ipl-logo

Disadvantages Of Task Switching

1660 Words7 Pages

Abstract Task switching is an aspect of everyday life and I’m certain everyone has been in a situation where they were required to juggle between multiple tasks, having their attention being shifted from one thing to another. This phenomenon of task switching is a topic of interest for many researchers and many have studied the influence of task-switching on people’s performance. For instance, researchers like Stephen Monsell (2003) have conducted experiments that required participants to switch habitually between small tasks and found that constant switching between tasks caused more errors and their responses were significantly slower. To test this task set reconfiguration theory, Brooklyn College students conducted their own …show more content…

While you’re munching on your snack, listening to Mariah Carey in the background, and typing up that paper; your phone rings and you pick it up and start a conversation. Ever wonder why you got that C- on that paper or missed the deadline to submit your paper for work? Because you’ve been a victim of task switching. Task switching is defined as having the ability to perform two or more tasks simultaneously; where you switch from one task to another in a rapid succession. You may know task switching as multi-tasking but the term multi-tasking is actually misleading because you can 't actually do more than one cognitive task at a time; instead we switch tasks, therefore “task switching” is a more appropriate term to use. This phenomenon should be relevant to everybody because everyone partakes in task switching in their daily lives. Task switching should be understood and done when appropriate. People fail to realize that our brains cannot fully focus on more than one thing at a time. Switching between tasks can impair our performance and it can even be dangerous. For example, people can text and drive and get into accidents, or text while crossing the street and potentially getting hit by a car. The purpose of the current experiment done by Brooklyn College students is to measure task switching using laboratory

Show More
Related
771 Words | 4 Pages

An example is being on the phone with someone and trying to email at the same time. He say that you lose concentration and the person on the other end of the phone with be able to tell. Hallowell quotes, “You cannot divide your attention like that. It’s a big illusion. You can shift back forth” (Tugend 715).

Read More
183 Words | 1 Pages

Verna von Pfetten acknowledges in the article “Read This Story Without Distraction (Can You?),” that monotasking has its benefits although the environment has more to do with focusing than one might think. Everyone knows “multitasking” doesn’t actually exist. The brain cannot multitask. Instead, it switches from one task to another, meeting the demands of only one at a time. There is a cost associated with this switch, resulting in brain power being eaten away causing productivity to slip.

Read More
447 Words | 2 Pages

I made a personal connection with this because I used to always say "I can multi task, it's easy for me to be on my phone while doing my homework", but that’s not the case. When you multi task you're not doing two things at a time you're just shifting your attention on different things. Honestly that’s what always happened to me when it came down to being on my phone and being distracted about what's going on twitter. People that tend to multi task have a hard time focusing on things that are

Read More
550 Words | 3 Pages

“When we use our computers and our cellphones all the time, we are always distracted. (Source # 2- Is Google Making Us Stupid? By Nicholas Carr.) Becoming distracted with technology can also have dangerous risks.

Read More
229 Words | 1 Pages

In my references I stumble upon various results of experiments that authors mention in their work and those results stated some of the consequences the brain faces after multitasking. Eric Jaffe (2012) shows how our brains are being rewired when we multitask with technology and how it’s nowadays harder for us to finish one single task in a reasonable time. Another results from the investigations is that very time the brain is forced to multitask it uses a vast amount of his nutrients leaving the person exhausted and with no energy only after a short period of time. My sources reveal that multitasking in general is bad, but when combined with technology it becomes dangerous. It has been scientifically proven that multitasking leaves us stressed,

Read More
669 Words | 3 Pages

Pinker explains the controversy that the constant arrival of information can distract people, however, the development of self-control should more necessary to pay attention to. Pinker asserts that “the effects of experience are highly specific to the experience themselves”(221). If people are trained in only one thing, they might be mastered in it. By contrast, if multitasks are assigned to them, they will not be able to perform them well. Thus, specific position perform the relevant

Read More
1071 Words | 5 Pages

Although Melissa might have believed that it was possible to both talk on the phone and drive, brain scan studies on auditory senses have demonstrated that “when we focus on a noise, areas in the brain specialized for auditory processing increase in activity, while areas for other forms of sensory information, such as visual recognition, decrease” (Baird 80). Because there is limited circulation of blood in the brain, it is easy to see why it is hard for your brain to focus on multiple areas when it is supplying one area with all of its resources. One final statement from the book by Carnegie Mellon that sealed the deal that multi-tasking is not beneficial is “brain power decreases when we try to multitask, even when different parts of the brain are used for different tasks. This explains why talking on a cell phone inhibits our driving ability (Strayer & Johnson, 2001) (Baird

Read More
725 Words | 3 Pages

The story “A Worn Path” by Eudora Welty is about a woman named Phoenix Jackson on a long journey into town, but it 's much more than a regular walk into town. There are obstacles and struggle, but she never stops and lets no one get in the way. That journey represent the way she has lived her life. The way she fought for where she is today. Phoenix Jackson is the major in this story, and she is also the protagonist.

Read More
959 Words | 4 Pages

Early in the article, Shaun Vecera, a professor at Iowa’s Psychological and Brain Sciences Department, is introduced. He explains the experiment performed by his team of researchers to determine whether or not attention disengagement is the cause of poor driving when simultaneously using a cell phone. (Lewis 4). Subjects were classified as either active listeners or passive listeners. Active listeners had to answer true or false questions; passive listeners did not answer, just listened.

Read More
615 Words | 3 Pages

Multitasking is used in everyday life, people use multitasking without even knowing it. The fact of the matter is that multitasking has both advantages and disadvantages. In the essay “The Myth of Multitasking” by Christine Rosen, Rosen is able to reference various doctors, specialists and psychologists to support her claim that multitasking is dangerous not only while driving and working, but also for people's overall well-being. Which I agree with, the human mind should only focus on single though at time. Multitasking requires that we focus on multiple unrelated thoughts at the same time.

Read More
1055 Words | 5 Pages

Attention has always been a prized commodity. The brain knows it and cognitive psychologists know it, but the average person has yet to fully grasp the concept. Articles on how to multi-task still flag the covers of popular magazines, and distracting cell phones and tablets accompany students to class on the forefront of their desks next their notes. It has been verified time and time again that the mind simply cannot attend to two things simultaneously; one can pay attention to one thing or another, but not to two things at once. People know that neutralizing distractions will yield invaluable minutes of clarity and focus, but for most, the application of such, is nearly impossible.

Read More
719 Words | 3 Pages

Principle # 1: When there are many distractions Learning requires more time, patience and effort. It’ s more difficult to focus and recite what you have taught yourself when studying , because we only remember the distractions. The processes that allow an individual to select and focus on a topic while simultaneously doing other things that don’t fully take away your attention span is Selective Attention. The competing information can occur both externally, or internally. (Khan Academy, 2015).

Read More
859 Words | 4 Pages

Multitasking is when a person tries to do more than one task at the same time. Marc E. Weksler, from Geriatric Medicine and Babette B. Weksler, from the Department of Medicine at Weill Cornell Medical Center, state that people who multitask lower the quality on how they perform a task (386). So when a person is multitasking and driving the chances of them

Read More
461 Words | 2 Pages

“The world is a dangerous place, not because of those who do evil, but because of those who look on and do nothing”. A prophetic quote from Albert Einstein that truly reflects the vices of our nature. Our foolish tendencies to be distracted with trivialities whilst our society is being crippled from the behind is evident through the conventions of satire. This is because satire exposes the flaw within this mindset, we as complacent members of society are willing to accept. This flawed mindset can be especially conveyed through Clay Butler’s cartoon “Criminal Wisdom”.

Read More
995 Words | 4 Pages

Then suddenly you’re down to the wire and your brain experiences a deluge of stress and information overload. This only causes a drain on your energy, causing you to lose sight of the task at hand. Enjoy the Ride It isn’t all fun and games, but take note of where you stumble or your motivation dips- you can then come up with a solution to prevent that from becoming an issue again. You may see a pattern emerge, which allows you to arrange your schedule as required.

Read More

More about Disadvantages Of Task Switching

Related Topics

Open Document