We tend to think that women and/or kids can multitask, but actually, only a small percentage is able to supertask, what probably will mean that they switch so fast we can’t see it.
This is also one of the reasons why handsfree texting and calling in your car is still very dangerous:
A few years ago, in a groundbreaking study, Strayer and colleagues compared the performance of cell phone users to drunks in a driving simulator [PDF]. Study participants talking on a cell phone — handheld and hands-free alike — had slower brake times and were involved in more simulated accidents than when they weren’t chatting. Their cognitive impairment was roughly as great as that of participants who got in the simulator after drinking enough screwdrivers to register a .08 percent blood-alcohol content.
More recent evidence, focusing on texting, has made similar conclusions. In one study published last year, a team of researchers at the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute evaluated the performance of drivers texting on a closed road. Some texted from their handheld device, which previous research had already concluded was dangerous, while others texted through an in-vehicle system connected to Bluetooth.
No surprise that drivers who texted by hand drove very poorly: they reported greater mental demand during the drive, took longer glances away from the roadway, and steered worse compared to baseline driving performance. Those who used the in-vehicle system did a little better. They didn’t have much problem receiving text messages through the in-car system, but sending them posed a problem. (source Atlantic)
The thing is that people who know think they do can multitask, well new research has found that people who multi-task most are the worst at it. You can read the research by Sanbonmatsu et al at Plosone.org. This is the abstract:
The present study examined the relationship between personality and individual differences in multi-tasking ability. Participants enrolled at the University of Utah completed measures of multi-tasking activity, perceived multi-tasking ability, impulsivity, and sensation seeking. In addition, they performed the Operation Span in order to assess their executive control and actual multi-tasking ability. The findings indicate that the persons who are most capable of multi-tasking effectively are not the persons who are most likely to engage in multiple tasks simultaneously. To the contrary, multi-tasking activity as measured by the Media Multitasking Inventory and self-reported cell phone usage while driving were negatively correlated withactual multi-tasking ability. Multi-tasking was positively correlated with participants’ perceivedability to multi-task ability which was found to be significantly inflated. Participants with a strong approach orientation and a weak avoidance orientation – high levels of impulsivity and sensation seeking – reported greater multi-tasking behavior. Finally, the findings suggest that people often engage in multi-tasking because they are less able to block out distractions and focus on a singular task. Participants with less executive control – low scorers on the Operation Span task and persons high in impulsivity – tended to report higher levels of multi-tasking activity.