Content area
Full Text
Published online: 12 April 2012
© Psychonomic Society, Inc. 2012
Abstract Heavy media multitaskers have been found to perform poorly in certain cognitive tasks involving task switching, selective attention, and working memory. An account for this is that with a breadth-biased style of cognitive control, multitaskers tend to pay attention to various information available in the environment, without sufficient focus on the information most relevant to the task at hand. This cognitive style, however, may not cause a general deficit in all kinds of tasks.We tested the hypothesis that heavy media multitaskers would perform better in a multisensory integration task than would others, due to their extensive experience in integrating information from different modalities. Sixty-three participants filled out a questionnaire about their media usage and completed a visual search task with and without synchronous tones (pip-and-pop paradigm). It was found that a higher degree of media multitasking was correlated with better multisensory integration. The fact that heavy media multitaskers are not deficient in all kinds of cognitive tasks suggests that media multitasking does not always hurt.
Keywords Attention . Media multitasking
Introduction
Humans often engage in multitasking-that is, performing more than one task simultaneously or in rapid alternation. We can effortlessly talk to each other while walking and watch television while eating. Certain multitasking situation are more challenging because the tasks involved are more difficult or they concurrently engage overlapping processes and, thus, interfere with each other more. Talking on cell phones while driving is a good example (e.g., Nunes & Recarte, 2002; Strayer & Johnston, 2001). Sometimes, such difficulties can have serious consequences.
One way that modern technology has transformed human living styles is through the invention and popularization of various media of communication and interaction, including radio, television, telephone and text messaging, video games, computers, and the Internet. Media multitasking has thus grown into a popular phenomenon and even a way of life, especially among young people (Roberts, Foehr, & Rideout, 2005). The high accessibility of computers, in particular, has cultivated obsessive multitasking, due to the ease of switching between instant messaging, music, Web surfing, e-mail, online videos, computer-based games, computer-based applications, and so forth (Foehr, 2006).
The immediate effects of media multitasking on one's memory, learning, and other cognitive functions have...