Digital Natives – Are They Really Skilled at Multitasking?
We have all heard the stories of the teenager in her home, her laptop open as she works on a school assignment, connected at the same time to the internet, conversing via an open chat window even as she has a cellphone pushed against her ear.
The story has it that the parents are more than a tad furious the first time they see this behavior. But after addressing their daughter on the issue they are gently reminded, well maybe not gently, that she has everything covered. The parent, still somewhat incredulous, has to acknowledge they have not heard of any issues at school and well, the last report card was quite good.
Though unable to match the feat themselves, they begin to believe that maybe there is something to this idea of multitasking, that today’s digital generation is hard-wired to handle this seemingly amazing task. Upon hearing the stories it is easy to begin to think along the same lines.
There is just one problem with such thinking – there is no data to show that those who multitask are actually any good at it.
Recent Study
Such were the findings of a recent study discussed by the BBC. In simplest terms, the findings indicated that “the people who engage in media ‘multitasking’ are those least able” to handle this task well.
In the study researchers divided folks into two test groups based on their current propensity to multitask. Those who acknowledged routinely consuming multiple media such as internet, television and mobile phones simultaneously formed one study group while those who did not engage in the behavior were assigned to a second group.
Researchers determined that the low multitaskers‘ group consistently outdid their highly multitasking counterparts on a series of classic psychology tests designed to assess attention and memory skills.
Specific Items Tested
The three classic assessments used were selected based upon the premise that multitaskers were able to multitask because of specific inherent or developed skills.
Computer testing formats were utilized so as to take advantage of the digital multitaskers favorite tools. The tests involved the participant’s ability to ignore irrelevant information or distracters, the degree to which participants were able to organize their working memory and the skills at which they could switch tasks.
In all cases, low multitaskers were better at the task.
Increasing the distracters dramatically affected the high multitaskers but even with few distracters, the low multitasking group outperformed their counterparts. On the tests of working memory, not only did the high multitaskers do poorer from the outset, their performance deteriorated as time went on. And on the issue of switching tasks, the low multitaskers significantly outperformed their counterparts every step of the way.
Sum Total
According to Cliff Nass, one of the researchers, the sum total reveals a rather shocking discovery: “high multitaskers are lousy at everything that’s necessary for multitasking.”
Still the researchers acknowledge that one pressing question remains: are the results of the experiment one of simple cause and effect?
Are those people with a dearth of multitasking skills somehow drawn to multitasking lifestyles? Or does a multitasking lifestyle dull the skills necessary to multitask?
Actually, it is likely that the issue is far more complicated. One would have to assume that studies mapping the brain activity of those who multitask (against those who do not generally do so) may well be necessary to gain any real understanding of what is taking place.
But in the meantime, it would seem that a parent’s gut reaction to witnessing the efforts of that multitasking teenager is basically dead on. That teenager might be ‘managing their situation’ at that moment, but the idea that she could possibly be handling all those tasks simultaneously with as high a level of competency as she would if she were to focus on one alone seems to be up for debate.
7 comments
This is an interesting post that points to a key question in the digital media / literacies movement: how do we measure these new proficiencies, and to what extent to the kinds of tests we already have offer the kinds of measurements that are valuable?
I’m not disputing the results of the studies discussed here, but as Cathy Davidson explains in her recent HASTAC post about measurements of writing proficiency (http://www.hastac.org/blogs/cathy-davidson/so-maybe-not-dumbest-generation), there is a set of researchers (incl. Andrea Lunsford) who argue that literacy practices are changing as well as improving. She writes that “we cannot always be comparing apples (those eager new students sitting in our classes) and oranges (our memories of students past).”
I agree, and at the same time I worry about the use of the “digital natives” analogy, which seems too dualistic and to encourage an “us vs. them” mentality arbitrarily divided by age. I’ve written more about this at my own blog at http://jennamcwilliams.blogspot.com/2009/09/weighing-in-on-natives-immigrants.html .
Whew! This was a long response. Proof that this post is rich and worth engaging with, imho.
In 38 years of teaching I have never found a good student who multi-tasked and never found a poor student who didn’t try to multi-task. Ask any. 400 hitter what he thinks about when facing a pitcher and the answer is Nothing, I just watch the ball.
Kids who think they can read and chat with friends are deluded.
Concentrate on the new task at hand. As one becomes more skilled less conscious brain p0wer goes into the performance. After 45 years of driving, I can drive and chat. A beginner can’t do that and be safe.
Digital natives have taken to technology like little fish to water. They have no fear of it like the older generation does. Only time will tell whether or not this multitasking talent will make more capable adults. However, the younger generation does not really have a choice.It is either learn to multitask with this technology or be left behind. I personally think they are doing a great job.
Is listening to “white noise” to block out other more interesting things around me “multi-tasking”? Listening to music might provide background noise. While actively chatting, texting or watching a film might not really assist me to gain new ideas in the classroom, it might be more interesting to me than what others think I should be doing. Personal intrinsic motivation wins.
Pauline – what I hear is that “following your own interests” wins out over focusing consistently on a given task at a time. That’s fairly obviously the case with most voluntary heavy multi-taskers – they are doing what they prefer to do, whether or not they are being as successful as they rationalize it to be. So the first nugget from this research is questioning the rationale and making more explicit the tradeoff between this “personal motivation” and achieving desired actual results. Many might prefer to text and blog on an employer’s time instead of getting work done as well… and have been trained by their experience that this is fun and natural. At question here is the handy rationale that they do it so well the employer is not harmed and so has no legitimate rights to control such behavior.
A deeper question is the degree to which this preference for scattered attention has been trained rather than being inherent; perhaps the rewards of focusing more intensely can be just as attractive to many, if they are raised with enough opportunity to develop that side of themselves (and to let that feel natural). That is, is feeling “natural” the gold standard, or is it sometimes a conditioned reflex which reflects fads.
How awesome is to multi-task
Does anyone know if any scientific study has been done to assess whether digital natives, as defined by age, are neurologically hard-wired to be better multi-taskers than digital immigrants? A white paper by Enquiro researcher Laura Hanon postulates that digital natives can process different types of digital information at the same time and that digital immigrants can’t. Another paper by Enquiro theorizes that the brain’s super plasticity during the formative years of ages 2-4 and again during puberty allowed for digital natives to adapt neurologically to an environment with technology better than those who experienced those periods of super plasticity before the advent of digital technology…. that the environment affected the neurological development.
However, all scientific studies I’ve seen – such as that cited above – indicate that multi-tasking is an urban myth for all people. But I wonder if anyone has bothered to do look at the ability to multi-task by age group. Can those younger than age 24 (digital natives) multi-task better… or just think they can?
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