Concerning Mobile Multitasking Post-Behavior State of Mind

With the growing popularity of mobile web service and mobile devices, mobile multitasking behaviour is becoming an important issue for mobile commerce among practitioners and academics. The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of polychronicity preference, mobile self-efficacy and anxious trait on multitasking behaviour and the multitasking post-behaviour state of mind. The result shows that polychronicity preference has direct influence on users’ multitasking behaviours and negative influence toward easiness state of mobile multitasking post-behaviour state of mind. Mobile self-efficacy has positive influence on mobile multitasking behaviours while anxiety trait only has negative influence on a portion of the mobile multitasking behaviours. Mobile multitasking has direct influence on post-behaviour state of mind

Everyday functioning-related cognitive correlates of media multitasking:a mini meta-analysis

A recent meta-analysis has shown that media multitasking behavior, or consuming multiple streams of media simultaneously, might not be associated with less efficient cognitive processing, as measured with objective tests. Nevertheless, a growing number of studies have reported that media multitasking is correlated with cognitive functioning in everyday situations, as measured in self-reports. Here, in a series of mini meta-analyses, we show that the self-reported correlates of media multitasking can be categorized in at least four major themes. Heavy media multitasking was associated with increasing problems with attention regulation (e.g., increased mind-wandering and distractibility), behavior regulation (e.g., emotion regulation and self-monitor), inhibition/impulsiveness (e.g., higher level of impulsiveness and lower level of inhibition), and memory. However, the pooled effect sizes were small (z =.16 to z = .22), indicating that a large proportion of variance of media multitasking behavior is still unaccounted for. Additionally, we witnessed a high level of heterogeneity in the attention regulation theme, which might indicate the presence of the risk of study bias

The relationship between executive functions and fluid intelligence in multiple sclerosis.

BACKGROUND & OBJECTIVE: Deficits in cognitive functions dependent upon the integrity of the prefrontal cortex have been described in Multiple Sclerosis (MS). In a series of studies we have shown that fluid intelligence (g) is a substantial contributor to frontal deficits and that, for some classical "executive" tasks, frontal deficits were entirely explained by g. However, for another group of frontal tasks deficits remained once g was introduced as a covariate. This second set of tests included multitasking and theory of mind tasks. In the present study, we aimed at determining the role of fluid intelligence in frontal deficits seen in patients with MS. METHODS: A group of patients with Relapsing Remitting MS (n = 36) and a group of control subjects (n = 42) were assessed with a battery of classical executive tests (which included the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test, Verbal Fluency, and Trail Making Test B), a multitasking test, a theory of mind test and a fluid intelligence test. RESULTS: MS patients showed significant deficits in the fluid intelligence task. We found differences between patients and control subjects in all tests except for the multitasking test. The differences in the classical executive tests became non-significant once fluid intelligence was introduced as a covariate, but differences in theory of mind remained. CONCLUSIONS: The present results suggest that fluid intelligence can be affected in MS and that this impairment can play a role in the executive deficits described in MS

A Quiet Mind: The Key to Musical Performance

In this day and age, many people believe they can multitask. From texting and driving to watching television while studying for a test, we always want to accomplish many things at once. Musicians often try to multitask while practicing their instruments. They think about breathing, articulation, jaw movement, finger technique, and more. However, research has proven that multitasking is impossible. According to Christine Rosen in “The Myth of Multitasking,” time and efficiency are actually lost while the brain decides which task to perform. Practicing with a “quiet mind” will lead to peak performance and avoid the detrimental effects of trying to concentrate on many things at once. What constitutes a quiet mind? For my project, I will draw on material from The Inner Game of Tennis by W. Timothy Gallwey, Psycho-Cybernetics by Maxwell Maltz, and others to explain how to attain this mental state during musical performance. I will show how the application of the techniques described in these books can help musicians “concentrate without thinking,” as Gallwey writes. When musicians practice with a quiet mind, they perform with a quiet mind. If they perform with a quiet mind, they are free to play as well as they can imagine

Does working memory capacity predict literal and inferential comprehension of bilinguals' digital reading in a multitasking setting?

The ubiquity of multitasking has led researchers to investigate its potential costs for reading and learning (Clinton-Lisell, 2021). While some studies have not shown detrimental effects of multitasking for reading comprehension (Bowman et al., 2010; Cho et al., 2015; Pashler et al., 2013), one particular study has found a benefit of multitasking (Tran et al., 2013). These results, nevertheless, do not converge with the findings of recent meta-analyses, which have suggested both a negative effect of multitasking for reading comprehension (Clinton-Lisell, 2021), as well as the disruptive effects of listening to lyrical music while reading for comprehension (Vasilev et al., 2018). Previous research seems to converge with the theories of how working memory copes with the complexity of reading as a process, since several subprocesses must be orchestrated so that the ultimate goal of reading – the construction of a mental representation – is fully achieved (Tomitch, 2020). In addition to that, no previous study has investigated reading as a multilevel construct in which both literal and inferential comprehension (Alptekin & Erçetin, 2010; Kintsch, 1998) is assessed in a multitasking setting. With that in mind, we investigated whether working memory capacity, measured by the Self-Administrable Reading Span Test (Oliveira et al., 2021), predicts proficient bilinguals’ performance in literal and inferential comprehension, by means of comprehension questions (Pearson & Johnson, 1978) and reading times, under a multitasking setting in two conditions – listening to lyrical music (experimental) as opposed to listening to non-lyrical music (control). Multiple linear regression analyses revealed that working memory capacity significantly predicted inferential, but not literal comprehension nor reading times, and only when participants were listening to lyrical music. Results are discussed both in terms of the effects of multitasking on reading comprehension as well as the role of working memory in language comprehension

Social media and self-control: The vices and virtues of attention

Self-control, the capacity to resist temptations and pursue longer-term goals over immediate gratifications, is crucial in determining the overall shape of our lives, and thereby in our ability to shape our identities. As it turns out, this capacity is intimately linked with our ability to control the direction of our attention. This raises the worry that perhaps social media are making us more easily distracted people, and therefore less able to exercise self-control. Is this so? And is it necessarily a bad thing? This paper analyzes the nature of attention, its vices and virtues, and what currently available evidence has to say about the effects of social media on attention and self-control. The pattern that seems to be emerging is that, although there is an association between higher use of social media and lower attentional control, we do not yet know whether it is social media use that makes people more distracted, or whether those who use social media the most do so because they are more easily distracted. Either way, the rise of the ‘Web 2.0’ does raise questions about whether the virtues of attention will change in the future, and whether this will bring with it a transformation in the way we shape our selves

Can I Have Your Attention? Implications of the Research on Distractions and Multitasking for Reference Librarians

The media have identified the last decade as “the age of distraction.” People today find it harder to work on long, sustained tasks because distractions are eroding their attention span, fostering a culture of discontinuity. Fields as diverse as psychology, business, education, human-computer interaction, and communication studies have produced a wealth of studies on interruptions, distractions, and multitasking–research that has important implications for reference librarians. The nature of our jobs invites interruptions by the public, requires familiarity with the latest technology, stimulates curiosity about a broad range of subjects, and demands adeptness at multitasking–all factors which can atomize attention

The Minimal Levels of Abstraction in the History of Modern Computing

From the advent of general-purpose, Turing-complete machines, the relation between operators, programmers, and users with computers can be seen in terms of interconnected informational organisms (inforgs) henceforth analysed with the method of levels of abstraction (LoAs), risen within the Philosophy of Informa- tion (PI). In this paper, the epistemological levellism proposed by L. Floridi in the PI to deal with LoAs will be formalised in constructive terms using category the- ory, so that information itself is treated as structure-preserving functions instead of Cartesian products. The milestones in the history of modern computing are then analysed via constructive levellism to show how the growth of system complexity lead to more and more information hiding

Genetic Transfer or Population Diversification? Deciphering the Secret Ingredients of Evolutionary Multitask Optimization

Evolutionary multitasking has recently emerged as a novel paradigm that enables the similarities and/or latent complementarities (if present) between distinct optimization tasks to be exploited in an autonomous manner simply by solving them together with a unified solution representation scheme. An important matter underpinning future algorithmic advancements is to develop a better understanding of the driving force behind successful multitask problem-solving. In this regard, two (seemingly disparate) ideas have been put forward, namely, (a) implicit genetic transfer as the key ingredient facilitating the exchange of high-quality genetic material across tasks, and (b) population diversification resulting in effective global search of the unified search space encompassing all tasks. In this paper, we present some empirical results that provide a clearer picture of the relationship between the two aforementioned propositions. For the numerical experiments we make use of Sudoku puzzles as case studies, mainly because of their feature that outwardly unlike puzzle statements can often have nearly identical final solutions. The experiments reveal that while on many occasions genetic transfer and population diversity may be viewed as two sides of the same coin, the wider implication of genetic transfer, as shall be shown herein, captures the true essence of evolutionary multitasking to the fullest.Comment: 7 pages, 6 figure