Multi Tasking Research Paper

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I am writing this letter to inform you of the dangers of multi-tasking, with particular reference to driving and answering the phone simultaneously. Several researches have been conducted which have proved that talking on the phone while driving can be very dangerous as it disables the driver from concentrating on one task. Therefore, with that being said, hands-free driving kits should not be allowed to be used while driving a vehicle as it can lead to accidents. Multi-tasking and divided attention are two concepts which are very important to define first in order to elaborate further on behavior such as talking on the phone while driving. Multi-tasking can be defined as the act of performing two or more independent or unrelated tasks (Pew, …show more content…

The limited capacity can be distributed between activities or tasks taking place simultaneously. The more difficult a task is, the more attention is needed to complete that task. The capacity model views attention as a resource. According to Kahneman (1973), attention can be divided. However, attention can only be divided when there are low levels of mental effort (or when the state of arousal is low) and at high levels of mental effort (or when the state of arousal is high) (Gruszka et. al, 2010). This therefore means that when there is some interference between tasks that are being performed at the same time, it is a result of the inadequate response of the system of attention to the demand of a particular task (Gruszka et. al, …show more content…

They developed a more mathematical theory of the multiple resource theory which goes hand in hand with the first three dimensions of Wickens’ multiple resource theory. Their theory predicted the possible outcomes of performing two or more tasks simultaneously, how resources are allocated between the tasks, the task difficulty, as well as whether or not they share common resources (common or distinct resources) (Lund, 2001). When an individual is driving and talking on the phone, both visual and auditory stimuli is being processed at the same time and it might be difficult for attention to be divided between two complex