Multitasking Affects Cognitive Performance

I recommend perusing the following journal article, "Cognitive Control in Media Multitaskers", written by Eyal Ophir, Clifford Nass, and Anthony D. Wagner. It was published in the September 11, 2009 edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (PNAS). The .pdf is available here: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2747164/pdf/zpq15583.pdf

In this article, the authors describe their studies upon two groups of individuals: 1) heavy multimedia multitaskers; and 2) light media multitaskers. They attempt to extract the effect of multitasking on a person's ability to process information.

Counterintutively, the authors discovered that heavy multimedia multitasksers -those people who read books, watch TV, surf the net, and listen to music -are more easily distracted, and are actually worse at switching tasks than light media multitaskers.

Have the author's discovered a brain improvement technique? I'd argue that they haven't. However, applying their principles could be helpful in maintaining your current cognitive abilities. In sum, attempt to minimize the circumstances where your mind is bombarded with multiple information sources -read your book, then watch television, rather than attempting to read and watch at the same time.