prefrontal cortex. Their attempts at being more productive were, in reality, seriously undermining their productivity. Curiously, 90 percent of the participants agreed that it was rude to receive and handle messages during office meetings or face-to-face conversations. Nonetheless, about a third of them said that this had become an acceptable practice because they believed their supervisors interpreted their behavior as a sign of diligence and efficiency.
Attempts at Multitasking Adversely Affect Long-Term Memory
There is growing research evidence that consistent attempts at multitasking affect our brain’s ability to encode information into long-term memory. Psychologist Karin Foerde and her colleagues at the University of California, Los Angeles used fMRI scans to observe the brains of participants as they were learning and trying to remember numerous tasks.6 One group learned their tasks without distractions, whereas the other group had their learning interrupted with distracting beeps—not unlike those we hear from cell phones or arriving emails. Later, the researchers asked both groups to recall what they had learned. The undistracted group was able to recall significantly more of what they learned than the distracted group, an indication that distractions interfere with learning and memory. Looking at brain scans while both groups were engaged in learning revealed that the part of the brain responsible for encoding long-term memories (the hippocampus) was active in the undistracted group but inactive in the distracted group. The researchers concluded that attempts at multitasking change the way we learn and diminish what we remember.
Attempts at Multitasking Hinder Working Memory in Older People
One of the more disturbing research findings on how multitasking might affect the brain comes from a study comparing how the working memories of older and younger individuals respond to interruptions in their work. Wesley Clapp, Adam Gazzaley, and their colleagues, neurologists at the University of California, San Francisco, found that attempts at multitasking took a significantly greater toll on the working memory of the older participants (ages sixty to eighty) than the younger ones (in their twenties and thirties).7 Their study examined how long it took the participants to remember and refocus on a task after a brief interruption. Older participants found it much more difficult to disengage from the interruption and reestablish contact with their original task. This may partially explain why older folks can walk to the refrigerator and then stand at the door trying to remember what they were going to get or go to the supermarket for bread and come back with twenty other items but not bread.
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