Multi-taskers not so good at multi-tasking

Aug 25, 2009 04:30 AM

Joseph Hall
Health Reporter  TORONTO STAR

People who zip between iPods, emails, texting, Twitter and cellphone conversations are slower than their less electrified counterparts in one important area – their thinking, researchers say.

In particular, multi-taskers who bristle with gadgetry are significantly poorer at filtering out irrelevant information coming at them and organizing the useful data they do take in, a Stanford University study of 262 students suggests.

And people who flit between multiple electronic and print media are slower at switching between tasks – or multi-tasking – than others, says study co-author Clifford Nass.

“If you take the cognitive skills one would need to be a multi-tasker, they’re worse at all of them,” says Nass, a Stanford social psychologist. “The differences are very, very large and significant … the differences in the way their brains work are clear.”

The study was published yesterday in the journal Proceedings of The National Academy of Sciences.