It is evident that multitasking can cause many health concerns, however, the most alarming fact is that young people are far more prone to multitask before they even realize what they are putting themselves through. A child attempting to study while watching television won’t be able to recall a large portion of what they have just studied. This curiosity is explained by the work of psychologist Russell Poldrack, who used various ways to scan subject’s brains while they were actively multitasking and studying. He found that instead of the information traveling directly to the hippocampus, the region dedicated to storing and recalling information, it goes towards the striatum, the region where new skills are learned and developed. This is particularly
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There does exist one theory, based loosely on multitasking, that is producing some promising results called multiplexing. Multiplexing is based on the idea that if two or more streams of information have enough similarities then they can be processed simultaneously with little to no lost efficiency. The lost efficiency often mentioned when switching tasks is what has been labeled in this instance, as cross-talk. “Cross-talk arises when two (or more) tasks make simultaneous demands on the same processing or representational apparatus” (Feng). For instance, if one were to read aloud while writing something completely different, this would cause massive confusion, or cross-talk. The idea behind multiplexing is to reduce cross-talk as much as possible by identifying what assets can be used together without having to borrow each other’s resources. Singing along to a song while writing a paper is an example of an effective multiplexing scenario that many take part in all the time. Further research must be conducted in order to identify and categorize additional scenarios to determine if they would meet the criteria for productive multiplexing before this theory can become more substantiated but the initial evidence is there. Researchers around the world are currently conducting experiments on various tasks and measuring the cross-talk in an attempt to confirm this theory. Upon reaching some sort of conclusion, they will then determine whether the list of tasks that can benefit from multiplexing is abundant enough to be worth implementing into everyday
There does exist one theory, based loosely on multitasking, that is producing some promising results called multiplexing. Multiplexing is based on the idea that if two or more streams of information have enough similarities then they can be processed simultaneously with little to no lost efficiency. The lost efficiency often mentioned when switching tasks is what has been labeled in this instance, as cross-talk. “Cross-talk arises when two (or more) tasks make simultaneous demands on the same processing or representational apparatus” (Feng). For instance, if one were to read aloud while writing something completely different, this would cause massive confusion, or cross-talk. The idea behind multiplexing is to reduce cross-talk as much as possible by identifying what assets can be used together without having to borrow each other’s resources. Singing along to a song while writing a paper is an example of an effective multiplexing scenario that many take part in all the time. Further research must be conducted in order to identify and categorize additional scenarios to determine if they would meet the criteria for productive multiplexing before this theory can become more substantiated but the initial evidence is there. Researchers around the world are currently conducting experiments on various tasks and measuring the cross-talk in an attempt to confirm this theory. Upon reaching some sort of conclusion, they will then determine whether the list of tasks that can benefit from multiplexing is abundant enough to be worth implementing into everyday