Simple, quick brain teaser to test the limits of multitasking

How often do you discuss office gossip via chat while participating in a Zoom meeting? Or read a document while talking on the phone with a client? Or think about problems at work while helping your child with her homework? We are constantly exposed to lots of information flows and To Dos and often required to perform multiple tasks at once. It is not easy to stay focused and be truly productive. All the situations above involve doing more than one thing at a time, often compromising performance on important matters. Attention is a scarce resource. Think about your attentional focus as the beam of a light. If the light is on an object it cannot be on other objects at the same time with the same intensity. Only dim light will be available to light up the objects in the periphery. The same happens in your attentional system. Dividing attention results in less attentional power devoted to each of the different tasks. The more tasks, the less attention can be devoted to each — plus the “transition cost” from one to another and then back. The result is often errors and waste of time. Although we typically have the feeling that multitasking saves us time, it is often not the case. Try this brain teaser. The letters in three words (SUN, BUS, NONE) have been combined to make the grid of letters below. How many times does each of these words appear — horizontally, vertically or diagonally? Can you compare your performance while searching for just one word vs. two of them at ...
Source: SharpBrains - Category: Neuroscience Authors: Tags: Brain Teasers Cognitive Neuroscience Education & Lifelong Learning attention attentional focus cognitive-abilities cognitive-stimulation multitasking Source Type: blogs