Multitaskers Can Have, Uh, Cognitive Problems

The brain is in the news again.  Not the mouse who wants to take over the world, but the one inside the head.  This time the news involves the cognitive abilities of multitaskers.  A series of tests show that people who multitask the most have a hard time concentrating and avoiding distractions compared to those multitasking the least. The study is called Cognitive Control in Media Multitaskers, and authored by Eyal Ophira, Clifford Nass, and Anthony D. Wagner.  It is published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Volume 106 (33), August 25, 2009.  The tests are described in an article on the Wired web site as requiring individuals to remember the layout of various displays of rectangles and to characterize groups of words from one time to another.  Multitaskers consistently had performance problems when tested.  I'd tell you more but I can't remember much about it having checked my three email accounts for the 30th time in the last five hours.  Luckily I can remember where the citation is from.  Read about it in Wired, here.  [MG]