as spotting a specific letter in a stream of other letters) for 20 minutes or more. </p>
<p>Researchers found that on these tests (and others) the ability to sustain attention was poorer for heavy multitaskers. These findings might explain why some people are heavy multitaskers. If someone has a poor attention span, they may be likely to switch between activities quickly, instead of staying with just one. </p>
<p>Heavy media multitaskers were also found to perform worse than light media multitaskers on working memory tests. These involved memorising and remembering information (like a phone number) while performing another task (such as searching for a pen and piece of paper to write it down). Complex working memory is closely linked with having better focus and being able to ignore distractions. </p>
<p>Brain scans of the participants also showed that an area of the brain known as the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anterior_cingulate_cortex">anterior cingulate cortex</a> is <a href="https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0106698">smaller in heavy multitaskers</a>. This area of the brain is involved in controlling attention. A smaller one may imply worse functioning and poorer attention. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/250266/original/file-20181212-110243-s09y9i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/250266/original/file-20181212-110243-s09y9i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/250266/original/file-20181212-110243-s09y9i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/250266/original/file-20181212-110243-s09y9i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/250266/original/file-20181212-110243-s09y9i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/250266/original/file-20181212-110243-s09y9i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/250266/original/file-20181212-110243-s09y9i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Researchers still don’t know the root of what causes decreased attention and memory in heavy media multitaskers.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/man-watching-television-using-smart-tv-788108020?src=rSMd1exHNn0OYPd5wCppLg-1-0">Tero Vesalainen/ Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>But while researchers have confirmed that heavy media multitaskers have worse memory and attention, they are still uncertain about what causes heavy media multitasking. Do heavy media multitaskers have worse attention because of their media multitasking? Or do they media multitask because they have poor attention? It might also be an effect of <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23744874">general intelligence</a>, <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27769891">personality</a>, or something else entirely that causes poor attention and increased media multitasking behaviours.</p>
<p>But the news isn’t all bad for heavy multitaskers. Curiously, this impairment might have some benefit. <a href="https://doi.org/10.3758/s13423-012-0245-7">Research suggests</a> that light media multitaskers are more likely to miss helpful information that isn’t related to the task they’re currently performing. For example, a person may read with a radio playing in the background. When important breaking news is broadcast, a heavy media multitasker is actually more likely to pick it up than a light media multitasker.</p>
<p>So should you avoid media multitasking? Based on current research, the answer is probably yes. Multitasking usually causes <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/7972591">poorer performance</a> when doing two things at once, and <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12495525">puts more demands on the brain</a> than doing one thing at a time. This is because the human mind suffers from an <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3158154/">“attentional bottleneck”</a>, which only allows certain mental operations to occur one after another.</p>
<p>But if you’re wondering whether media multitasking will impair your attention capabilities, the answer is probably no. We don’t know yet whether heavy media multitasking is really the cause for lower performance on the tests. The effects observed in controlled laboratory settings are also generally rather small and most likely negligible in normal everyday life. Until we have more research, it’s probably too early to start panicking about the potential negative effects of media multitasking.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/107481/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span><a href="mailto:andre.szameitat@brunel.ac.uk">andre.szameitat@brunel.ac.uk</a> receives funding from the BIAL Foundation, Portugal.</span></em></p>‘Heavy’ media multitaskers performed worse on attention and memory tests – and some even had structural brain differences.André J. Szameitat, Reader in Cognitive Neuroscience, Brunel University LondonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1014252018-09-06T21:04:11Z2018-09-06T21:04:11ZThe science of multitasking, and why you should doodle in class<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/233330/original/file-20180823-149493-1adqbk3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Distractions at work can take up more time than you think, but doodling may just help you get through that lecture or meeting.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>When somebody can juggle lots of things at the same time, we often say that they are good “multitaskers.” All of us multitask once in a while. </p>
<p>But psychologists have been warning us about it for decades. <a href="https://www.verywellmind.com/multitasking-2795003">Some say it’s harmful to productivity</a> and others say <a href="https://www.psychologytoday.com/ca/blog/creativity-without-borders/201405/the-myth-multitasking">you can’t do it at all</a>. </p>
<p>For example, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1518/001872006776412135">talking on the phone while driving makes your driving worse</a>, because you’re distracted. (Laws allowing hands-free cellphone use are misguided; <a href="https://doi.org/10.1518/001872006776412135">distracted driving has nothing to do with whether you’re using your hands or not.</a>)</p>
<p>But there are other studies that suggest multitasking may have benefits. One study showed that talking on the phone during long, monotonous drives <a href="http://www.psychologie.uni-wuerzburg.de/izvw/texte/2011_Jellentrup_etal_DDI2011.pdf">might help keep drivers alert</a> and awake. And other studies show that <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/acp.1561">students sitting in a “boring” lecture may be better off doodling</a>, because the combination of activities keeps their minds occupied. </p>
<p>As someone who works on broad models of how the mind works, these seemingly contradictory findings are intriguing. Is multitasking good, bad or impossible? </p>
<h2>Switching tasks</h2>
<p>What many people might call “multitasking” may actually be something psychologists call “rapid task-switching.” </p>
<p>For example, when you answer texts while watching a movie, your attention flips from the movie to the text. You aren’t really paying any attention both at the same time. When you read a text, you miss part of the movie. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/233333/original/file-20180823-149484-1pgcuuy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/233333/original/file-20180823-149484-1pgcuuy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/233333/original/file-20180823-149484-1pgcuuy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/233333/original/file-20180823-149484-1pgcuuy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/233333/original/file-20180823-149484-1pgcuuy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/233333/original/file-20180823-149484-1pgcuuy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/233333/original/file-20180823-149484-1pgcuuy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Face it: you can’t watch a movie and text at the same time.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>This is what psychologists mean when they say multitasking is impossible. Your attention and consciousness only can focus on a little bit at a time, so it’s one task or the other. </p>
<p>And then there’s the cost that comes with task-switching. There’s a delay when you switch from one thing to another, and sometimes a temporary drop in performance.</p>
<p>An hour spent on one thing followed by an hour on another is fine. The task-switching cost is much less than the time you’re spending on each task. But if you’re switching tasks every few minutes, or every few seconds, the cognitive cost of switching from one task to the other interferes with performance. </p>
<p>You can think of it like losing money. If it costs you a quarter to switch from texting to paying attention to class, doing it once or twice is no big deal, but if you do it all day, you’ll have to adjust your budget. </p>
<h2>Calculating the cost</h2>
<p>For <a href="http://www.apa.org/research/action/multitask.aspx">some tasks</a>, such as identifying the gender of a face, and then switching to identifying the facial expression, the switch only takes only about <a href="http://psycnet.apa.org/record/2005-08221-007">200 milliseconds</a>. But even this small cost can reduce productivity by 40 per cent if you try to study while watching a movie.</p>
<p>These results, and others like it, come from the field of cognitive psychology, where researchers study volunteers in a controlled laboratory setting, usually doing rapid-response tasks on a computer. </p>
<p>But how well do these findings translate to the real world?</p>
<p>In offices, people get interrupted repeatedly throughout the day. Your work on a budget might be disrupted by a coworker who wants to tell you about their kids. </p>
<p>The cost of this kind of multitasking adds up. Interruptions cost the United States an estimated <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/14/technology/14email.html">US$650 billion a year</a>. University of California, Irvine computer scientist <a href="https://www.fastcompany.com/944128/worker-interrupted-cost-task-switching">Gloria Mark estimates</a> that it takes <a href="https://www.ics.uci.edu/%7Egmark/CHI2005.pdf">25 minutes, on average, to get back to task!</a> Some people in the study never did.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/235285/original/file-20180906-190642-100l3nc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/235285/original/file-20180906-190642-100l3nc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/235285/original/file-20180906-190642-100l3nc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/235285/original/file-20180906-190642-100l3nc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/235285/original/file-20180906-190642-100l3nc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/235285/original/file-20180906-190642-100l3nc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/235285/original/file-20180906-190642-100l3nc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">It takes an average of 25 minutes to return to a task after you’ve been interrupted.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Measurement is never perfectly accurate, but when science has a range of a <a href="http://psycnet.apa.org/record/2005-08221-007">200 milliseconds</a> to <a href="https://www.ics.uci.edu/%7Egmark/CHI2005.pdf">25 minutes</a>, that’s a good sign we need to dig a little deeper.</p>
<p>The cognitive psychologists are doing very controlled laboratory studies, where you’re doing fairly simple tasks with simple stimuli. The task in those experiments often involves simply attending to another aspect of what you’re looking at (such as gender vs. facial expression of faces). But you can see how this is very different situation from getting a phone call in the middle of writing a report. </p>
<p>In the real world, when you get a phone call, you have to take the call and you might get distracted by other things. It might even take you <a href="http://nautil.us/issue/48/chaos/are-you-a-self_interrupter">68 seconds to remember what you were doing</a>.</p>
<h2>Practical advice</h2>
<p>The negative effect of multitasking is real, but it’s particularly problematic because people don’t realize these negative effects are happening. Interruptions and doing many things at once generally make us less productive. </p>
<p>The advice is simple: when doing something that requires thinking, don’t do anything else.</p>
<p>To remain focused but at the same time cover a lot of ground, try structuring your day into half-hour chunks. Work on something different just about every half hour. </p>
<p>I do this and to some people this sounds like multitasking. But it’s actually focused work, because I do <em>nothing else</em> during each half hour. <a href="http://nautil.us/issue/48/chaos/are-you-a-self_interrupter">I don’t check my phone</a>, email or switch tasks at all during the half hour. Even though I do many different things in a day, each one stays fresh in my mind for when I get to it the next day. </p>
<p>Multitasking isn’t all bad. If one of the tasks is really easy, or something you can do unconsciously, there is little downside. Listening to music while you exercise <a href="https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/a9ad/50173051ad84ec9f9865e039092dea47f6cd.pdf">makes you exercise more.</a>Doodling during a boring lecture, or <a href="http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.86.1131&rep=rep1&type=pdf">listening to instrumental music while you program computers</a> or <a href="http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.2466/pms.1989.69.2.531">study</a> helps you focus.</p>
<p>Even task switching isn’t all bad. It refreshes your mind. <a href="http://www.ics.uci.edu/%7Egmark/CHI2005.pdf">Many people deliberately switch tasks to “incubate”</a> a problem they are stuck on. </p>
<p>Knowing that you only have half an hour to work on something can help with motivation, too. No matter how much you dread working on something, it is, after all, only 30 minutes.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/101425/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jim Davies does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Multitasking may not be what you think it is and it might not even help you be more productive if you choose to do the wrong things at the same time.Jim Davies, Professor, Institute of Cognitive Science, Carleton UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/762172017-04-19T19:51:05Z2017-04-19T19:51:05ZFive tips to get the most out of your workday<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/165741/original/image-20170419-32700-vcew7e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Drinking coffee at work has a range of benefits.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Getting a lot done each day is about more than just having the right productivity tools and setup. It’s about taking care of your body and mind, and this starts even outside of the workplace. </p>
<p>We all need strategies for increasing productivity; here are five to get you started. </p>
<h2>1) Get a good night’s rest</h2>
<p>The first key to productivity is plenty of sleep. Getting <a href="https://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/health-topics/topics/sdd/howmuch">7-8 hours sleep a night</a> will flow through into your work, from sharper decision making and problem solving, to better coping with change.</p>
<p>It is not just the quantity of sleep that matters, but <a href="https://theconversation.com/explainer-how-much-sleep-do-we-need-29759">quality as well</a>. You should try to stick to a regular sleep pattern. </p>
<p>Going to bed late during the working week and hoping to catch up with a sleep-in on the weekends may make you feel more productive, but you are disrupting your <a href="http://healthysleep.med.harvard.edu/interactive/circadian">sleep-wake rhythms</a>. This makes it difficult to feel alert and ready for work on Monday. </p>
<p><a href="http://healthysleep.med.harvard.edu/need-sleep/what-can-you-do/good-sleep-habits">Get into a good sleep routine</a> by setting a regular bedtime. Then avoid caffeine, alcohol, nicotine, and other chemicals that interfere with sleep. </p>
<p>Limit light exposure – including from TV, phone and computer screens - in the evening. Eat, drink and exercise enough, but not too much and not too close to your bedtime. Make sure your bedroom is a calm place, and use it only for sleep and intimacy.</p>
<p>Shift workers may not be able to keep to a sleep routine, of course, and they need to be even more careful to get good sleep when they can.</p>
<h2>2) Drink some coffee at work</h2>
<p>Coffee helps you feel alert because it blocks <a href="https://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/health-topics/topics/sdd/whatmakes">adenosine</a>, the main compound in your brain that makes you sleepy. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12424548">A study of US Navy SEALs</a> found caffeine had a range of positive impacts beyond keeping you awake. Benefits ranged from increased alertness and reaction time, to improved learning, memory and even mood. The effects lasted from one to eight hours.</p>
<p>Another study found that <a href="http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0048487">caffeine speeds up how quickly we process words</a>.</p>
<p>But coffee isn’t just effective on a chemical level. </p>
<p><a href="http://connection.mit.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/29/2014/12/hbr-new-science-teams-2012.pdf">Researchers at MIT</a> found that scheduling coffee breaks so that the entire team took it at the same time increased productivity. When tested at a bank call centre, efficiency increased by 8% on average, and 20% for the worst performing teams. The benefit here came less from the caffeine and more from increasing the interactions between team members. </p>
<p>But before you rush out to grab a coffee, remember that in these experiments “a good cup of coffee” means <a href="https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/news/hsph-in-the-news/coffee-health-diabetes/">black coffee</a>. <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20007338">Research</a> shows the levels of the beneficial antioxidants in coffee were higher and lasted longer in black coffee drinkers than for people who added sugar or non-dairy creamer to their coffee. </p>
<h2>3) Take a break and do some exercise</h2>
<p><a href="http://psycnet.apa.org/index.cfm?fa=search.displayrecord&uid=2015-36861-001">Researchers in America</a> have found that taking breaks during the workday is important for workers to replace workplace “resources” - energy, motivation, and concentration. These resources aren’t limitless, and periodically need “charging” by doing activities that require less effort or use different resources than normal work, or are just something the worker enjoys.</p>
<p>A break could be mean completely stopping work and doing something fun. An office-worker might go for a run, for instance. Or it could just mean switching tasks and doing something different, such as a supermarket shelver sitting down and doing paperwork. </p>
<p>The researchers also found it matters when you take your break. You will be most productive after a break if you take it early in the work day rather than later, when you are already tired.</p>
<p>But perhaps you should also carve out special times in the day for physical movement. Researchers in Sweden found that <a href="https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/09/110906121011.htm">devoting some work time to physical activity increases productivity</a>. The research found that as little as two and a half hours of physical activity a week led to more work being done in the same amount of time, and reduced absenteeism due to sickness. </p>
<h2>4) Conquer procrastination</h2>
<p>Procrastinating not only <a href="http://pages.ucsd.edu/%7Enchristenfeld/DoG_Readings_files/Class%2010%20-%20Tice%201997.pdf">reduces your immediate productivity</a>
by delaying work, but increases stress and lowers well-being. This can make your productivity even worse, later. </p>
<p>There are <a href="http://file.scirp.org/pdf/PSYCH_2014091715410990.pdf">a range</a> of relatively simple interventions you can do, such as eliminating notifications on your devices, only working for 15 minutes to get a project started, or creating smaller goals.</p>
<p>A classic remedy now <a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B5PfmCdXTvf6V1hvbjhpaXA4M0E/edit">supported by a University of Pennsylvania study</a> is to divide tasks into smaller pieces so you can work through a more manageable series of assignments. Use the higher energy levels you have in the morning to do a small task you don’t feel like doing, such as phoning someone you have been reluctant to contact. You’ll give yourself the mood and energy boost that comes from a small achievement.</p>
<h2>5) Do one thing at a time</h2>
<p>Don’t be tempted to multitask. Our brains are <a href="http://www.pnas.org/content/106/37/15583.full">not suited</a> to dealing with multiple streams of information or doing multiple jobs at the same time. The more tasks we try to do simultaneously, the slower we complete them and the more mistakes we make. </p>
<p>Further, the research found that those who do multitask are more prone to becoming distracted by their environment. </p>
<p>By contrast, take that difficult phone call you just made. You gave it your full attention and finished it. Now, do something else important and then take a short coffee break, perhaps a walk. Your body and your mind will be in top gear and so will your productivity.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/76217/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Mary Barrett does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Workplace productivity is about more than fancy gadgets. It’s about taking care of your body and mind, even away from work.Mary Barrett, Professor of Management, University of WollongongLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/720262017-02-03T02:05:54Z2017-02-03T02:05:54ZDads are more involved in parenting, yes, but moms still put in more work<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/155374/original/image-20170202-1685-1ehfwc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Is there equality in parenting?</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/kjd/2188617394/in/photolist-4kpeGE-4m6FEd-qGyxkU-qKLQ1t-hzTWZA-6T9H6u-3czyVT-jvSvJ-jvSkY-pyXiv-jvTa1-hQmQ42-2UGcj-7jaHoK-4m6FQy-2W9E9X-2dUn9e-nZwwVL-4m2Dwz-4Yedi5-4Y9Xd2-4db9hy-4hh6qh-61cfZq-4Y9Xqn-qRTfs-cW5cNj-5pQCDj-73UGq8-a7SzQo-4Y9Xpg-4m6Ft1-6cJn66-54LuUK-p4p3Pp-jvSon-jvSqR-7YzDyE-5x6FEc-jvSiX-3eAY3V-5qFDDi-4AHGar-4fvaCv-j2Tq4-jvT8m-jvSy4-5x6FKa-CykHP-3ma2AQ">Kim Davies</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>On Jan. 21, in a collective demonstration of historic proportions, <a href="http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2017/01/21/womens-march-aims-start-movement-trump-inauguration/96864158/">millions of women marched</a> in Washington, D.C. and other cities around the world in support of <a href="https://www.womensmarch.com/principles/">key policy issues</a> such as reproductive rights, equal pay for equal work and support for balancing work and family. </p>
<p>These marches demonstrated the empowerment of women and a widespread commitment to ensuring that women’s rights are furthered – and not eroded – by policymakers. But policy is not the only arena that affects women’s freedoms and well-being. </p>
<p>If equality begins at home, how much progress has been made toward equality in parenting?</p>
<p>The day after the march, The <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/22/nyregion/womens-march-montclair-nj.html?_r=1&mtrref=us">New York Times</a> published an article that described a scene in Montclair, New Jersey, showing what happened when women were absent from town. The article narrated how women’s absence resulted in empty yoga classes, Starbucks cafes populated by men and hapless fathers struggling to juggle children’s weekend schedules. </p>
<p>In other words, as its critics pointed out, the article <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/new-york-times-articles-celebrates-fathers-for-parenting_us_588648f2e4b096b4a23381b5">reinforced the outdated notion</a> that mothers are the primary parents and fathers are (at best) mere helpers and incapable of caring for children independently. </p>
<p>My research focuses on the sharing of parenting between mothers and fathers in dual-earner couples – a group that is most likely to hold <a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0049089X05000177">gender egalitarian beliefs</a>. In this group, successfully balancing work and family makes some degree of shared parenting necessary.</p>
<p>My research and that of others shows that even though significant progress has been made toward gender equality in parenting, more subtle inequalities remain. Many fathers – even those in the households most likely to have progressive views on parenting – have not achieved equality with mothers in key areas.</p>
<h2>Men’s parenting time has increased, but women’s has too</h2>
<p>It is true that today’s fathers are more involved in parenting children than ever before. Over the past half-century, fathers in America <a href="http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2016/06/16/fathers-day-facts/">nearly tripled their child care time</a> from 2.5 hours per week in 1965 to seven hours per week in 2011. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/155379/original/image-20170202-1641-x6su44.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/155379/original/image-20170202-1641-x6su44.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/155379/original/image-20170202-1641-x6su44.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/155379/original/image-20170202-1641-x6su44.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/155379/original/image-20170202-1641-x6su44.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=500&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/155379/original/image-20170202-1641-x6su44.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=500&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/155379/original/image-20170202-1641-x6su44.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=500&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Parenting time of mothers has increased.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/penumbra/4023143488/in/photolist-78vEoU-9qL2tu-8Fowsq-7jmcUg-5QVyUd-6QoQgB-49z48X-4Kxohf-aJtXma-9qHg9k-8LWjds-9iDKvR-771SfF-9iDLMi-6cT4PV-aLHof-c8kCk-6zuZbh-r1ZbaY-8dVnwB-72zLfW-7XAEpo-4AeCoS-9aVye-pkFZ4-5pjv4Q-59FgxE-7XAEz5-8JWpW3-4N7R7x-4NbYqG-4Nc1LA-7vqs11-4N7N1t-4N7Sja-4N7RTt-4NbYQ7-4NbX7J-4N7QfR-4Nc5Ky-4N7Kwx-4N7NKH-4N7TNa-4N7Rvk-4NbZzC-4Nc4YS-4Nc6vN-4Nc2X3-4RvYXs-69rGYp">Penumbra</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>But, over this period, <a href="http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2016/06/16/fathers-day-facts/">women’s parenting time too has increased</a> – from 10 hours per week in 1965 to 14 hours per week in 2011. This has resulted in a smaller but persistent gap in the time mothers and fathers spend on parenting.</p>
<p>This gap starts in the earliest months of parenthood. Using detailed daily records of new parents’ activities, my team’s research has shown that working mothers take on a greater share of the child care burden for a new baby than do fathers. In fact, <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4578481/">new mothers allocated twice</a> as much of their available time to routine child care activities than fathers.</p>
<p>When considering time spent in child care plus time spent in housework and working for pay, the birth of a baby increased mothers’ total workload by <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4584401/">21 hours per week</a>. In contrast, fathers’ total workload increased by only 12.5 hours per week. This represents a 70 percent greater increase in workload for women compared to men. </p>
<p>These differences cannot be explained away by differences in paid work hours or breastfeeding. </p>
<h2>Mothers face intense parenting pressure</h2>
<p>So, the question remains, why hasn’t fathers’ greater involvement substituted for mothers’ involvement, thus reducing the parenting burden on women? </p>
<p>What has happened is that middle-class families now follow the norm of “<a href="http://yalebooks.com/book/9780300076523/cultural-contradictions-motherhood">intensive parenting</a>,” which dictates that parenting should be child-centered, guided by expert advice and costly in terms of time, money and emotional investment in order to produce the most successful child possible.</p>
<p>Picture modern parents scouring bookstores for the latest parenting manual and preschool math workbooks, fretting over their toddler’s picky eating habits and overloading their weekly schedules with children’s activities and playdates. This pressure to parent intensively does not fall equally on middle-class mothers and fathers, however. Because <a href="http://www.simonandschuster.com/books/The-Mommy-Myth/Susan-Douglas/9780743260466">motherhood remains an idealized role</a>, it is mothers who experience the greatest pressure to meet these unrealistic parenting standards. </p>
<p>Mothers who feel intense pressure to invest heavily in their children may also be reluctant to give up control over parenting. What ends up happening is that fathers spend less time in sole charge of their children. Research on parenting time shows that women are in sole charge of their children <a href="http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0891243205285212">for nearly one-third of their time</a> whereas men only for about 8 percent of their time.</p>
<p>Thus, even fathers who are highly involved coparents may experience parenting primarily in the company of children’s mothers and more rarely on their own. </p>
<h2>Mothers do more multitasking</h2>
<p>Another area in which subtle, persistent inequality exists is multitasking – especially doing several unpaid work activities (e.g., housework and child care) at the same time.</p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/155377/original/image-20170202-1685-1td5ot7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/155377/original/image-20170202-1685-1td5ot7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/155377/original/image-20170202-1685-1td5ot7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/155377/original/image-20170202-1685-1td5ot7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/155377/original/image-20170202-1685-1td5ot7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/155377/original/image-20170202-1685-1td5ot7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/155377/original/image-20170202-1685-1td5ot7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Mothers do more multitasking.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/wefi_official/27083596883/in/photolist-9Y7qvW-HCmEDK-7myRZX-qdFTp1-HghvLX-d2TkzL-LnDnq-dBKW3a-7wpd4p-Nw8qk-ihsYAC-9HF3JW-5GynLV-9ozVJa-8BfXon-DK4hBF">Anne Worner</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Mothers multitask more than fathers do. A recent study showed the size of this difference: mothers in dual-earner families <a href="http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0003122411425170">spent 10 more hours per week multitasking</a> than did fathers.</p>
<p>When fathers are parenting solo, they may be focusing on the basics: making sure children are fed, getting children to/from activities, etc. In contrast, when mothers are parenting solo, they may be taking care of the basics while also getting housework done and/or doing paid work. </p>
<p>Although multitasking may be efficient, frequent multitasking contributes to greater day-to-day stress for mothers compared to fathers. Mothers who did more multitasking at home <a href="http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0003122411425170">felt more frustrated, irritated and anxious</a>. They said they felt more often <a href="http://doi.org/10.1111/jomf.12320">rushed or pressed for time</a>.</p>
<p>Thus, if fathers are less likely to multitask child care and housework, some women may have returned from the march to weekend laundry or grocery shopping left undone, thus beginning the new work week with an additional burden.</p>
<h2>Mothers do more managing and organizing</h2>
<p>Intensive parenting requires strong dedication to managing children’s activities, organizing schedules and making appointments – part of the so-called “<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/10/opinion/sunday/judith-shulevitz-mom-the-designated-worrier.html?_r=0">worry work</a>” of parenting. </p>
<p>This aspect of parenting is especially challenging to study, because much of this work takes place inside the parent’s head. Research that has surveyed or interviewed parents about who takes responsibility for the managerial and organizational aspects of parenting indicates that <a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0885200605800808">mothers take greater responsibility than fathers</a>. </p>
<p>In fact, fathers’ involvement in this component of parenting has <a href="http://psycnet.apa.org/psycinfo/2004-13687-009">lagged behind gains</a> in their direct involvement in caring for their children. In other words, mothers are more likely to make child care arrangements, schedule doctors’ appointments and sign the permission slips. Mothers remember and mothers remind. </p>
<p>Perhaps some mothers who traveled to the D.C. march might want to recall, how many reminders and to-do lists for children and fathers did they need to leave behind? And how many text messages were exchanged with fathers about where to find a missing sport or dance class accessory?</p>
<p>The truth, as made evident through The New York Times article, is: We still have a way to go to achieve equality in parenting.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/72026/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sarah Schoppe-Sullivan has received funding for her research from the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Insitute of Child Health and Human Development and the National Science Foundation.</span></em></p>The recent women’s marches were a reminder that equality in parenting has a long way to go.Sarah Schoppe-Sullivan, Professor of Human Sciences and Psychology; Faculty Associate of the Crane Center for Early Childhood Research and Policy, The Ohio State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/718772017-01-26T00:23:22Z2017-01-26T00:23:22ZScientists may have proven women are better at multitasking than men<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/154210/original/image-20170125-23854-1l4kctc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The hormone oestrogen may play a role in a woman's ability to perform two tasks at the same time.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/mbeo52/27322053605/in/photolist-HCmEDK-8U2i1G-81rpoQ-rYL2PL-4EQx8d-8dAcQv-bsDCsr-5oFsqz-8Jnxk7-3ncqod-ob9Mce-7cEqAp-8yHmeE-6B683L-4mGH6o-uJicK-PxqFW-3Nw8F-uQTPE-5B46LQ-7S6r63-uQV57-5b887W-qd8cE-6hpdjC-8RwR2v-6bGEmX-4uH1Nu-7ZLqZe-7Jg8q2-7dxdNA-CMfCLF-7VD5t3-5U8GPM-bphvD-6BLeu3-6fM6rP-gPv8-993YDR-7dtkbt-5fekqG-9YHYUb-dbbcMQ-4UM6a5-pHpxXK-mo1CFs-6FS3VT-5LmBh-cmkAzy-4CWBez">mbeo/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Women are less affected by interference when carrying out certain tasks than men, and hormones may play a part in this discrepancy. Our recent experiment found that the walking pattern of men - who typically have low levels of oestrogen - changed when they had to perform a difficult verbal task at the same time. </p>
<p>By contrast, women who hadn’t yet reached menopause – and likely to have higher levels of oestrogen – showed no sign of such interference.</p>
<p>Published in the <a href="http://rsos.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/4/1/160993#sec-4">Royal Society Open Science journal</a>, our research set out to explore the hypothesis that the ability to swing the right arm, controlled by the brain’s left hemisphere, would be inhibited if using that same part of the brain to perform another task at the same time.</p>
<p>We were surprised to find this inhibition was indeed present in men and women over the age of 60, but not in women under this age.</p>
<h2>The Stroop test</h2>
<p>Most of us pay little attention to how our limbs move when we walk. Instead, walking serves the simple purpose of getting us from one place to another. In other words walking, and the associated swinging of the arms, are semi-automatic, goal-directed behaviours. </p>
<p>But the coordination of our arm swing changes in a subtle fashion when we are asked to complete certain cognitive (thinking) tasks while walking. </p>
<p>As neuroscientists in the field of spinal cord injuries, our research group is interested in <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27574966">describing and understanding</a> the effects of walking when also performing difficult tasks, and determining whether these additional conditions result in different adaptations to coordination.</p>
<p>This is especially useful when contrasting response patterns to those seen in patients in early stages of neuropathies – conditions resulting from problems in the nervous system. </p>
<p>Classically, a task used to distract research participants from another is the <a href="https://d2l.deakin.edu.au/d2l/eP/presentations/presentation_preview_popup.d2l?presId=67655">Stroop test</a>, first proposed by John Ridley Stroop in the 1930s. Here, participants are shown a written colour word (such as “green”) written in an incongruent color (such as red).</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/154212/original/image-20170125-23858-xbqasf.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/154212/original/image-20170125-23858-xbqasf.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/154212/original/image-20170125-23858-xbqasf.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=322&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/154212/original/image-20170125-23858-xbqasf.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=322&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/154212/original/image-20170125-23858-xbqasf.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=322&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/154212/original/image-20170125-23858-xbqasf.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=404&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/154212/original/image-20170125-23858-xbqasf.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=404&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/154212/original/image-20170125-23858-xbqasf.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=404&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Stroop test is often used to see how someone can accomplish one task when another interferes with it.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://youtu.be/Tpge6c3Ic4g">Youtube screenshot</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The correct response is the colour of the word (in our example, red) although most people automatically read the word rather than saying the colour it is written in. The task is from the family of “interference” tasks where the brain must successfully integrate multiple and competing stimuli to achieve the correct response. </p>
<p>The brain networks and structures activated during this task have been <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10859133">extensively researched</a> and there is indication they are generally <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24862561">found in the brain’s left hemisphere</a>. </p>
<h2>The Stroop test on a treadmill</h2>
<p>Our experiment consisted of measuring walking patterns in 83 healthy male and female volunteers of different age groups (20 to 40, 40 to 60 and 60 to 80 years) on a treadmill. </p>
<p>The participants had to walk for a minute while also either completing a Stroop task or just walking normally. </p>
<p>Most participants swung their left and right arm symmetrically when just walking. However, when the men of any age group walked and performed the Stroop test at the same time, the swing in their right arm decreased dramatically. This was also the case in older women (over 60). </p>
<p>Women under 60, though, were able to perform the Stroop task with no significant change in arm-swing symmetry. </p>
<p>The right arm is controlled by the left side of the brain which, as mentioned earlier, is also where the processing areas activated during the Stroop test are.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/154214/original/image-20170125-23838-1rsdbz4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/154214/original/image-20170125-23838-1rsdbz4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/154214/original/image-20170125-23838-1rsdbz4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/154214/original/image-20170125-23838-1rsdbz4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/154214/original/image-20170125-23838-1rsdbz4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/154214/original/image-20170125-23838-1rsdbz4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/154214/original/image-20170125-23838-1rsdbz4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/154214/original/image-20170125-23838-1rsdbz4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Participants were asked to walk on a treadmill while performing either a simple reading task or the Stroop test.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">from shutterstock.com</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In men and older women, the Stroop test appeared to overwhelm the left brain to the extent that the movement of the arm on the right was reduced.</p>
<h2>It may be the hormones</h2>
<p>While men and women have a number of important biological differences, the structure and function of our nervous system <a href="http://www.pnas.org/content/112/50/15468">seems to be quite similar</a>. So we were intrigued to find such a consistent gender difference in how two relatively simple behaviours interact with one another. </p>
<p>While at first glance this would seem to be proof women may be better at multitasking than men, it is important to remember this describes only the coupling of two highly specific behaviours: a verbal interference task and maintaining arm swing during walking. </p>
<p>However, we think the fact premenopausal women seem to be resistant to interference may have something to do with the specific region of the brain we believe is used for both the Stroop task and arm swing - the prefrontal cortex at the front of the brain. </p>
<p>This is a complex and evolutionarily-recent part of the brain that <a href="http://journal.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fnhum.2014.00078/full">seems to be involved</a> in both cognitive control and the control of some elements of walking.</p>
<p>There is also a lot of evidence <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16510735">oestrogen receptors are present</a> in this region. When oestrogen itself is present, activation of these receptors can lead to the reshaping of neural networks and perhaps improved function in the prefrontal cortex. </p>
<p>This may explain why younger women – who have relatively high levels of oestrogen, at least at certain times of their menstrual cycle, than men and older women – seem to be able to process the Stroop task in their left prefrontal cortex without it interfering with their arm swing. </p>
<p>This is, of course, still speculative but explains the results nicely. As the oestrogen receptors are presumably also present in a man’s prefrontal cortex, the role of oestrogen on the brain in both sexes may be more complicated than we currently appreciate.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Tpge6c3Ic4g?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">There is evidence areas activated during the Stroop task are located in the left hemisphere.</span></figcaption>
</figure><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/71877/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Christopher S. Easthope receives funding from the clinical research priority program of the University of Zurich.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Tim Killeen received funding from the Clinical Research Priority Program for Neuro-Rehab of the University of Zurich.</span></em></p>In men and older women, a complicated thinking test appeared to overwhelm the part of the brain also responsible for moving one of their arms. They could only do one or the other.Christopher S. Easthope, Researcher, Spinal Cord Injury Centre, University of ZurichTim Killeen, Neurosurgical Resident, Cantonal Hospital St. Gallen, University of ZurichLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/709012017-01-25T00:02:24Z2017-01-25T00:02:24ZIt’s true, internet surfing during class is not so good for grades<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/152734/original/image-20170114-11834-1xp0kab.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Should laptops be used during class?</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/catalystopensource/23887038194/in/photolist-CoPjf7-BujNYV-qR4AHy-GaZRJy-EkcBtK-AMAF77-FkvwEg-AMB23E-skAyBj-F8wDkc-Ekdvx4-ATeS9u-tTY5T7-drspwe-cEJnWs-cEJrdJ-P3cW8-P2Gsy-egDAjA-CWQjeE-drsqbZ-drsjsx-P2GqW-drsk1z-drsiUg-P2Gs1-43YU9U-43YUef-cEJjL1-drsB7q-cEJ6FG-cEJpCY-rfX2Xw-bzyULm-ibPN36-jfB2a2-hVL1YU-drsCcj-fuGmBy-ehBnRE-drsBxq-bx1jyp-cEJ1Zs-5uegbU-7Hkj6f-bx1skR-9FUKfq-8yksB8-fvT5PN-dn7w9M">Catalyst Open Source</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Many universities <a href="https://tech.msu.edu/about/guidelines-policies/computer-requiremen">encourage students to purchase</a> laptops that they can bring to class. Charities like <a href="http://one.laptop.org/">One Laptop per Child</a> provide low-cost laptops to disadvantaged students.</p>
<p>There is no doubt that having a desktop computer or laptop in school is useful for writing papers, gathering information and learning how to program and use software.</p>
<p>But, as would seem obvious, surfing the internet during class – and connecting with friends, shopping or streaming movies – could also prove to be a source of distraction and hinder learning. </p>
<p>I am an associate professor of psychology at Michigan State University. Over the past few years, I have noticed an increasing number of students who bring laptops to class. </p>
<p>So, I decided to use my research expertise in memory and attention to investigate: How do students use their laptop in class? How does it relate to their learning of class material?</p>
<p>Here’s what I found. </p>
<h2>Multitasking in the classroom</h2>
<p>Certainly, there have always been distractions in the classroom. Less high-tech distractions such as passing notes, doodling or reading the newspaper can be easily noticed. Even smartphone use is easy to tell, as there is a downward lap gaze.</p>
<p>In contrast, it is difficult to tell what students are doing on a laptop.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/152735/original/image-20170114-11837-8kt691.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/152735/original/image-20170114-11837-8kt691.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/152735/original/image-20170114-11837-8kt691.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/152735/original/image-20170114-11837-8kt691.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/152735/original/image-20170114-11837-8kt691.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/152735/original/image-20170114-11837-8kt691.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/152735/original/image-20170114-11837-8kt691.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">It is difficult to tell what students are doing on a laptop.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/tostie14/93871481/in/photolist-9i7HP-79iEnu-5ur4p5-8BgNuK-8BgMpe-8amxUP-8apNJd-8apMNL-8BjTKw-3VCRgx-6eyxRH-rKi8G-afLB4o-8amxNe-2sqzdG-8apNCd-8amyyg-8amxCT-8amyfi-6kHo2J-8BjSzb-dYKMHp-bDoRd-dyhKpP-5wTW-8BjTPG-tfLWf-4BLDNn-8xdksf-7VFqFk-cWcyXh-7ThPTV-8DAsW-8amwNz-6eCFVb-JrAdC-bdu5z-6QvMwA-bBe6pr-WjL8-5sHXE4-bBe6gR-bqJJDz-rz82Ve-7w39DA-bojcEJ-5kLSKa-6df119-6AeZDz-6TVfCg">Kevin Tostado/flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Indeed, studies have shown that laptops are a source of distraction in the classroom – not only for the student themselves, <a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0360131512002254">but also for those sitting near</a>. Even if a students did not bring a laptop to class, the laptop screen of other students could be a source of distraction for those sitting in near proximity. </p>
<p>However, it is legitimate to ask: Could surfing the internet for academic reasons lead to better learning? Are some students smart enough to multitask in class?</p>
<p>We sought to answer these questions, among others, in a <a href="http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0956797616677314">recent study</a> in which we tracked internet use in a large introductory psychology course. </p>
<h2>Our classroom internet study</h2>
<p>For our study, we used a proxy server to track internet use. Out of a class of 507 students, 127 agreed to participate. The proxy server recorded all internet requests that students made during class so that we would know what websites students were visiting and not have to rely on their memory. Not all the participants remembered to log in to the proxy server. So, we ended up with 84 students who logged into the internet regularly.</p>
<p>We were surprised by how much these students used the internet for nonacademic purposes. On average, over a third of the class time was spent on the internet in activities not related to the class.</p>
<p>We then calculated each student’s internet use and compared it to their final exam grade. We found that students who surfed the internet more during class were also more likely to have lower scores on the final exam. </p>
<p>To make sure that this relationship between internet use and exam scores wasn’t related to students’ lack of interest in the class, motivation or intelligence, we conducted some further analyses. </p>
<p>Interest, motivation and intelligence are big predictors of exam scores – the largest being intelligence. We measured intelligence by gathering students’ ACT scores that were used for college admission, as they are <a href="http://www.iapsych.com/iqmr/koening2008.pdf">highly related to intelligence</a>. </p>
<p>As can be expected, our results show students’ class time surfing the internet for nonacademic purposes is related to lower grades. This is so even after accounting for all these other factors. If one imagines a pie chart representing all the reasons that students do well or poorly on the final exam, internet use would explain about 5 percent of performance. </p>
<h2>Benefits of browsing?</h2>
<p>What if students used the internet in class to browse academic material related to the class? Would it be beneficial to their grades? </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/152736/original/image-20170114-11831-xo3lw3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/152736/original/image-20170114-11831-xo3lw3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/152736/original/image-20170114-11831-xo3lw3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/152736/original/image-20170114-11831-xo3lw3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/152736/original/image-20170114-11831-xo3lw3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/152736/original/image-20170114-11831-xo3lw3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/152736/original/image-20170114-11831-xo3lw3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Are students distracted even when surfing class-related materials?</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/stanfordedtech/6468101599/in/photolist-ig4cJU-rnict-7BSB9i-8AXrkv-aRyFwT-cbe81W-6pfqFy-aRyE8e-9VnPuJ-aRyFki-bA4aJu-aRyGRk-afJ6vz-4vLwLk-aRyETa-4awaKc-7GJRQc-ig4tyP-4yiwBV-9VjYzX-9VjZb4-GAiEXN-xhSvR-nLZc7-aRyJgT-8dcya2-aRyK6p-bA4ayA-aRyGFi-4UTQnq-c9t5w5-aRyHrz-3fZfrw-aRyHWi-aRyHAk-aJsFwt-4yixE6-9Preuz-bmLZBU-7gpSJi-aRyDZ4-aRyF3r-aRyHg6-6cb6Uf-aRyH4p-agDd5h-bNXPBV-7gpSbr-gSMK3-ne1uL">EdTech Stanford University School of Medicine Follow</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Some students browsed the class website and searched for materials being discussed in the classroom on Wikipedia. For example, some students searched for more information about <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classical_conditioning">classical conditioning</a>, a learning procedure taught in psychology. We wanted to see whether this type of internet browsing would be beneficial for exam scores. </p>
<p>We found even when internet browsing was about such academic content, it was not associated with higher exam scores. In other words, even when students were browsing for class-related information, there was no related benefit to the final exam. </p>
<h2>It’s way too tempting for students</h2>
<p>Nonacademic internet use predicted lower exam scores, and this was so regardless of motivation, interest or intelligence. In other words, these factors did not explain why students surfed the internet during class. </p>
<p>When a laptop is being used to take notes or download class slides, it may become tempting to check email, catch up on homework for another class or see who won the game the night before. </p>
<p>In fact, avoiding nonacademic internet use might require a great deal of behavioral control. A recent study found people who had a greater tendency for impulsive behaviors <a href="http://www.cla.temple.edu/tunl/publications/documents/Wilmer2016.pdf">engaged more heavily with mobile devices</a>. The ability to avoid the temptation for a 100-minute class could tax the abilities of many students. </p>
<p>There are other other downsides as well of laptop use in class: Taking notes on a computer has even been shown to be less effective for learning <a href="https://sites.udel.edu/victorp/files/2010/11/Psychological-Science-2014-Mueller-0956797614524581-1u0h0yu.pdf">than writing them by hand</a>. Researchers have found that writing notes by hand forces students to think more deeply about the material because they have to paraphrase what has been said. Students are more likely to type information verbatim when they use a laptop. </p>
<p>In classes with no computer-based assignments, how about asking students to leave their laptops behind when they come to class?</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/70901/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Susan Ravizza receives funding from the National Science Foundation. </span></em></p>Laptops in class are distracting – even for the most motivated students.Susan Ravizza, Associate Professor of Psychology, Michigan State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/707222017-01-03T15:11:36Z2017-01-03T15:11:36ZToo many tabs – why some people can multitask online and others can’t<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/151595/original/image-20170103-18662-1u0jfq7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Many hands, light work.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The internet may be the most comprehensive source of information ever created but it’s also the biggest distraction. Set out to find an answer on the web and it’s all too easy to find yourself flitting between multiple tabs, wondering how you ended up on a page so seemingly irrelevant to the topic you started on.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1207/s15327043hup1903_4">Past research</a> has shown that we have a very limited capacity to perform two or more tasks at the same time and brainpower suffers when we try. But my new study suggests that some people are better at multitasking online than others. Being able to switch between multiple web pages and to find what you want all comes down to how good your working memory is.</p>
<p>Working memory is the <a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0160289602001150">part of the brain responsible</a> for the storage and processing of information, decision making, and planning. It is responsible for the attention, quality, and quantity of information that is stored and processed in both the <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16039935">short and long-term memory</a>. Many psychologists describe working memory as the <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10513398">ability to retain</a> a specific amount of information while intervening with other information or tasks.</p>
<p>Previous studies have suggested that working memory plays an important role in multitasking. For example, <a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S104160801400140X">one study</a> showed interruptions reduced people’s ability to multitask. This suggests our working memory can only hold a limited amount of information at any one time, limiting our capacity to think about multiple things at once.</p>
<p><a href="http://aip.scitation.org/doi/abs/10.1063/1.4907815">My new research</a> focuses on, among other things, how people’s different levels of working memory influence their multitasking behaviour while using the web. I assessed the working memory of 30 students using an <a href="http://link.springer.com/article/10.3758/BF03192720">automated operation span test</a> that asked them to remember a series of written characters while solving maths questions. I then asked them to use the web to research four topics of their choice, two they had prior knowledge of and two they didn’t. This was particularly important as <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12776755">research has shown</a> that having prior knowledge of a subject means you can study it with less effort from your working memory.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/151598/original/image-20170103-29222-1xh06mj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/151598/original/image-20170103-29222-1xh06mj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=412&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/151598/original/image-20170103-29222-1xh06mj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=412&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/151598/original/image-20170103-29222-1xh06mj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=412&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/151598/original/image-20170103-29222-1xh06mj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=518&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/151598/original/image-20170103-29222-1xh06mj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=518&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/151598/original/image-20170103-29222-1xh06mj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=518&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Information overload.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>I found that participants with high working memory switched between their information topics and web search results more often than those with low working memory. This seemed to enable them to test and retest different strategies for finding the answers they wanted. This means that they were able to divert more of their attention between different tasks.</p>
<p>The people with high working memory also reported that they were able to coordinate existing and new knowledge, multiple topics and deal with interruptions more easily. And they had a better grasp of trying different strategies, such as using different search engines, formulating search queries, evaluating webpages and saving results. </p>
<p>What’s more, those with low working memory capacity thought the previously unfamiliar topics they were researching became more complex as they went on. They also reported that they could not generate more strategies to complete the task or evaluate and judge the content of the webpages they were looking at in the same way as they did for the topics they had prior knowledge. </p>
<h2>Attention limits</h2>
<p>This research confirms <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10513398">previous studies</a> that have suggested that people with low working memories have more limited abilities to keep their attention on relevant information. More specifically, it also suggests that people with low working memory cannot easily give their attention to different pieces of information in a way that would allow them to effectively multitask. This is especially true for topics they have no prior knowledge of.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/j-Pojkqekq0?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<p>What all this means is that people with low working memory abilities probably don’t find multitasking as easy as they would like. Luckily, there are ways to expand your working memory capacity through <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20630350">practice and exercise</a>. For example, Cogmed Working Memory Training involves completing tasks such as remembering visual sequences for rewards, and <a href="http://www.jneurosci.org/content/35/16/6277">has been linked</a> with enhancements in working memory in children and adults.</p>
<p>But technology has the greatest impact when it is designed around its users’ abilities and limitations – not when people have to train themselves to use it. For example, elderly people or people with cognitive impairments such as dementia often see a decline in their working memory. My research shows that these people will have to work harder when they search for information on the web, especially for topics that have no prior knowledge of. Understanding this could help lead to better website or browser designs for these groups, and helps to build their confidence online.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/70722/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Peggy Alexopoulou does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>It’s all down to what’s called your working memory.Peggy Alexopoulou, Research Associate (Pedagogy and Entrepreneurship) and University Teacher in Information Management, Loughborough UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/566772016-04-18T03:41:57Z2016-04-18T03:41:57ZHealth Check: can people actually multitask?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/118671/original/image-20160414-4697-jd3fp8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Despite the obvious limitations, we still keep trying to do many things at the same time.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/sloth_rider/6086793783/in/photolist-agSpJp-p9eRK9-dqbUC-ceBKfJ-EJ1tw1-7LevBv-b6QoAP-4q13fX-ecrtGA-3EcnC-KcCRS-7MRvw5-ubxcd-7zDg33-eqCLpA-38EQiE-7Xmtab-pEXzW-5V5GpC-nXCwFw-d9wit5-q6nmEN-za2yjF-4AtDiB-apyQUT-8FeFwS-Pj3ee-bKzrmn-2T3gwX-7n5obN-7ETaLv-acjBWU-6V3tyW-8DivcT-bWZgjt-9sEJEo-69JBNN-2Wu8vK-84XNBW-6hTwr1-781KFN-dBkXpf-qmYA5-kXzHfn-apgPZP-bpCVSt-ccRj1L-bziMXT-fahSGy-egG1EL">Andrea Allen/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Many of us believe we can do two things at once. We try it every day even though our limitations are obvious.</p>
<p>Yet we persist, so much so that laws need to be passed to deal with our foolishness. For instance, it is <a href="http://www.keepyoureyesontheroad.org.au/pages/Australian-road-rules">illegal in all Australian states</a> and territories to drive a motor vehicle and use a mobile phone at the same time, without some sort of hands-free arrangement.</p>
<p>Such laws stem from the recognition that driving safely requires considerable attention. Operating a mobile phone also requires attention, which takes away from the more important task of driving. </p>
<p>In some states, <a href="http://www.adelaidenow.com.au/news/south-australia/pedestrians-distracted-by-their-mobile-phones-face-105-fine/news-story/917dc4f1f10bae51835a7fc47706949b">police have begun fining pedestrians</a> who use mobile phones while crossing the road. </p>
<p>Young people often claim they are experts at multitasking. That they can monitor several electronic devices at once makes it seem to be the case.</p>
<p>But research <a href="http://www.balcells.com/blog/images/articles/entry558_2465_multitasking.pdf">regularly demonstrates</a> when they try to do two things at once, they tend to do both tasks poorly. Either they make more errors or they take longer than they would if they did one thing at a time.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/118666/original/image-20160414-4670-111iv9b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/118666/original/image-20160414-4670-111iv9b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/118666/original/image-20160414-4670-111iv9b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/118666/original/image-20160414-4670-111iv9b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/118666/original/image-20160414-4670-111iv9b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/118666/original/image-20160414-4670-111iv9b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/118666/original/image-20160414-4670-111iv9b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">We’re limited to how much attention we can devote to any one task.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/the_kegs/1506369491/in/photolist-6wZH5g-uJicK-dtxGPY-5B46LQ-4w1utR-bsDCsr-3Exuam-mo1CFs-8WK629-7S3bEz-fN3FSV-4obkHr-8Jnxk7-4caDkF-61v7m-5oFsqz-acbtCY-3GScQp-c5h31-6aGySa-GU5bS-6NTu9w-7cEqAp-GU5td-GU4NA-9eWCQp-ob9Mce-5LmBh-3i7xaM-3ncqod-hFJjq-6B683L-8yHmeE-cmkAzy-3Nw8F-GTYmB-PxqFW-4mGH6o-7S6r63-c1reaU-4EcFDp-8ts76d-uQV57-5b887W-8CuvML-G4mfo-aUuCAi-5zN7bc-6bGEmX-21ow2">Mike Kegley/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In one study, <a href="http://search.proquest.com/docview/745597375?pq-origsite=gscholar">university students’ laptops were monitored</a> by a spyware program during lectures. It found students attempted to multitask by checking course material and taking lecture notes as well as looking at emails, engaging in social media, surfing the web and playing games. </p>
<p>The study found the more often students engaged with non-course-related material during the lecture, the worse their academic performance was in the course.</p>
<p>Some researchers claim <a href="http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/xpls/abs_all.jsp?arnumber=5364739&tag=1">females do show an advantage in multitasking</a>, but most have <a href="http://pss.sagepub.com/content/24/5/809.short">failed to find any significant</a> gender difference.</p>
<p>Three main principles explain well our limitations in performing multiple tasks at the same time.</p>
<h2>1. Some tasks require a lot more attention than others</h2>
<p>Walking, chewing and the physical act of talking seem to require so little attention that we can do them without even thinking. </p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/119021/original/image-20160418-11167-197a1q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/119021/original/image-20160418-11167-197a1q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=902&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/119021/original/image-20160418-11167-197a1q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=902&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/119021/original/image-20160418-11167-197a1q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=902&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/119021/original/image-20160418-11167-197a1q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1133&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/119021/original/image-20160418-11167-197a1q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1133&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/119021/original/image-20160418-11167-197a1q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1133&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">When people try to do two things at once, they tend to do both tasks poorly.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">from shutterstock.com</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>By contrast, constructing an argument, reading a book and following a movie all require considerable amounts of attention – particularly if we want to do the task well.</p>
<h2>2. We are limited in how much attention we can devote to any task or tasks</h2>
<p>This seems to be a limitation our brain is built with. If doing two tasks together requires less than maximum attention capacity, then we are likely to pull if off. </p>
<p>So, for instance, most people would find it trivial to walk along a path and have a discussion with a friend. </p>
<p>By contrast, if two tasks together exceeded our attention capacity, then something would have to give. </p>
<p>So even though driving and having a conversation might seem fairly easy to most people, <a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S000145750400096X">if the road conditions suddenly changed</a> and the act of driving became more challenging, then the conversation would likely stop. </p>
<p>Our maximum attention capacity is also affected by our arousal state. If we are tired, for instance, we just don’t seem to have the same attention capacity as when we are fully awake.</p>
<h2>3. We can get better at multitasking</h2>
<p>Our ability to perform some tasks can improve with practice. This often means the particular tasks come to need less attention, even to the point of becoming automatic. </p>
<p>In a <a href="http://journal.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fpsyg.2015.01744/full">recent study of mine</a>, participants were presented with pictures of randomly arranged dots and asked to count them. </p>
<p>The time it took them to respond was directly related to the number of dots in a picture: the more dots, the slower the response. But after seeing every picture many times, their responses were no longer related to the number of dots. </p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/118672/original/image-20160414-4700-c3nst9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/118672/original/image-20160414-4700-c3nst9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=837&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/118672/original/image-20160414-4700-c3nst9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=837&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/118672/original/image-20160414-4700-c3nst9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=837&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/118672/original/image-20160414-4700-c3nst9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1052&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/118672/original/image-20160414-4700-c3nst9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1052&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/118672/original/image-20160414-4700-c3nst9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1052&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">It is commonly claimed that women can multitask better than men.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/fouquier/5169162733/in/photolist-8SMiZp-F6Aa82-6AvgLm-rQTuQg-e8SYU7-qdGjmH-oz61XP-2woh6-7vkDQi-ehu7gN-8dBff4-FRpZr7-9pnmx8-5EC3Sb-7sNzmW-6iyKgK-9kXyKj-nCZ8js-5RCVaP-nYYFun-6XMBAH-3E3aE3-9U24Vk-81CM74-apLbLp-nQEVbL-fS4nXW-4oX6gv-npQs7K-dCkiCw-9z6PCX-ujgnJ-mYizG-8sPUbP-6UsjAC-eeLJ3B-iUYb5U-e9bKPy-bEtsqs-p6QudU-ayRB7j-gpJtY6-CzmnuR-EMpVU-agSpJp-p9eRK9-dqbUC-ceBKfJ-EJ1tw1-7LevBv">Fouquier ॐ/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In fact, participants were equally fast regardless of whether there were six or 11 dots. They knew the answer automatically rather than having to consciously work it out through a counting process. </p>
<p>A similar process underlies our acquisition of many cognitive skills, such as reading words.</p>
<p>Novice drivers usually struggle to hear basic instructions while they are driving because all their attention is devoted to keeping the car moving smoothly and avoiding other vehicles. </p>
<p>But after a few years of driving experience, this task requires far fewer cognitive resources. Some are then freed up to perform other tasks, such as singing along to the radio or thinking about the best route home. </p>
<p>The important thing to note is that not all tasks can be practised to the point where they require little attention to perform. Such tasks, by their very nature, always require most of our attention. </p>
<p>Holding a serious conversation with someone is not something we can shunt off to automatic pilot and expect a worthwhile outcome.</p>
<p>So, can we do two things at once? It depends on the nature of the tasks we want to perform simultaneously, how aroused we are, the extent of our experience with each of the tasks, and how much we care about the quality of our performance.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/56677/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Craig Speelman has received funding from the Australian Research Council. </span></em></p>Research regularly shows when people try to do two things at once, they tend to do both tasks more poorly than if they’d only attempted one at a time.Craig Speelman, Professor of Psychology, Edith Cowan UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/435722015-07-07T08:59:03Z2015-07-07T08:59:03ZThe value of unplugging in the Age of Distraction<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/86288/original/image-20150624-31514-n5hh9p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Small device, but very demanding. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/mean-machine/6078011142/in/photolist-ag6oXy-rMF3c9-rMME7r-8nJeGe-nWwc4N-arpxyr-hHCyWm-bLPCz2-6FCzJa-boMxDB-boM6hr-nYyJCc-7fC5iG-7V7Y3w-nMFSb9-boMx9T-boLVQP-85YfZC-6GwzYu-boM2BH-boMavK-pg3XzX-boM36a-boM6Pk-boMbUD-boLRb4-boM18v-boMyn8-boM9Dt-hERJkT-boLZ3F-boLUg8-boLXhR-boLRst-boLSq8-boMbyB-boLZdv-boM8pe-boLYA8-boLZB6-boM4Dz-boLSVP-boM7Re-boLRRe-boMa2F-boMd4F-boMcDX-boLTxe-boM3Z4-boMdwi/">aciej_ie/flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>A common experience: you are walking down the street and someone is walking in the opposite direction toward you. You see him but he does not see you. He is texting or looking at his cellphone. He is distracted, trying to do two things at the same time, walking and communicating. </p>
<p>There is also the telltale recognition of a car driver on a phone; she’s driving either too slowly or too fast for the surrounding conditions, only partly connected to what is going on around her. Connected to someone else in another place, she is not present in the here and now. </p>
<p>These types of occurrences are now common enough that we can label our time as the age of distraction. </p>
<h2>A dangerous condition</h2>
<p>The age of distraction is dangerous. A 2015 report by the National Safety Council showed that walking while texting increases the risk of accidents. More than <a href="https://www.nsc.org/in-the-newsroom/distracted-walking-injuries-on-the-rise-52-percent-occur-at-home">11,000 people</a> were injured between 2000 and 2011 while walking and talking on their phones. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/86291/original/image-20150624-31507-eye31h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/86291/original/image-20150624-31507-eye31h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/86291/original/image-20150624-31507-eye31h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/86291/original/image-20150624-31507-eye31h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/86291/original/image-20150624-31507-eye31h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/86291/original/image-20150624-31507-eye31h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/86291/original/image-20150624-31507-eye31h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/86291/original/image-20150624-31507-eye31h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Really bad idea: texting while driving.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/blackeycove/3647897679/in/photolist-6ymqTz-c5sSU3-7ASHom-7ANVXv-7ANVxZ-7ASH5u-7ASGZs-7ASHmE-7ASHAA-7ANVF6-7ASH2E-7ASHbU-7ANVGP-7ASHxu-7ANVBk-7ASHrY-7ASHqm-7ANVpK-7ASHtQ-7ASHpj-7ANW1X-7ASHvo-7ANVvi-7ANVD4-7ASH47-7ASHjN-ddvenY-ddveNF-ddvg9q-ddvff9-ddvdo8-ddveEj-ddvedR-ddvhCJ-ddvgxd-ddvge4-ddvhiq-ddvfQ3-7yjCYS-2qMt8E-usNLV9-usNASG-usNLuu-uKCYoZ-usNMC1-uJWdfQ-tNnZnf-tNxThP-usWEcT-uH5cGf">Paul Oka/flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/">CC BY-NC</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Even more dangerous is the <a href="http://www.nsc.org/DistractedDrivingDocuments/The-Great-Multitasking-Lie-print.pdf">distracted car driver</a>. Distracted drivers have more fluctuating speed, change lanes fewer times than is necessary and in general make driving for everyone less safe and less <a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4435680/">efficient</a>.</p>
<p>Texting while driving resulted in 16,000 additional road fatalities from 2001 to 2007. More than 21% of vehicle accidents are now attributable to drivers talking on cellphones and another <a href="http://www.undistracteddrivingadvocacy.net/linked/wilson_trends_in_fatalities_from_distracted_driving_in_the_united_states_1999_to_2008.pdf">5% were text messaging</a>.</p>
<h2>Cognitive impairment</h2>
<p>Multitasking relatively complex functions, such as operating handheld devices to communicate while walking or driving, is not so much an efficient use of our time as a suboptimal use of our skills. </p>
<p>We are more efficient users of information when we concentrate on one task at a time. When we try to do more than one thing, we suffer from inattention blindness, which is failing to recognize other things, such as people walking toward us or other road users. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/86295/original/image-20150624-31495-13nymyi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/86295/original/image-20150624-31495-13nymyi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/86295/original/image-20150624-31495-13nymyi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=392&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/86295/original/image-20150624-31495-13nymyi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=392&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/86295/original/image-20150624-31495-13nymyi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=392&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/86295/original/image-20150624-31495-13nymyi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=493&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/86295/original/image-20150624-31495-13nymyi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=493&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/86295/original/image-20150624-31495-13nymyi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=493&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Digital devices, which are proliferating in our lives, encourage multitasking, but does this really help our performance?</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/thomashawk/3071055422/in/photolist-5FnXMq-4bdPeu-oaeRnf-5FJTyM-b6o1Z-6UsjAC-4uNX4u-bEtsqs-5EC3Sb-8dBff4-7Xmtab-cCGnZE-kjrqx-dXxjd7-7MuTo7-3agepd-5CK8hj-pae1Qy-5RCVaP-EMpVU-8kbzxQ-nCZ8js-fxnWdn-pc7gos-fM2dv-8tf56b-2WrE-jHQNom-38EQiE-546LAj-53Sfvi-ujgnJ-nYYFun-eeLJ3B-9z6PCX-kB2EMk-4y2mwB-9pnmx8-nXCwFw-5RiEbb-tMQoq-dtZiwk-2KGwLd-8GLhXU-gpJtY6-6iyKgK-DVbyu-5Zef2Z-8sPUbP-4NKwGs">Thomas Hawk/flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/">CC BY-NC-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Multitaskers do worse on standard tests of pattern recognition and memory recall. In a now <a href="http://www.pnas.org/content/106/37/15583.long">classic study</a>, researchers at Stanford University found that multitaskers were less efficient because they were more susceptible to using irrelevant information and drawing on inappropriate memories. </p>
<p>Multitasking may not be all that good for you either. A 2010 survey of over 2,000 8- to 12-year-old girls in the US and Canada found that media multitasking was associated with <a href="http://www.researchgate.net/profile/Clifford_Nass2/publication/228453286_Media_use_face-to-face_communication_media_multitasking_and_social_well-being_among_8-to_12-year-old_girls/links/02bfe50cb68174ee6f000000.pdf">negative social indicators</a>, while face-to-face contact was associated with more positive social indicators such as social success, feelings of normalcy and hours of sleep (vital for young people). </p>
<p>Although the causal mechanism has yet to be fully understood – that is, what causes what – the conclusion is that media multitasking is not a source of happiness. </p>
<h2>Distraction-seeking creatures?</h2>
<p>There are a number of reasons behind this growing distraction. </p>
<p>One often-cited reason is the pressure of time. There is less time to accomplish all that we need to do. Multitasking then is the result of the pressure to do more things in the same limited time. But <a href="http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/abs/10.1162/rest.89.2.374#.VYa37ev6SEk">numerous studies</a> point to the discretionary use of time among the more affluent, and especially more affluent men. The crunch of time varies by gender and class. And, paradoxically, it is less of an objective constraint for those who often <a href="http://jamesmahmudrice.info/Time-Pressure.pdf">articulate it most</a>.</p>
<p>Although the time crunch is a reality, especially for many women and lower-income groups, the age of distraction is not simply a result of a time crunch. It may also reflect another form of being. We need to reconsider what it means to be human, not as continuous thought-bearing and task-completing beings but as distraction-seeking creatures that want to escape the bonds of the here-and-nowness with the <a href="http://www.sup.org/books/title/?id=18413">constant allure of someone and somewhere else</a>. </p>
<p>Media theorist Douglas Rushkoff asserts that our sense of time has been warped into a frenzied present tense of what he calls “digiphrenia,” the social media-created effect of being in multiple places and <a href="http://astore.amazon.com/astrostyle-20/detail/1591844762">more than one self all at once</a>.</p>
<p>There is also something sadder at work. The constant messaging, emailing and cellphoning, especially in public places, may be less about communicating with the people on the other end as about signaling to those around that you are so busy or so important, so connected, that you exist in more than just the here and now, clearly a diminished state of just being. </p>
<p>There’s greater status in being highly connected and constantly communicating. This may explain why many people speak so loudly on their cellphones in public places.</p>
<h2>Reactions</h2>
<p>The age of distraction is so recent we have yet to fully grasp it. Sometimes art is a good mediator of the very new. </p>
<p>A video art installation by Siebren Verstag is entitled<a href="https://vimeo.com/10882097"> Neither There nor There</a>. It consists of two screens. On one side a man sits looking at his phone; slowly his form loosens as pixels move to the adjacent screen and back again. The man’s form moves from screen to screen, in two places at one time but not fully in either. </p>
<p>One <a href="http://theconversation.com/how-smart-is-it-to-allow-students-to-use-mobile-phones-at-school-40621">study</a> that looked at the effect of banning cellphones in schools found that student achievement improved when cellphone were banned, with the greatest improvements accruing to lower-achieving students, who gained the equivalent of an additional hour of learning a week.</p>
<p>On many college campuses, faculty now have a closed-laptop policy after finding students would use their open laptops to skim their emails, surf the web and distract their neighbors. This was confirmed by <a href="http://www.ugr.es/%7Evictorhs/recinfo/docs/10.1.1.9.9018.pdf">studies</a> that showed that students with open laptops learned less and could recall less than students with their laptops closed.</p>
<p>We are witnessing a cultural shift occurring with the banning of devices, cellphone usage being curtailed in certain public places and policies banning texting while driving. This is reactive. We also need a new proactive civic etiquette so that the distracted walker, driver and talker have to navigate new codes of public behaviors. </p>
<p>Many coffee stores in Australia, for example, do not not allow people to order at the counter <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/digital-life/mobiles/ban-mobile-phones-retailers-say-20130703-2pbzr.html">when they are on the cellphone</a>, more <a href="http://www.emilypost.com/out-and-about/sports-and-recreation/678-cell-phones-a-golf">golf clubs</a> are banning the use of cellphones while on the course and it is illegal in <a href="http://www.ghsa.org/html/stateinfo/laws/cellphone_laws.html">38 states</a> in the US for novice drivers to use a cellphone while driving. </p>
<p>There is also the personal decision available to us all, one foreshadowed by writer and social critic Siegfried Kracauer, who lived from 1889 to 1966. In a <a href="http://monoskop.org/images/0/0f/Kracauer_Siegfried_The_Mass_Ornament_Weimar_Essays.pdf">newspaper article</a> on the impact of modernity, first published in 1924, he complained of the constant stimulation, the advertising and the mass media that all conspired to create a “permanent receptivity” that prefigures our own predicament in a world of constant texting, messaging and cellphones. </p>
<p>One response, argued Kracauer, is to surrender yourself to the sofa and do nothing, in order to achieve a “kind of bliss that is almost unearthly.”</p>
<p>One radical response is to unplug and disconnect, live in the moment and concentrate on doing one important thing at a time. Try it for an hour, then for a day. You can even call your friends to tell them about your success – just not while walking or driving, or working on your computer screen or speaking loudly in a public place.</p>
<p><em>This article was updated to correct the figure regarding the number of injuries from texting and walking.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/43572/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>John Rennie Short does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>As summer vacations approach, it’s worth recalling the value of disconnecting and perils of multitasking in our digitally distracted lifestyles.John Rennie Short, Professor, School of Public Policy, University of Maryland, Baltimore CountyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/375382015-04-14T11:27:20Z2015-04-14T11:27:20ZHow a mindful approach to computer and smartphone use might just make you happier<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/77664/original/image-20150410-2078-16u3gmi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C113%2C1000%2C748&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Too much going on in there.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">messy mind by Ollyy/www.shutterstock.com</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Computing today is perverse. Information technology may have freed up our time through computerisation and automation, but it has also encroached on our ability to switch off and relax. Technology is blamed for information overload, inescapable multitasking, the loss of any work/life balance, internet addiction and the abusive behaviour found on social media. </p>
<p>Research shows that <a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2012/07/exploiting-the-neuroscience-of-internet-addiction/259820/">internet use releases dopamine in the brain</a>, triggering a reward response and leading to potentially obsessive pleasure-seeking behaviour. We can get so wrapped up in our internet use that we even forget to breathe — email or <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/linda-stone/email-apnea-screen-apnea-_b_1476554.html">screen apnea</a> is the effect of taking only shallow breaths or even holding your breath while working or playing in front of a screen.</p>
<p>Computers have infiltrated our entire waking day, so we are nagged constantly by text messages, notifications from Facebook, Whatsapp, or Viber – on top of the usual deluge of email. How we respond to these messages depends on our state of mind at the time, but our state of mind is also affected by them. </p>
<h2>Computers stressing us out</h2>
<p>As with any innovation, there are always concerns over how the benefits and drawbacks will play out. The rapid and almost total computerisation of society, particularly with the arrival of smartphones, has given us little time to consider how best to use them. History shows a pattern, with enthusiastic supporters becoming euphoric about a technological innovation while at others see the innovation as “the end of the world”. </p>
<p>Could computers be inherently bad for us – is it us, or is it them that turns us into computer addicts? Our relationship with technology has become a love-hate affair, with some taking extreme measures to eliminate or abandon email or social media or smartphones in an effort to stop the disruptions and help them focus on family or work. This sort of “<a href="http://digitaldetox.org/">digital detox</a>” has been promoted as the way forward in getting our normal life back.</p>
<h2>Computers giving us a break</h2>
<p>So while there’s evidence technology has stressed us out, what has it done to improve matters, to introduce relaxation into our lives? There are a number of apps such as <a href="https://www.headspace.com">Headspace</a> designed to help us relax and unwind, offering relaxing music, sounds of nature, or exhortations to breathe deeply or sleep.</p>
<p>It might seem that using technology to de-stress from using technology sounds oxymoronic, but we’ve previously suggested it’s possible to <a href="https://theconversation.com/approach-your-laptop-mindfully-to-avoid-digital-overload-24187">practise mindfulness to manage digital overload</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/77665/original/image-20150410-2072-1o9cel9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/77665/original/image-20150410-2072-1o9cel9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/77665/original/image-20150410-2072-1o9cel9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=544&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/77665/original/image-20150410-2072-1o9cel9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=544&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/77665/original/image-20150410-2072-1o9cel9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=544&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/77665/original/image-20150410-2072-1o9cel9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=683&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/77665/original/image-20150410-2072-1o9cel9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=683&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/77665/original/image-20150410-2072-1o9cel9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=683&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Mindfully speaking.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">johnhain</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>One definition of mindfulness is the conscious awareness and acceptance of present experience. <a href="http://www.nhs.uk/conditions/stress-anxiety-depression/pages/mindfulness.aspx">Mindfulness</a> promotes presence of mind and awareness of patterns of thought and emotion, and how they affect mood, thought and action. Mindfulness has been used extensively in medicine, psychology and the business world as a way to alleviate stress and anxiety. In the context of business, mindfulness helps executives to see different perspectives and viewpoints, shed assumptions, and find new insights.</p>
<p>But there’s little research on mindfulness and the processing power of computers. A mindful approach to computing could provide us a way to use the technology we rely upon safely without suffering from the burn-out it tends to bring, while keeping our family and “real life” within reach. </p>
<p>Following a mindful approach, some strategies have already been suggested to bring a greater level of awareness to emailing and using social media. For example, a salesman rushes into the office while also responding to a trivial instant message. His stressed mind produces an irritated reaction to his unsuspecting colleague’s message. Had he created a dedicated hour for managing messages, rather than add to his already crazed morning, the outcome may have been different.</p>
<h2>Re-writing the rules</h2>
<p>There is a larger picture: technology doesn’t exist apart from society. According to <a href="http://www.slideshare.net/fpaisey/social-construction-of-technology-11490973">Social Construction of Technology theory</a>, a technology is not fully adopted before all interested parties are sufficiently convinced to align around using the technology for a common purpose. Just as traffic laws and etiquette formed around the automobile, we need to agree social rules around what is appropriate phone and computer use. </p>
<p>We need to set expectations at work about interrupting one another in order to protect our focus on projects, or get across how quickly queries require responses. What time should we stop sending or responding to email? Should we stop celebrating multitasking as a badge of honour when really it is a <a href="https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/brain-wise/201209/the-true-cost-multi-tasking">practice in futility</a>? At home, families must decide when and where are screen-free times and places, in order to protect quality connection with each other over the lure of constant access to information. </p>
<p>We can’t do this without a collective conversation about our relationships with these devices and how we use them. Every culture, firm and family will have it’s own answers – but we need to start asking the questions.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/37538/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Anastasia Papazafeiropoulou receives funding from the European Commission, EPSRC, Royal Academy of Engineering. The views in this article do not reflect those of the Research Councils. She is a mindfulness coach and practitioner certified by the Mindfulness Research Centre in the University of California in Los Angeles (UCLA). </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jeremy Hunter is also a mindfulness consultant and coach.</span></em></p>Computers and smartphones make us stressed and ill. It’s about time we rethought how we should be using them.Anastasia Papazafeiropoulou, Senior Lecturer, Brunel University LondonJeremy Hunter, Assistant Professor of Practice, Peter F. Drucker School of Management, Claremont Graduate UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/241582014-03-11T12:38:42Z2014-03-11T12:38:42ZDespite hectic, multitasking lives we’re wired to binge on TV<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/43498/original/xcrd9kbp-1394465681.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">deb db b</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/spratt504/8578715091/sizes/l/">Spratt504</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/43499/original/2zz638sj-1394466010.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/43499/original/2zz638sj-1394466010.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=376&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/43499/original/2zz638sj-1394466010.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=376&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/43499/original/2zz638sj-1394466010.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=376&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/43499/original/2zz638sj-1394466010.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=472&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/43499/original/2zz638sj-1394466010.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=472&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/43499/original/2zz638sj-1394466010.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=472&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Binge-TV Watchers Anonymous.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/spratt504/8578715091/sizes/l/">Spratt504</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Never before have we been such compulsive multitaskers, blogging and tweeting using multiple devices and smartphones anywhere and everywhere, from trains to cafes. It seems a little backwards, then, that one of the <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2529641/Hobbies-Wed-watch-television-One-four-lists-activity-favourite-pastime.html">top post-workday hobbies</a> for many is enjoying the complex storylines of TV series such as Game of Thrones, Breaking Bad, and House of Cards, which engross us for hours on end.</p>
<p>A new type of consumer has evolved in recent years – the love child of the Couch Potato and the Channel Surfer – who has been raised on streaming devices and nurtured by entire seasons of shows available at the click of a remote.</p>
<p>For just a small payment each month, subscribers to <a href="http://www.netflix.com">Netflix</a>, <a href="http://www.hulu.com/plus">Hulu Plus</a>, and <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Instant-Video/b?node=2858778011">Amazon Instant Video</a> have access to thousands of streamed movies and TV shows that are updated and added to regularly. And with Netflix’s new [post-play feature](https://help.netflix.com/en/node/2102](https://help.netflix.com/en/node/2102), which prompts viewers to play the next episode just as the credits of the last one begin rolling, it’s easier than ever to succumb to the captivating lure of Breaking Bad cooks Walter White and Jesse Pinkman, whose signature dish of crystal meth <a href="http://www.nme.com/filmandtv/news/breaking-bad-bows-out-with-best-ever-viewing-figu/322438">notched up 10.3m viewers</a> in one concluding episode.</p>
<p>The birth of the “binge-watcher” has been an intriguing, unexpected development of the past five years.</p>
<h2>High on empathy</h2>
<p>British psychologist Edward B Titchener, active at the turn of the 20th century, might argue that we become glued to complex, emotionally-charged stories because of our ability to recognise the feelings of others. A newly identified phenomenon at the time, Titchener coined the term “empathy” in 1909. In addition to identifying others’ discomfort or elation, this branch of “cognitive empathy” examines how humans can also adopt others’ psychological perspectives, including those of fictional characters. Psychological tests (through the use of puppets, pictures, and videos) have even been developed to <a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/2209184">study empathy in preschool-aged children</a>.</p>
<p>Neuro-economist <a href="http://www.cgu.edu/pages/473.asp">Paul Zak</a> of Claremont Graduate University in California <a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0001128#pone-0001128-g001">set out to examine</a> the science of empathy in storytelling. He showed participants <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DHeqQAKHh3M">a video</a> about a young boy with terminal cancer, who is carefree and completely unaware of his fate. We get the father’s perspective, too – although he tries to enjoy his final months with his son, he finds it impossible to be happy. </p>
<p>Zak found that subjects commonly elicited two emotions after viewing the video: distress and empathy. When a blood sample was taken from participants before and after viewing, both cortisol (a stress hormone) and oxytocin (a hormone associated with human connection and caring) levels were higher after the video. While cortisol was correlated with ratings of distress, there was a strong relationship between oxytocin and empathetic feelings. </p>
<p>After watching the video, participants were also given the opportunity to donate money to a stranger in the laboratory, as well as a charity that helps sick children. In both cases, the amount of cortisol and oxytocin released predicted how much people were willing to share. <a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0001128#pone-0001128-g001">Zak concluded</a> that these empathetic feelings (that we also, apparently, act on) are evidence of our compulsions as social beings – even when faced with a fictional story.</p>
<p>So it’s clear that humans connect emotionally with stories of their kin. But what explains the binge? Or why, <a href="http://www.2machines.com/articles/164888.html">according to Netflix</a>, did three out of four members who streamed the first season of Breaking Bad finish all seven episodes in one session?</p>
<h2>TV and film meet the brain</h2>
<p>Psychologist Uri Hasson of Princeton University pioneered the new field of “neurocinematics”, or the study of how TV and film interact with the brain. <a href="http://hlab.princeton.edu/Papers/Hasson_Neurocinematics_2008.pdf">In a 2008 study</a>, Hasson and colleagues showed participants four clips while they had their brain imaged via fMRI (an imaging technique that measures changes to bloodflow in the brain): Larry David’s Curb Your Enthusiasm, Sergio Leone’s The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, Alfred Hitchchock’s Bang! You’re Dead, and a 10-minute unedited, one-shot video of a Sunday morning concert in NYC’s Washington Square Park.</p>
<p>Hasson wanted to determine the inter-subject correlation (ISC) across all viewers’ brains to examine how similarly they’d respond while watching these four very different clips. The Washington Square Park video evoked a similar response in all viewers in only 5% of the cortex, while Curb Your Enthusiasm and The Good, The Bad and the Ugly came in at 18% and 45%, respectively. The Hitchcock film, however, elicited an ISC of 65%.</p>
<p>In other words, compared to the other films, Bang! You’re Dead was able to co-ordinate the responses of many different brain regions, resulting in simultaneous “on” and “off” responses across all participants 65% of the time. Hasson concluded that the more “controlling” the clip – those that showed the viewer exactly what they’re supposed to pay attention to – the more focused the audience.</p>
<p>While the one-shot park clip allowed viewers to direct their attention to anything they found interesting, Hitchcock proved the master of orchestration: what you’re watching, what you’re thinking, how you’re feeling, and what you predict will come next. In the same way, modern-day TV writers and directors can engage viewers worldwide with the flash-forwards of LOST or the gruesome action scenes of Game of Thrones.</p>
<p>Based on <a href="http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/netflix-declares-binge-watching-is-the-new-normal-235713431.html">a survey</a> commissioned by Netflix in December, 61% of 1,500 online respondents claimed to binge-watch Netflix regularly (defined, modestly, as watching at least two or three episodes successively every few weeks). Three-quarters reported having positive feelings in doing this.</p>
<p>The company then sent cultural anthropologist Grant McCracken into the homes of TV streamers to find out why. <a href="http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/netflix-declares-binge-watching-is-the-new-normal-235713431.html">McCracken reported</a> that 76% said bingeing was a welcome refuge from their busy lives, and nearly eight in ten people said binge-watching a TV show made it more enjoyable than watching single episodes. So despite our hectic, digitally driven lifestyles and 140-character social interactions, McCracken concludes that we’re actually craving the long narratives that today’s good television can provide. Instead of dealing with the day’s stresses by zoning out, we’d rather become engrossed in an entirely different (and fictional) world.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.nydailynews.com/life-style/average-american-watches-5-hours-tv-day-article-1.1711954">A new report</a> also claims that the average American watches more than five hours of television daily. This statistic comes at the same time that it was revealed how all this <a href="http://dailyinfographic.com/sitting-down-is-killing-you-infographic">sitting is slowly killing us</a>, and that sedentary time in older age puts one at a <a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24510000">significant risk for disability</a>.</p>
<p>With all this binge-watching, then, it is perhaps a good idea to do as House of Cards’ Claire Underwood did for her husband Frank and set up a nifty little rowing machine in front of the screen. This could counter the negative effects of binge-sitting and binge-eating (pizza delivery, anyone?). For the same reasons we’re wired to binge-watch TV, our brains also <a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23774826">crave a good workout session</a> – marrying the two might prove the less killer combination. </p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/24158/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
Never before have we been such compulsive multitaskers, blogging and tweeting using multiple devices and smartphones anywhere and everywhere, from trains to cafes. It seems a little backwards, then, that…Jordan Gaines Lewis, Neuroscience Doctoral Candidate, Penn StateLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/182022013-09-13T13:31:19Z2013-09-13T13:31:19ZThe perils of multitasking<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/31306/original/v2mm5xp2-1379066628.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=7%2C3%2C2584%2C1932&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Concentrating on texting when UR driving isn't GR8.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Flickr</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The dangers of texting while driving recently received renewed attention thanks to <a href="http://www.scpr.org/news/2013/08/13/38675/werner-herzog-s-short-film-on-texting-while-drivin/">a public service documentary</a> produced by German film director Werner Herzog. </p>
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<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/_BqFkRwdFZ0?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Werner Herzog does public service.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration estimates that driver distraction results in approximately <a href="http://www.distraction.gov/download/campaign-materials/8747-811629-060712-v5-Opt1-Web-tag.pdf">3000 deaths per year</a>, as well as an additional 400,000 injuries. Experts have estimated that the risk of a crash may increase by <a href="http://www2.potsdam.edu/hansondj/files/Driving-while-Texting-Six-Times-More-Dangerous-than-Driving-while-Drunk.html">more than 20 times</a> when texting, exceeding the risk associated with intoxication.</p>
<p>Texting while driving is just one example of a larger phenomenon of our age, often referred to as multitasking. The term was coined by IBM engineers in the 1960s to refer to the ability of a microprocessor to perform multiple tasks at once. Today the term is more often applied to human beings attempting to do more than one thing, such as simultaneously watching television and folding laundry, or answering emails while talking on the phone.</p>
<p>However, the term multitasking is a bit of a misnomer even in the domain of computing. At least where one microprocessor is concerned, a computer does not so much multitask as it switches back and forth between tasks at such a high rate of speed that it appears to be doing multiple things at once. Only more recently, with the advent of multicore processing, has it become possible for computers genuinely to multitask.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/31305/original/cz9hnfh9-1379066402.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/31305/original/cz9hnfh9-1379066402.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/31305/original/cz9hnfh9-1379066402.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/31305/original/cz9hnfh9-1379066402.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/31305/original/cz9hnfh9-1379066402.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/31305/original/cz9hnfh9-1379066402.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/31305/original/cz9hnfh9-1379066402.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">IBM coined multitasking. This supercomputer just does it a tad faster.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Argonne National Laboratory</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The same thing applies to human beings. Health professionals and others who think they are multitasking are typically switching back and forth between different tasks over short periods of time. And in most cases, multitaskers are not able to perform any of the activities in which they are engaged as well as they could if they concentrated on them one at a time. It takes time and effort to re-focus on each task at hand, and this tends to degrade the effectiveness and efficiency of each.</p>
<p>But multitasking is not impossible. In one sense, simply remaining alive requires us to multitask all the time. Our hearts are continuously pumping, lungs exchanging gases, kidneys filtering the blood, immune system fighting infections, and all the while we are also digesting our last meal. </p>
<p>Add to this the ceaseless multitasking of the brain, which is monitoring the environment and maintaining our posture while simultaneously walking and chewing gum, and the complexity multiples.</p>
<p>Yet multitasking creates problems in numerous ways. It is difficult to perform even many motor tasks well when we are distracted. For example, pianists and dancers invariably perform suboptimally when they are not focused on what they are doing. </p>
<p>Likewise, it is essentially impossible to perform arithmetical calculations and write poetry at the same time. And learning appears to be impaired when our attention is focused elsewhere, hence the elementary school teacher’s refrain of “pay attention!”</p>
<p>Some of the greatest threats of multitasking are not, like those posed by texting and driving, to life and limb, but to the meaning – of lack thereof – of life itself. </p>
<p>Is there anything in life of sufficient importance that it warrants our undivided attention? Is there anything wonderful enough, beautiful enough, or true enough that we would choose to attend to it to the temporary exclusion of everything else? Only if our answer is no would it make sense never to question a lack of focus.</p>
<p>On the other hand, are there circumstances in life where our undivided attention is not only warranted but even necessary? Suppose, for example, that living fully requires us to be fully present in some of our activities, whether playing the piano, making love, or carrying on a conversation. </p>
<p>If this were the case, then a predilection for multitasking would reveal a failure to prioritise our lives and discipline our minds appropriately.</p>
<p>In the realm of human relationships, multitasking can cause huge problems. Consider the scene of a young woman embracing her new boyfriend while simultaneously photographing the moment with her cell phone for posting on the internet, or the man who never looks up from his newspaper as his wife relates her growing sense of desperation over the decline in their marriage. </p>
<p>Multitasking unmistakably conveys that the other person is not the focus of our attention and does not matter to us.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
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<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Just got to send a text.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Jon Rawlinson</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The roots of the problem of multitasking go deeper still. When we multitask we divide ourselves up, inevitably introducing disunity. The multitasking body remains an integrated whole, but the multitasking mind becomes fragmented. We come to resemble an uncoordinated symphony orchestra, producing not music but cacophony. Doing so signals that we suffer from a lack commitment, an unwillingness to immerse ourselves completely in any one thing.</p>
<p>Caveats about multitasking recapitulate important insights from ancient wisdom traditions. We can only be where we are. Those who seek to be in multiple places at once inevitably end up nowhere. Hence the sages’ emphasis on concentration, focus, attention, and presence. </p>
<p>In giving in to the temptation to attend to two or three different things at once we end up discouraged, disoriented, and even desperate. Where peace of mind is concerned, our only hope is to do but one thing at a time.</p>
<p>A teenager who texts while driving is failing to take sufficiently seriously the inherent hazards of moving tons of metal through space at a high rate of speed. An artist who tries to talk on the phone while painting is failing to take seriously the demands of genuine creativity. And a physician who incessantly enters data into an electronic medical record while discussing a grievous illness with a patient is failing to take seriously the innate need for human connection.</p>
<p>Practice is needed most of all not in multitasking but in focusing our attention and centring ourselves on one thing. How? Meditation or prayer are two practical approaches. The spirit of each reminds us that work and life are not just a matter of completing tasks. They are also a matter of true presence, without which we cannot truly live. To come fully to life we need to focus our time and attention on what merits them most and be fully present in what we are doing.</p>
<p><em>This is an edited version of an article that was originally published on <a href="http://thehealthcareblog.com/blog/2013/08/24/the-perils-of-multitasking/">The Health Care Blog</a>.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/18202/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Richard Gunderman does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The dangers of texting while driving recently received renewed attention thanks to a public service documentary produced by German film director Werner Herzog. The US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration…Richard Gunderman, Professor of Medicine, Liberal Arts, and Philanthropy, IUPUILicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.