Problem 4
Article: media multitasking (May, Elder) 2018
- 90% of university students multitask when using media, more than half time spent on
media involves multitasking
- Students commonly think that multitasking increases productivity
- Other students multitask on a situational basis according to motive, a student with a
specific goal (upcoming test) is less likely to multitask
Cognitive functioning while multitasking
- Multitasking may impair learning due to rapid used of limited capacity of learner’s
information processing channels – especially attention
- It leaves insufficient space for meaningful learning
- Media multitasking decreases academic performance
- Attention refers to how people actively process information in their environment.
- Attention is selective, it enhances processing of attended stimuli and diminishes processing
of unattended stimuli
Theories of attention
Bottleneck theory of attention:
- Attention can be allocated to only one task at a time
- Multitasking is a myth, the mind switches between tasks
- Stimuli arrives at a bottleneck which only one item can be processed at a time
- Attentional resources are limited and the processing of a second task is postponed until the
first one is completed
Consequences of media multitasking:
Scattered attention hypothesis: long-term media multitasking leads to disrupted cognitive
control, the person gravitates towards preferred task rather than focusing
o Cognitive control includes focusing attention on goal-relevant information, filtering
irrelevant information, switching between tasks, retaining information temporarily
o Engaging in multiple tasks demands attentional capacity, resulting in deficit in
cognitive control
o Multitasking reduces performance by causing interference, distraction and errors
o Media multitasking speeds up the depletion of attentional sources, diminishes
performance on primary task
o If attentional demand exceeds attentional capacity, the cognitive systems overloads
and performance suffers
Trained attention hypothesis: frequent media multitasking could positively affect cognitive
control via eventual training and improvement of control processes
o Multitasking promotes mental flexibility that enables high-level efficiency and
productivity
o Ability to filter irrelevant information could improve through frequent multitasking
, - Research is more consistent with scattered attention hypothesis because experiments on
divided attention and dual-task performance shows a limited processing system and
deterioration in performance when multitasking
- There is still potential validity for trained attention hypothesis
- Experiment:
- Low media multitaskers applied top-down distraction filtering to improve performance
- Heavy media multitaskers processed stimuli to the same degree regardless of whether
presented stimuli was the target
- Frequent media multitaskers may maintain a wider attentional scope which allows
attention to more visual information compared to low multitaskers
Working memory theories
- Working memory is a predictor of multitasking ability more than other variables
- Not only does it rely on dual-task measures but also single-task measures predict
multitasking performance
Multitasking effects to academic performance
- A significant drop in academic performance due to media multitasking
- In-class multitaskers have lover college GPA’s
- In class multitaskers: people who receive and send more words in their texts perform
worse on the tests
- Experiment: Non-multitasking students wrote more information, recalled more details and
got better scores than low-distracted and high-distracted students.
- Message content also influences effect on class performance, if the text is related to the
lecture students perform better than those who send unrelated texts
- Experiments: 3 conditions: mild texting policy (turn if off), strict texting policy (you’ll lose
points), no policy regardless of condition there’s a negative correlation with
performance
- Laptop use in class is negatively related to learning outcomes like course grade, focus on
lectures, exam performance and comprehension
- Students that use laptops in class report low satisfaction with their education and are more
likely to multitask
- Experiment: students in direct view of a multitasker with a laptop scored lowered than
those who were not movement of images, screen lighting etc. cause involuntary shifts
of attention
- These results are evidence against the trained attention hypothesis
Multitasking outside of class
- Using Facebook while doing homework was negatively predictive of overall GPA, it burdens
students’ capacity for cognitive processing and inhibits deeper learning
- Texting while studying is negatively related with academic performance, those who spent
fewer time texting have a higher GPA
- Multitasking with social networking platforms while studying has negative consequences
- Students who use fewer forms of media multitasking (0-2 mediums) outperform students
who use more forms (7 or more mediums)
Article: media multitasking (May, Elder) 2018
- 90% of university students multitask when using media, more than half time spent on
media involves multitasking
- Students commonly think that multitasking increases productivity
- Other students multitask on a situational basis according to motive, a student with a
specific goal (upcoming test) is less likely to multitask
Cognitive functioning while multitasking
- Multitasking may impair learning due to rapid used of limited capacity of learner’s
information processing channels – especially attention
- It leaves insufficient space for meaningful learning
- Media multitasking decreases academic performance
- Attention refers to how people actively process information in their environment.
- Attention is selective, it enhances processing of attended stimuli and diminishes processing
of unattended stimuli
Theories of attention
Bottleneck theory of attention:
- Attention can be allocated to only one task at a time
- Multitasking is a myth, the mind switches between tasks
- Stimuli arrives at a bottleneck which only one item can be processed at a time
- Attentional resources are limited and the processing of a second task is postponed until the
first one is completed
Consequences of media multitasking:
Scattered attention hypothesis: long-term media multitasking leads to disrupted cognitive
control, the person gravitates towards preferred task rather than focusing
o Cognitive control includes focusing attention on goal-relevant information, filtering
irrelevant information, switching between tasks, retaining information temporarily
o Engaging in multiple tasks demands attentional capacity, resulting in deficit in
cognitive control
o Multitasking reduces performance by causing interference, distraction and errors
o Media multitasking speeds up the depletion of attentional sources, diminishes
performance on primary task
o If attentional demand exceeds attentional capacity, the cognitive systems overloads
and performance suffers
Trained attention hypothesis: frequent media multitasking could positively affect cognitive
control via eventual training and improvement of control processes
o Multitasking promotes mental flexibility that enables high-level efficiency and
productivity
o Ability to filter irrelevant information could improve through frequent multitasking
, - Research is more consistent with scattered attention hypothesis because experiments on
divided attention and dual-task performance shows a limited processing system and
deterioration in performance when multitasking
- There is still potential validity for trained attention hypothesis
- Experiment:
- Low media multitaskers applied top-down distraction filtering to improve performance
- Heavy media multitaskers processed stimuli to the same degree regardless of whether
presented stimuli was the target
- Frequent media multitaskers may maintain a wider attentional scope which allows
attention to more visual information compared to low multitaskers
Working memory theories
- Working memory is a predictor of multitasking ability more than other variables
- Not only does it rely on dual-task measures but also single-task measures predict
multitasking performance
Multitasking effects to academic performance
- A significant drop in academic performance due to media multitasking
- In-class multitaskers have lover college GPA’s
- In class multitaskers: people who receive and send more words in their texts perform
worse on the tests
- Experiment: Non-multitasking students wrote more information, recalled more details and
got better scores than low-distracted and high-distracted students.
- Message content also influences effect on class performance, if the text is related to the
lecture students perform better than those who send unrelated texts
- Experiments: 3 conditions: mild texting policy (turn if off), strict texting policy (you’ll lose
points), no policy regardless of condition there’s a negative correlation with
performance
- Laptop use in class is negatively related to learning outcomes like course grade, focus on
lectures, exam performance and comprehension
- Students that use laptops in class report low satisfaction with their education and are more
likely to multitask
- Experiment: students in direct view of a multitasker with a laptop scored lowered than
those who were not movement of images, screen lighting etc. cause involuntary shifts
of attention
- These results are evidence against the trained attention hypothesis
Multitasking outside of class
- Using Facebook while doing homework was negatively predictive of overall GPA, it burdens
students’ capacity for cognitive processing and inhibits deeper learning
- Texting while studying is negatively related with academic performance, those who spent
fewer time texting have a higher GPA
- Multitasking with social networking platforms while studying has negative consequences
- Students who use fewer forms of media multitasking (0-2 mediums) outperform students
who use more forms (7 or more mediums)
