Mythbuster: Multitasking

Recent research at the University of California San Francisco has punched a rather large hole into the notion of Multitasking.  According to their research only 2.5% of us can multi-task efficiently while many of us only think we can.  This is how they found out.

By using the cocktail-party effect, they found that we can focus on one conversation at a time due to the auditory cortex boosting some sounds and tuning down others so we can hone in on what we want to hear.  It is the same for our visual cortex. 

Those of us who only think we can multitask are shifting their attention between the tasks rapidly not truly multitasking and not getting the full effect of any of the tasks. 

Does texting and driving come to mind? 

One fun (or not so funny) test of this effect is to have a husband and wife try to have a conversation during a football game.....

It should be noted that this writer does not accept responsibility of the result....

Source material from Wall Street Journal, Elizabeth Bernstein