Our ‘always-on’ culture
has been dubbed ‘infomania’ by psychologist Dr Glenn Wilson, who tested the IQs
of subjects in either a quiet room or one with mobiles ringing and emails
arriving. The technological distractions diminished IQ by 10 points.
Similarly, a US study
found that students who instant messaged with friends during a reading task
took between 22% and 59% longer to complete their task, even accounting for the
additional time spent messaging.
Brain-imaging reveals that
multitasking uses different brain regions to focusing on one task. Learning while
focusing on one task uses the hippocampus, which store ideas and creates rich and
flexible memories. This area allows us to compare old ideas with incoming data
to put what we learn into context, effectively leading to deeper understanding.
Multitasking, on the other hand, uses the striatum – a brain region that stores
procedures and skills. New information acquired using the striatum is less
flexible and can’t be generalized in the same way. This suggest that knowledge
acquired while multitasking is less deeply embedded in our memories.
Researchers from
University College London recently linked frequent multitasking to smaller grey
matter density in the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), which is the brain
region that is involved in empathy and decision-making. However, it is unclear
whether having a smaller ACC makes you more likely to multitask, or whether it’s
multitasking that causes the ACC to shrink.
But some experts say
technology has made us all more skilful at multitasking. Hong Kong researchers
report multitaskers are better at multisensory integration, while a 2016 study
from Microsoft found our ability to multitask has “improved drastically” since
the turn of the millennium.
(Summarized from BBC Earth Magazine (Vol.9 Issue 1), page
33 by Jo Carlowe)
Verdict: Technology
may make us more adept multitaskers, but perhaps at a cost
Lord, Give
Us Today Our Daily Idea(s)
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