when we think of being multitask, we associate it with work, however, this applies to all areas of life. Just think about the moment we drive, which should be a highly concentrated responsibility, but once we master it and it becomes a reflex, we calculate that we can put our eyes, hands and mind on something else.
Dividing attention on several things at the same time reduces productivityslows down task performance, creates stress and leads to extreme fatigue or burnoutsays psychologist Jeff Comer, who has dedicated his work to uncovering the neurochemical components of stress and fatigue.
“Research in neuroscience tells us that the brain doesn’t actually perform tasks simultaneously, as we thought it did”, says Dr. Nancy K. Napier, professor of strategy and leadership at the University of Boise, in the United States. All we can do is switch tasks quickly.
“Every time we go from listening to music to writing a message or talking to someone, there is a stop-start process in the brain,” he explains, and that constant start-stop-start process comes at a cost to us. “Instead of saving time, it costs time (even very small microseconds). It’s less efficient, we make more mistakes, and over time it can drain our energy.”.
In a hyper-connected world, it is rare that we can fully focus on something, is the opinion of Alan Castel, professor of psychology at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). And those distractions could be interfering with our ability to remember.
A study conducted by Castel and Catherine Middlebrooks concludes that divided attention does affect memory, and that to safeguard itself, the brain of people who do several things at the same time selects an activity to which it will give preference.
They gave a group of students a memory test, and divided them into groups. Some just had to memorize the content they were given in a matter of seconds. Others had to do it while listening to an audio that gave them other instructions; others had to press a key each time they viewed certain data, and others had pop music playing in the background.
The impediments had a result; Not being able to remember everything, the students selected the information that was categorized as most important. They prioritized. “With divided attention, we do not remember much, but instead focus on what we believe to be the priorityCastel says.
The recommendation is that people who are studying or learning new information avoid distractions as much as possible; a text message or a few seconds of music will not lose anything, in a world full of stimuli, since we have the capacity for selective memory, but a series of interruptions will cause certain details to be overlooked.
Walking to improve performance
There is an activity in which our brain excels, allowing us to do it while we turn our attention to other things: walking. Scientists at the Del Monte Neuroscience Institute at the University of Rochester have proven that while walking, we can do other things without sacrificing efficiency.
The worst thing we can do when pressured to multitask is to sit still. The human brain is flexible and can take on additional tasks… while we walk, says David Richardson, first author of the study recently published in NeuroImaging.
It’s more, people’s walking improves when they are doing a cognitive task at the same time, suggesting that we become more physically stable when our minds are busy.
The experiment included a Mobile Brain and Body (MoBI) imaging system, owned by the Del Monte Institute. The platform combines virtual reality, brain monitoring, and motion capture technology. Participants walked in a band while manipulating objects on a table; 16 cameras recorded their postures with pinpoint precision and measured brain activity.
sedentary and distracted
Being out of shape could also contribute to making us more distractible. Distraction is linked to sedentary lifestyleat least in adults who are overweight or obese, according to a report from the International Journal of Obesity.
University of Illinois professor of kinesiology and community health Dominika Pindus, who led the report, says that as we know, sitting for long periods of time is linked to increased mortality and cardiovascular disease, and people who do not get at least 60 minutes of moderate to vigorous physical activity a day and sit for eight or more hours are at increased risk of disease. And sitting 20 minutes or more after eating affects blood sugar levels.
“However, few studies have examined the relationship between prolonged sitting and cognitive function,” Pindus argues. So she and her colleagues measured overweight or obese adults ages 25 to 45 and fitted them with accelerometers during daylight hours for seven days. In addition, they were assigned cognitive tasks (focus, selective attention, and flexibility when switching tasks) and noted their brain function in the lab.
Thus, they found a relationship between the sedentary lifestyle of their participants in relation to distraction, when measuring the speed and correct execution of tasks. “People who spend more time without physical activity are more easily distracted.”
Men and women are equally entertained
There is a belief that women have a greater ability to do more than one thing at a time. But the reality is that everyone performs the same when switching attention between tasks (or trying to do two or more things at the same time).
Patricia Hirsch, from Aachen University in Germany, leads an article published in the open access journal Plos Oneand their work contradicts the myth that women can divide their attention better than men.
This experiment helps explain the difference between simultaneous multitasking (paying attention to two activities at the same time) and sequential multitasking (switching between tasks from time to time). The result was that the multitasking came at a significant cost in both speed and performance for both men and women, and that didn’t change between concurrent and sequential workers.
For her part, Nancy Napier insists that simultaneity is an illusion. She recommends stopping and considering that we are actually alternating. Why not set a time limit for each? 10 to 45 minutes will be enough. “Focus on a single task, and see if you can complete it better, faster, and with less energy.” (YO)
Source: Eluniverso
Paul is a talented author and journalist with a passion for entertainment and general news. He currently works as a writer at the 247 News Agency, where he has established herself as a respected voice in the industry.
