Multitasking muddles minds

USING LOTS OF computer gear to multitask might be messing with your head, according to a recent study.

In a study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Clifford Nass and Stanford psychologists Anthony Wagner and Eyal Ophir surveyed 262 students on their information technology habits.

In focus tests, they found that college students who used email, web text and video for chat, as well as phone calls - in other words the fully-wired technology kit and caboodle - were bad at concentrating, compared with their peers.

According to Wired, Nass, a Stanford University cognitive scientist, said that 19 students who multitasked the most and 22 who multitasked least took two computer-based tests, each completed while concentrating only on the task at hand.

They had to briefly glimpse the orientations of red rectangles surrounded by different numbers of blue rectangles. They also had to categorise a random string of words, and then to do it again without categorising words that were preceded by a beep.

Finally a group was asked to identify target letters on a screen. As the test was repeated, they had to remember whether letters had also appeared before.

Students who spent less time simultaneously reading email, surfing the web, talking on the phone and watching TV performed much better than those who multitasked all the time.

Nass said that at the moment it is not clear if people with a predisposition to multitask are mentally disorganized, or if multitasking makes matters worse.

Further studies are planned to use brain imaging to see what happens when people multitask and whether their concentration suff... need more coffee. µ