What else are you doing while reading this?
Researchers at the Federal Aviation Administration and the University of Michigan report that doing two or more things at once may decrease efficiency and actually take extra time switching from one task to another. In the most severe cases, it can even mean the difference between life and death.
"[People] get tired when they're trying to multitask," and in some cases a person could ultimately create more work for himself, according to one of the lead authors, David Meyer, of the university's psychology department.
In the study, four groups of young adults carried out a series of tasks and switched between different tasks, some complicated, such as solving math problems, and some more familiar, such as identifying geometric shapes.
The researchers found that time was lost in just switching from one task to another, and that time costs increased with the complexity of the tasks. The subjects got "up to speed" faster when they switched to tasks that were familiar.
When people, say, juggle browsing the Web and using other computer programs, or talk on the phone while driving, they are using their "executive control" processes in their brain, the researchers said. Those processes can be likened to the mental CEO, the part of the brain associated with establishing priorities among tasks and allocating resources to them.
"For each aspect of human performance - perceiving, thinking and acting - people have specific mental resources whose effective use requires supervision through executive mental control," said Meyer in materials provided with the report.
So called "multitasking" is becoming increasingly common because of cell phones and computers, the researchers point out, but it may just be adding wasted time and inefficiency to our days.
A mere half second of time lost to task switching can mean the difference between life and death for a driver using a cell phone, Meyer said.
The authors say the research should make employers and employees think twice before implementing multitasking.
(Agencies)
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在閱讀這篇文章的時候你手頭還在忙著什么別的事情?
美國聯邦航天署和密歇根大學研究人員發表的報告顯示,一個人同時做兩件或更多的事情會降低工作效率,而從一件事情轉換到另外一件事情的過程中也會花掉很多的時間。情況嚴重的話,"一心二用"甚至還可能導致喪命!
密歇根大學心理學系戴維-邁耶是研究牽頭人之一,他指出:"如果人們同時處理許多項任務,就會變得非常疲勞。" 有時候這么做非但不能節約時間反而會增大工作量。
在研究實驗中,四組年輕人同時要完成一系列任務并在不同任務間進行轉換。這些任務中,有些比較復雜,如完成數學題,有些則較為簡單,如識別幾何圖形。
研究人員發現變換工作浪費了許多時間,而且越是復雜的任務之間的轉換,浪費的時間越多。但是如果參加實驗者換到自己較為熟悉的任務,則所用的時間要少得多。
研究人員指出,人們一邊上網一邊進行其他電腦程序操作,或者邊開車邊打電話時,他們的大腦處于"執行控制"過程中。這種過程好比是大腦活動的首席執行官,其功能在于確定哪些任務應優先解決,并為其分配大腦資源。
邁耶在其研究材料里說:"人類的任何一項活動,觀察,思考或行動,都需要腦力資源的配給。而這種資源的使用效率需要通過腦力執行控制過程來監督。"
研究人員還指出,隨著手機和電腦的日益普及,人們同時處理多項任務的現象也將日趨普遍。但這也許是意味著我們將要浪費更多的時間和降低工作效率。
邁耶稱,對一位驅車駕駛過程中打手機的司機而言,在任務轉換過程中,半秒鐘的時間延誤就能決定他的生死存亡。
實驗組織者稱這項研究旨在讓老板們和員工在選擇同時處理多項任務時要三思而后行。
(中國日報網站譯)
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