Um, What Were We Talking About? - Study Shows Older People Not So Good at Multitasking
... interruption. The difficulty with multitasking is that we can't really focus on multiple assignments all at once, said Russell A. Poldrack, a psychology professor in Texas. "We are almost always switching back and forth between the different tasks, and there is a cost to this switching, which is why people are nearly always worse when they try to multitask compared to focusing on single tasks." The solution, according to Mr. Poldrack is - if you absolutely have to multitask - "improve general brain health, and the best way that we know [to do that] is aerobic exercise." I hope I can remember ... organized for the endeavor, I rearrange my file cabinet - until I recall that I was on deadline. I return to the original mission, having accomplished none of my interim goals and now desperately behind schedule. Oy vey! So it comes as no surprise that a report this week finds older people have less of an ability to multitask, possibly because they can't refocus as well after getting interrupted. Dr. Adam Gazzaley, the study's co-author, explains, "Older adults pay too much attention to the irrelevant information." The problem is they (we?) have "trouble switching back" to the issue at ...
Tags: older people | aging | study about multitasking | multitasking | memory | mental health |
Tags: older people | aging | study about multitasking | multitasking | memory | mental health |