Media multitasking: from cognitive functions to digital

Abstract

The article presents the phenomenon of multitasking, representing simultaneous execution of two or more mental operations. Its particular type, media multitasking (MMT), is also considered as a relatively new format for combining various information flows that meets the requirements of the digital environment. The historical perspective of studying multitasking is presented: from individual experiments on the selectivity of attention to the phenomenon of digital everyday life. Modern empirical studies of MMT correlates among the main cognitive functions, including those of “light” and “heavy” multitaskers: attention, memory, thinking, and cognitive control, as well as productivity, academic performance, and metacognition are analyzed. The positive and negative effects of the MMT format are described. The resulting data set suggests that using the MMT format, which for most children and adolescents is gradually becoming a universal strategy of activity, the child adapts to an information-rich environment as a multiple and mixed reality. The importance of developing mechanisms for the formation of managed and controlled MMT for the education system is emphasized.

Media Multitasking in Mixed Reality Learning Situations: What Determines Its Effectiveness?

“…e regulatory component of metacognition is important in learning, as a result of which resources are allocated and concentration on meaningful tasks is achieved. e regulatory component of metacognition may be related to MMT (Soldatova et al, 2020b). In a study by Terry and colleagues (2016), it was found that students with higher metacognition preferred to multitask less, which may identify the self-regulatory nature of multitasking.…”

“…MMT is de ned as an activity format that involves performing multiple tasks simultaneously using digital devices. Among the approaches to the study of MMT are the successive and simultaneous approaches (Soldatova et al, 2020b). MMT is also studied as digital distraction (Aagaard, 2019).…”

“…On the one hand, MMT creates an "illusion of productivity", which can increase motivation and positively impact outcomes. On the other hand, research shows that MMT e ectiveness remains illusory (Soldatova et al, 2020b). Despite this, the ability to work with a large number of tasks simultaneously is considered an important supra-professional competence (Zeer et al, 2019).…”

Features of voluntary attention of adult Internet users

“…Consequently, students show worse understanding and memorization of the material. [9][10][11] This brief overview allows to draw several conclusions. First, the scientists focus primarily on the peers of the Internet (from children to adolescents).…”