Multitasking and the Brain

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.