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CNN Live At Daybreak

Multitasking Could Decrease Productivity

Aired August 06, 2001 - 07:25   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
VINCE CELLINI, CNN ANCHOR: I am a sportscaster by trade, up this morning doing some news. So how many different tasks can you juggle at one time?

A report today in "Psychology Journal" says doing multiple jobs or multitasking can reduce productivity rather than increase it. But some say it's a matter of focus.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If you're taking care of him, he always is taking care of him. So you multitask at that, you'll never get anything else done, you know. So in some situations, you have to, even though you may not be able to do each item individually quite as well. Otherwise, you wouldn't get anything done.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's just a matter of determining what to put the most focus on. You focus on everything, but you particularly emphasize one thing, I would say. That's the key to multitasking for me.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You are trying to do something that needs all of your concentration, like writing or drawing or painting, something artistic. Or working on something that, you know, you need to really be able to think about and focus on. Then maybe we're not so efficient. Maybe the phone shouldn't be ringing.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You have to use as much as you can of the time that you have to the best of your ability. So if you are capable of doing multiple things at the same time, then you should.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CELLINI: Josh Rubenstein is one of the study's authors. He is an engineering research psychologist at the FAA. He joins us from Philadelphia.

Josh, good morning.

JOSH RUBENSTEIN, STUDY AUTHOR: Good morning.

CELLINI: Now, can you define multitasking for us at its very core? RUBENSTEIN: Well, multitasking is basically doing several tasks at the same time. So, for example, a homemaker who is cooking meals, taking care of the kids, doing laundry, answering the phone. Or a popular example nowadays is a student, who while he is doing his homework, is also watching TV, surfing the Internet and playing with video games. They are doing several tasks at the same time.

CELLINI: Well, Josh, we have been multitasking at CNN for about 20 years now. And that's kind of what the joke was this week. But when does multitasking create problems? I mean, it's one thing to be on a cell phone and driving around. But it's another to really go through some more complex activities.

RUBENSTEIN: Right. Well, the research that I have done with Dave Meyer and Jeff Evans at the University of Michigan looked exactly at this issue. And what we found is that under many conditions, what is happening is the brain is not really doing all the tasks at the same time. That's just the feeling that we have. What is really happening is we're quickly switching back and forth between tasks. And we found in our research is that switch takes time. And depending on the complexity of the task, the time can increase to a large amount, sometimes on the order of seconds.

CELLINI: Do we tend to overload ourselves in multitasking? It seems like we are moving that way as a society.

RUBENSTEIN: Yes. Well, it can happen. Clearly, there will be times when multitasking makes sense. So, for example, if you have a task that someone automated, like if you run your dishwasher and your washing machine at the same time, that's multitasking. But you are not concentrating. When it's the person is using their mind to concentrate on two tasks at the same time that's when problems arise.

CELLINI: But there is healthy multitasking as well. I mean, can we train ourselves to be better at it?

RUBENSTEIN: That's a question I get all of the time. I don't think you can -- I think you can train yourself to be better at a specific task. So, for example, think about when you first learned to drive a car. You had all these different components, like steering, paying attention to the road, the brakes and the gas and shifting, if it was a standard car. And at first, it was very difficult, and it took all of your concentration. And after many, many hours of practice, it became very smooth. It became one task, it became routine. And through practice, you became better at it.

The problem is in some types of situations, you can't always know what the other task is going to be. So, for example, a very popular issue nowadays is driving while talking on a cell phone.

CELLINI: Right. Right.

RUBENSTEIN: One of the problems is - well, going back to my research is we found that as the complexity increases, the switching time increases. So to the example of driving while using the cell phone, if it is very light traffic, and someone calls you and says... CELLINI: OK. So as the traffic gets heavier, we have a more intense conversation, then it becomes more complex.

RUBENSTEIN: Exactly.

CELLINI: I think I have it.

Josh, I am going to multitask right here, say goodbye to you, Josh Rubenstein, and then toss over to Colleen.

RUBENSTEIN: Thank you.

CELLINI: Sure.

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