There continues to be a significant amount of research
identifying which parts of the brain are involved in specific information
processing activities. When someon is studying, the memory is activated in a particular side of the brain, the same happens when someone is listening to music or watching a movie. Every function activate an specific part of the brain so multitasking people have an spry brain.
The types of processing that occur in these two
regions are significantly different and impact storage and retrieval. The
hippocampus will sort, process, and recall information involving declarative
memory. Memories in the hippocampus are easier to recall in situations
different from where they were learned, whereas those stored in the striatum
are closely tied to the specific situation in which they were learned. It has
been found that learning with the striatum while performing habitual or
repetitive tasks leads to knowledge that cannot be generalized as well in new
situations. (Poldrack as cited in Aratani, 2007). But we have to remember that our head is like a machine and multitasking people are overburdening the normal activity of brain. And much of the time people do not rest the eight hours that brain need to regulate all the ativities that it made awake.
The research of Rubinstein, J.,
Meyer, D., and Evans, J. (2001) is consistent with earlier studies finding that
multitasking takes more time and involves more errors than focus on a single
task. When learning with distractions associated with multitasking, students’
brains are trying to “wing it” by using a region, the striatum, that is not
best suited for long term memory and understanding. This is consistent with the
findings of Delbridge (2001) who also noted that focusing on one task or a
single goal results in fewer errors and less time than trying to focus on
multiple tasks and goals.
Source:
Aratani L. (February 26, 2007). Teens Can Multitask, But What are the
Costs? The Washington Post.
Ben-Shakhar, G., Sheffer, L. (2001). The relationship between the
ability to divide attention and standard measures of general cognitive
abilities. Intelligence 29, pp.293-306.
Delbridge, K. A. (2000). Individual Differences In Multi-Tasking
Ability: Exploring A.