Re: [Phys-L] multitasking

["John Clement" <clement@hal-pc.org>]

But of course the immediate question would be whether paying attention to
the lecture would have improved your performance in that class, or at least
your understanding.  I suspect it may be no because the conventional
lectures were not really that important.  This is the result which most PER
studies have found.  But a PER based course essentially engages students
completely in the tasks, so you really can not mutitask (or do task
switching).  As I recall students who are always checking their cell phones
during class do not do as well as students who pay attention, according to
one research study.  So one community college campus has banned cell phone
use by students in class.  Wise decision!  But I think we can't be certain
if the cell phone use is cause or effect.

Then it is possible you are partially ADD for whom concentrating on one
thing is difficult.

The big problem with today's students is that they think they can multitask
in class, when they really can't.  So they would study another subject while
we were doing an important activity that helps produce cognitive change.  So
I enforced the policy that other homework or study materials would be taken
up.  They were told that the material might not be returned.  But of course
if the student complained to the dean, he wouldn't fully back me up.  This
is a contentious topic because as with many other things we do there are
misconceptions and people believe that they can do things which have been
proven to be not possible.  Beliefs or paradigms are not confined to
religious topics, but pervade all things we do.

My question is whether there is evidence to confirm the anecdotal one you
presented?  I can fully understand how conventional lectures have long
stretches of stuff which can be omitted especially if you already have a
good grasp of the subject.  As I pointed out there is evidence that doodling
improves retention.  It may be that some people have to engage a part of
their brain which may interfere with paying attention.  In other words a
simple automatic task may be helpful.  Would chewing gum qualify?  I find
that music does not interfere with my concentration on reading, and it
sometimes makes it easier.  But listening to music is not a cognitive task,
and can be done automatically while engaging in a cognitive task.  Almost
silence with unexpected squeaks and rattles can jog you out of your
concentration, while something with a predictable pattern like music may be
less disturbing.  Of course it does depend on the type of music you like and
how predictable it is.  So the unrelated language may be dampening an
interfering portion of the brain, or masking out unpredictable interfering
noises.

John M. Clement
Houston, TX


> What I didn't say earlier, but might amuse the multi-taskers, 
> and probably confuse the day-dreamers, is:  I have anecdotal 
> experience indicating that I have less difficulty switching 
> between unrelated tasks, perhaps because it's easier to find 
> my place again.  I can read a physics book and listen to a 
> lecture on some other topic more easily than a lecture on 
> physics.  In university I got most done if I did unrelated 
> homework while taking notes in class:  two pages in front of 
> me at all times.  So I did my physics homework in German 
> class, and my German homework in physics class -- slowing 
> down or even halting the extra activity as needed to follow 
> what the professor was saying.  To this day it's easier for 
> me to read in one language while listening to another, again, 
> perhaps because the two activities are easier to distinguish.