Lecture 14 - Always on: multitasking and performance

Question 1

Why do we multitask?

Answer 1

• Because we can:
• Media is everywhere (bedroom, study, classroom, on bicycle)
• Computer-based gadgets let us (affordances of media technology)
• Because we feel like it:
• Students report they think it helps them (Junco and Cotton, 2011)
• In situations under time pressure (Foehr, 2006)
• No concrete goal what to do (Judd and Kennedy, 2011)
• A desire to communicate / feeling bored (Clayson and Haley, 2012)

Question 2

What is multitasking?

Answer 2

• Real life multitasking might be quite different from lab-style multitasking
• “self interruptions” vs “other interruptions”
• Combination of:
• Simultaneous cognitive processing
• Task switching
• Automaticity

Question 3

Attention definiton

Answer 3

The allocation of limited cognitive processing resources (Anderson, 2004)

Question 4

Bottleneck theory of attention

Answer 4

attention can be allocated to only one task at a time

Question 5

Scattered attention hypothesis s (van dur Schuur et al., 2015; Uncapher, Thieu, & Wagner, 2016)

Answer 5

• Engaging in multiple tasks highly demands attentional capacity, resulting in deficits in cognitive control
• Thus, multitasking reduces performance by causing interference, distraction, and ultimately errors

Question 6

Cognitive control

Answer 6

• Cognitive control includes several processes:
• focusing attention on goal-relevant information
• filtering irrelevant information
• switching efficiently between tasks
• retaining information temporarily

Question 7

Trained attention hypothesis (Courage et al., 2015)

Answer 7

• frequent media multitasking positively affects cognitive control via training and improvement of control processes
• multitasking promotes mental flexibility that enables high-level efficiency and productivity, skills essential for success in modern work and learning environments

Question 8

CONSEQUENCES OF IN-CLASS MULTITASKING (Rosen
et al., 2011):

Answer 8

• Students responded to messages sent by researchers at even intervals throughout a 30-min videotaped lecture.
• the high text messaging group performed worse by one letter grade on an post-test than the low text messaging group (10.6% lower score)

Question 9

CONSEQUENCES OF IN-CLASS MULTITASKING (Kuznekoff & Titsworth,
2013)

Answer 9

• Participants in three groups (non-multitasking, low-distraction, and high-distraction) watched a video lecture while taking notes and completed two post-lecture assessments.
• Students in the non-multitasking control group wrote down 62% more information, took notes with more details, were able to recall more detailed information, and scored a full letter grade and a half higher than students in the low-distraction and high-distraction groups.

Question 10

CONSEQUENCES OF IN-CLASS MULTITASKING Example 3: Impact of sending related text vs unrelated texts (Kuznekoff, Munz, & Titsworth, 2015)

Answer 10

• Participants were asked to send texts to the experiment leader during class that were either related to the lecture or unrelated to the lecture.
• Students that sent related texts scored 10%-17% higher grade, had 70% more information recall compared to students that sent unrelated texts.

Question 11

MULTITASKING EFFECTS RELATED TO ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE

Answer 11

• Heavy media users (exposed to more than 16 hours of media content per day, often via media multitasking) report
• receiving C’s or lower in school
• getting in trouble often
• frequently feeling sad or unhappy
• frequent boredom
• A survey study of 1839 students revealed that using Facebook while doing schoolwork was negatively predictive of overall semester GPA
• In-class multitaskers have lower current college GPAs

Question 12

LAPTOP USE IN-CLASS

Answer 12

• Laptops and multitasking
• Students using laptops report considerable time multitasking (Fried, 2008)
• On average, students open > 65 new windows on laptops per lecture, with 62% of these windows being classified as distractive and irrelevant to lecture content (Kraushaar & Novak, 2010).

Question 13

Consequences of laptop use in class

Answer 13

• results in significantly lower recall and recognition test scores. Students in two conditions (laptop multitasking or no multitasking condition) listened to a lecture and completed a comprehension exam (Hembrooke and Gay, 2003)
• related to multiple learning outcomes including course grade, focus on lectures, reported clarity of lectures, and comprehension (Fried, 2008; Kraushaar & Novak, 2010; Wood et al., 2012; Zhang, 2015).
• Students habitually using laptops in class report low satisfaction with their education (Wurst, Smarkola, & Gaffney, 2008).

Question 14

Consequences of laptop use for others

Answer 14

• Laptop multitasking can hinder class learning for both users and nearby peers (Fried, 2008;
  Sana, Weston, & Cepeda, 2013).
• Participants in direct view of a multitasking peer scored 17% lower than those who were
  not. Distractions due to movement of images and laptop screen lighting, as well as multitasking activities, may cause involuntary shifts of attention among students in close
  proximity to laptop users. Thus, proximity to a multitasker—- and not solely active multitasking—can be detrimental to academic performance

Question 15

Psychological refractory period

Answer 15

The reaction time of one of the tasks is delayed because of the presence of the other task

Question 15

Psychological refractory period

Answer 15

The reaction time of one of the tasks is delayed because of the presence of the other task