The Myth of Multitasking

1. Why is multitasking considered by many psychologists to be a myth?


Because as Lord Chesterfield said “There is time enough for everything in the course of the day, if you do but one thing at once, but there is not time enough in the year, if you will do two things at a time.” Meaning that multitasking exists but only to some extent and as we “multitask” our performance in both activities decreases.



2. To what does the term "response selection bottleneck" refer?

It refers to the reaction of the brain towards multiple stimuli. As all these stimuli are forced into the brain, the brain “switches between tasks” which leads to a massive loss of time from what the original task was.



3. David Meyer has found that multitasking contributes to the release of stress hormones and adrenaline. Why is this important?

Because it affects the mortality rate of people due to the cause of long-term health problems and loss of short-term memory.



4. Explain what Russell Podrack found regarding multitasking.

He showed that even if people “multitask” their productivity will be relatively low and they won’t be able to store the information in the Long-term memory. His experiment consisted of observing the brain by scanning it. His results showed that when people are distracted the striatum shows activity (an area of the brain used for learning new skills). Whereas when people are not being distracted their hippocampus is being used (area of the brain used for storing and recalling information).



5. What does the author conclude could happen to our culture as a result of increased multitasking?

The author believes that if multitasking increases we could end up depending on technology to do our everyday routine. Meaning we will have access to new information but we won’t be able to reason wisely.