A new
study finds that while doing multiple tasks at once may appear to be more
efficient it actually is more time consuming and in some cases poses health
risks.
Researchers
at the Federal Aviation Administration and the University of Michigan,
Ann Arbor, reached that conclusion by studying four groups of young adults
who participated in four experiments.
They were all
asked to carry out a series of tasks and switch between different tasks,
some complicated, such as solving a math problem, and others easier and
more familiar, such as identifying a geometric shape. A participant's performance
speed was measured as the tasks were carried out.
The researchers
found human capacity for multitasking has its limits. The study showed
participants lost time in performance speed when switching tasks and they
lost more time as the task became more complex. Familiar tasks took less
time, allowing participants to get caught up to speed, so to speak.
The study is
found in the August issue of Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human
Perception and Performance, a publication of the American Psychological
Association.
"One thing to
understand is that people don't probably appreciate as much as they should
when it's OK to multitask and when it's not," researcher David Meyer at
the University of Michigan told United Press International.
"They get tired
when they're trying to multitask" and in some cases, a person could ultimately
create more work for himself, he said.
When people
go back and forth between activities, such as browsing the Internet to
talking on a cell phone, for example, they are using areas of the brain
called prefontal cortex and parietal cortex, Meyer explained. The mental
processes involved in switching tasks, however, can take fractions of a
second, which add up during multitasking.
These fractions
of a second can become a health risk, he said, when a driver is talking
on a cell phone and loses control of the vehicle.
"It's a very
serious health risk and there are health risks like this pervading the
environment," he said.
Other health
risks of multitasking, Meyer added, include mental burnout, anxiety and
depression.
Multitasking
has become a workplace and even a household buzzword as e-mails, pagers,
cell phones and other technological advances push mainstream culture into
what critics have sometimes dubbed a 24/7 lifestyle, where people are constantly
"on" 24 hours a day and seven days a week.
Meyer told UPI
he expects this culture to continue and that the growing interest in self-relaxation
practices, such as yoga, meditation and T'ai Chi, which emphasize quieting
the mind, will become even more popular as people continue trying to juggle
multiple tasks at once.
Although there
is little previous documented research on the psychological ramifications
of persistent multi-tasking, the issue is gaining more attention, especially
among behavioral scientists, health care providers and even anthropologists.
At San Jose
University in San Jose, Calif., home to the ever-multitasking Silicon Valley,
researchers Charles Darrah, J. A. English-Lueck and James Freeman write
this constant life-on-the-go can make people feel a lack of control over
their lives.
"That the pace
of life is fast and is getting faster has become a truism for the new century,"
the researchers, of the university's Department of Anthropology, wrote
last December. "Several effects combine to create the maelstrom -- the
flurry of rapidly occurring activities in lives already crowded with activities;
and the constant looming threat of minor catastrophe."
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