Multitasking In Psychology

In recent years, Psychology Today released an article in regards to the effectiveness of multitasking. Though the source of this particular article is not a scholarly one, the points addressed by the author are ones that are worth reading over and perhaps will inspire readers to delve deeper into the mechanics of the act of multitasking.
The main theme of this article is that although multitasking seems like the best way to be productive in today’s fast paced society, it is actually nearly impossible to do and is highly inefficient. Many people that believe that they can multitask are actually serial tasking, which is rapidly switching between tasks, causing the brain to have to remove itself from processing one task and begin to process an …show more content…
After having noticed that there is little data or statistics referenced in the actual article, a question that has been brought up is whether or not there is more data regarding the efficiency of serial tasking versus single tasking. The article describes a study that was done, and provides a single piece of statistical evidence in reference to the study, but does not provide a reference to the study in order to provide the reader with a deeper understanding of the research done regarding the subject at hand. Another question that has been brought up after reading this article is why do so many people feel more productive when they serial task rather than single tasking? When people complete small amounts of many tasks at a time in order to complete multiple tasks at roughly the same time, why is it that they feel more productive than completing one task at a time? Both methods seem to take on average a similar amount of time, but the serial method is statistically far less effective in many ways, yet this is often the method of choice in today’s busy world.
This article has raised many questions, and brought forth an interesting and important point that affects many people in today’s society. Though studies have shown that serial tasking is less effective than handling a single task at a time, many people still chose to serial task in belief that it is more effective. There is room for more research regarding the effectiveness of serial tasking, and why it is that many people in a busy setting chose this method over the more effective single