Multitasking: A Task-Threaded Cognitive Analysis

With the advent of technology people are partaking in “multitasking” more so than ever before. Multitasking has been used to explain how individuals process information when faced with multiple tasks such as doing homework and visiting Facebook. Traditionally, multitasking was considered the process of doing more than one thing at a time. With the growing body of literature in psychology and cognitive science (Salvucci & Taatgen, 2008; Taatgen, Juvina, Schipper, Borst & Martens, 2009), we can now abstractly conclude that this is not the case. Rather, multitasking is a construct used to describe how individuals rapidly switch their attention from one task to another. Thus, no one person is cognitively capable of doing more than one thing at a time. …show more content…
The basic premise of this theory purposes that a single task is represented in the brain by a thread and each task competes for cognitive resources (Salvucci & Taatgen, 2008). Salvucci and Taatgen (2008) suggest that a thread symbolizes one task and that each thread has its own control structure. In addition, threads can coordinate with each other (Salvucci & Taatgen, 2008). For example, the nature of driving requires multiple threads such as scanning the traffic environment, pressing the gas, and switching the turn signal on. When a single task (or thread), like pressing the gas, is learned it can then be paired with other non-related tasks, like talking on the phone (Taatgen, et. al., 2009). Because a task is learned individuals are essentially able to switch from task-to-task at a much quicker rate than if a task is not