‘Multiple media’ proves to be a distraction for multitaskers
May 2nd, 2011 - 6:18 pm ICT by ANIWashington, May 02 (ANI): A new study of media multitasking by Boston College researchers have indicated that multitaskers who think they can successfully divide their attention between the program on their television set and the information on their computer screen proved to be driven to distraction by the two devices.
Placed in a room containing a television and a computer and given a half hour to use either device, people on average switched their eyes back and forth between TV and computer a staggering 120 times in 27.5 minutes - or nearly once every 14 seconds, Carroll School of Management professors S. Adam Brasel and James Gips reported.
While researchers - and the parents of millions of teenagers - have long suspected media multitasking was distracting, Brasel and Gips used advanced cameras to track where research subjects were looking to understand the physical demands and likely disruption caused by switching between the television and computer.
“We thought it was going to be high, but the frequency of switching and amount of distraction going on was really shocking,” said Brasel, an associate professor of marketing.
The subjects were not even aware of their own actions. On average, participants in the study thought they might have looked back and forth between the two devices about 15 times per half hour. In reality, they were looking nearly 10 times as often. And even if quick “glances” less than 1.5 seconds are removed from the equation, people were still switching over 70 times per half hour.
“What we found is that when people try to pay attention to multiple media simultaneously they are switching back and forth at an astounding rate,” said Brasel.
“We’re not even aware of what we are doing when in multi-media environments,” added Brasel.
Brasel and Gips determined that when it comes to the dominant medium in this side-by-side challenge, the computer comes out the winner, drawing the attention of the study participants 68.4 percent of the time. But neither device proved capable of holding the attention of study participants for very long, regardless of their age.
The study will be published in a forthcoming edition of the journal Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking. (ANI)
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Tags: associate professor, astounding rate, boston college, brasel, college researchers, computer screen, disruption, distraction, dominant medium, half hour, james gips, management professors, media environments, multi media, participants, physical demands, research subjects, school of management, teenagers, television set