Multitasking Across Generations

1
Multitasking Across Generations

• L. M. Carrier, L. Rosen, N. Cheever, S. Benitez,
  J. Chang
• CSU Dominguez Hills

Presented at the Western Psychological
Associations 88th Annual Convention, April 11,
2008 (Irvine, CA)
2
Ages Recoded into Generations

• Baby Boomers --gt born 1946-1964
• Gen Xers --gt born 1965-1978
• Net Geners --gt born after 1978
• originally intended to use 1979not 1978but one
  age group spanned 1979

3
Generational Effects on Multitasking?

• Older generations
• grew up in environments with drastically fewer
  opportunities for multitasking
• much less daily emphasis placed on doing more
  than one task at a time due to technology
• Younger generations
• raised in very different social and technological
  environments
• new technologies encourage or afford multitasking
• might be engaging in radically different
  multitasking behaviors while mental and physical
  processes are in development
• brain areas that control multitasking might be in
  development during multitasking behavior

4
Typical Teen?
Playing video games and talking on the phone
simultaneously
http//www.youtube.com/watch?vqj0h8pud3_4
5
What is Multitasking?

• Two Possibilities
• Task Switching
• alternating between two or more tasks
• Simultaneous Performance of Tasks
• Parallel processing
• Present Study does not Distinguish between these

6
Summary of Prior Studies

• Net Geners are multitasking (Jeong Fishbein,
  2007 Jordan, Fishbein, Zhang, Jeong, Hennessy,
  Martin, Davis, 2005)
• Some task combinations are multitasked more than
  others (Jeong Fishbein, 2007 Jordan et al.,
  2005)
• possibly due to the cognitive demands of the
  individual tasks?
• E.g., IMing frequency is associated with
  increased distractibility amongst NetGeners
  (Levine, Waite, Bowman, 2007)
• Possibly because the short frequent attention
  bursts in IMing lend themselves to task switching

7
Purpose of Current Study

• Evaluate multitasking frequency of Net Geners
  relative to other generations
• Evaluate multitasking limitations of youngest
  generation
• Comparison of multitasking patterns to other
  generations
• Comparison of multitasking difficulty ratings to
  other generations

8
Method Overview

• Anonymous, online questionnaire
• 1,319 respondents from ages 11 to 60
• Data collected in Fall of 2007
• Acquaintances of undergraduate students at a
  university in the Los Angeles area
• Including online acquaintances
• No geographical location was recorded

9
Participant Characteristics

• N 1319
• Females 772 (58.5), Males 547 (41.5)
• Caucasian 435 (33.0), Latino 374 (28.4), Black
  239 (18.1), Asian 212 (16.1), Missing 59
  (4.5)
• Reflects the ethnic composition of the LA Basin
• Baby Boomer 312 (23.7), Gen X 182 (13.8), Net
  Gen 825 (62.5)

10
Looked at 12 Everyday Tasks, mostly
technology-oriented

• Surfing the WWW
• Offline Computing
• Email
• IM/Chatting
• Using the Telephone
• Texting
• Playing Video Games
• Listening to Music
• Watching TV
• Eating
• Pleasure Reading
• Talking Face to Face

11
Main effect of task, F(11,14476) 216.60, p lt
0.001 Main effect of generation, F(2,1316)
68.86, p lt 0.001 Task X generation, F(22,14476)
15.29, p lt 0.001
12
Simple Effects Tests for Each Task
Task Effect? F (2,1316) p value
Surfing the Web Yes 52.83 p lt 0.001
Offline Computer Tasks Yes 8.74 p lt 0.001
IMing Yes 72.43 p lt 0.001
Texting Yes 60.08 p lt 0.001
Playing Video Games Yes 34.41 p lt 0.001
Listening to Music Yes 51.46 p lt 0.001
Eating Yes 23.49 p lt 0.001
Talking Face to Face Yes 22.25 p lt 0.001
Pleasure Reading No lt 1 p 0.724
Watching TV No 1.36 p 0.257
Telephoning No 3.35 p 0.036
E-mailing No 3.18 p 0.042
13
Tasks Formed 66 Dual-Task Combinations

• All task combinations queried
• Self-report scale
• Do you
• Not do either task?
• Do them, but not together?
• Do them together, with difficulty?
• Do them together, with ease?

14
Multitasking Effectiveness

• Distinguish between decision to multitask and
  ability to multitask
• E.g., a person can choose to do two tasks at once
  yet not do them well
• Distinguish between perceived ease of
  multitasking and ability to multitask
• E.g., a person can find it easy to do two
  particular tasks at once yet not do them well
• Our study looks only at multitasking choices and
  perceived ease

15
Part 1 Multitasking Frequency

• How much do people multitask?
• How much do Net Geners multitask?
• Comparisons across generations

16
Who Does These Tasks?
17
Baby Boomer Multitasking Choices
Proportion of respondents who multitask given
that they do both tasks singly
18
Gen Xer Multitasking Choices
Proportion of respondents who multitask given
that they do both tasks singly
19
Net Gener Multitasking Choices
Proportion of respondents who multitask given
that they do both tasks singly
20
Net Geners Multitask Most Task Combinations
Frequency
21
Patterns of Multitasking Choices Highly
Correlated Across Generations
Correlations of proportions of multitaskers for
each task combination



p lt 0.001
22
Doing More than One Thing at a Time

• Mean number of tasks performed simultaneously
  during typical free time at home
• 5.55 (SD 2.55)

23
Net Geners Try to Do More Things at Once
F (2,1316) 26.38 p lt 0.001
Post-hoc Comparisons Show That All Means are Sig.
Different from each other.
24
Multitasking Quality

• Do Net Geners find it easier to multitask?
• Do Net Geners share the same multitasking
  limitations as other generations?

25
Which Tasks are Multitasked Most Often?
26
Net Geners Find it Somewhat Easier to Multitask
Easy lt 0.50 of respondents reported as
difficult Mild 0.50-0.74 of respondents
reported as difficult
No generation found any task combination
difficult (gt 0.75 agreement)
27
Generations Agree on Which Task Combinations are
Difficult



p lt 0.001
28
Summary of Findings

• Multitasking is the norm
• For almost all task combinations
• Across generations
• Likelihood of multitasking
• Some task combinations multitasked more than
  others
• Pattern is the same across generations
• Net Geners more likely to multitask than other
  generations
• Net Geners do more tasks at the same time than
  other generations
• Difficulty of multitasking
• Some task combinations more difficult than others
• Pattern is the same across generations
• Net Geners less likely than other generations to
  report difficulty

29
Possible Interpretations

• Cognitive Load interpretation (after Fishbein
  colleagues)
• Tasks place a load on a general cognitive
  resource for multitasking
• Different tasks place different loads depending
  upon the task characteristics
• Net Geners have a larger source of the general
  cognitive resource than other generations
• But Net Geners share the same physical and
  cognitive mechanisms that make some tasks place
  larger loads than others

30
What Governs the Choice of which Tasks to
Multitask?

• Our data do not speak to this
• However, some possibilities are
• Conflict in sensory or response modalities
• E.g., video gaming and texting
• Sustained vs. intermittent attention requirements
• Practice with task or with components of task
• E.g., experience at texting
• Amount of higher-level processing required
• E.g., listening to music vs. talking face to face
• Conflict in physical demands of tasks

31
How can people do so many tasks at once?

• They likely are task switching, not dividing
  their attention
• Some tasks have slack time, in which attention
  can be diverted to another task
• e.g., waiting for chat partner to respond while
  IMing

32
Multitasking Effectiveness

• There probably are costs Associated with
  Multitasking (task-switching)
• And they might apply to all generations
• E.g., increased laptop use by contemporary
  college students in class is associated with
  lower final grades and the top two reported
  in-class distractions are one's own laptop use
  and other students' laptop use (Fried, 2008)
• However, the Present Study does not Measure Skill
  at Multitasking, only choice to multitask

33
Number of Tasks at the Same Time When Have Free
Time

1. Online
2. Use Computer
3. E-Mail
4. IM/Chat
5. Talk on Phone
6. Text Message
7. Video Games
8. Listen Music
9. Watch TV
10. Eat
11. Read
12. Talking f2f

Eating Online Music TV E-Mail
Music Eating Online IM/Chat Phone
Online Eating Music Texting E-Mail
Music Eating Online TV Phone
Eating TV Music Phone F2F
N135 N208
N335 N329 N312
AGE GROUP
34
Some Limitations

• Generation is confounded with biological age
• Do Net Geners have fresh, young minds or do they
  have new and improved minds?
• Self-reports, not observations of performance
• Multitasking is defined loosely could involve
  task-switching
• Conditions of task performance not critical or
  time-dependent
• E.g., studying for a final exam
• Looking at this now

35
Conclusions

• Net Geners ARE different in how often they
  multitask compared to older generations
• They multitask more and report that is less
  difficult
• But NOT different in choice of tasks to multitask
  or in relative ratings of difficulty of
  multitasking combinations
• Therefore, mixed support for hypothesis that Net
  Geners are multitasking masters