pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

Partitioning switch costs when investigating task switching in relation to media multitasking - PubMed

. 2021 Jun;28(3):910-917.

doi: 10.3758/s13423-021-01895-z. Epub 2021 Feb 25.

Affiliations

Partitioning switch costs when investigating task switching in relation to media multitasking

Darryl W Schneider et al. Psychon Bull Rev. 2021 Jun.

Abstract

The prevalence of media multitasking - the concurrent use of multiple forms of media - has motivated research on whether and how it is related to various cognitive abilities, such as the ability to switch tasks. However, previous research on the relationship between media multitasking and task-switching performance has yielded mixed results, possibly because of small sample sizes and a confound between task and cue transitions that resulted in switch costs being impure measures of task-switching ability. The authors conducted a large-sample study in which media multitasking behavior was surveyed and task-switching performance was assessed using two cues per task, thereby allowing switch costs to be partitioned into task-switching and cue-repetition effects. The main finding was no evidence of any relationship between media multitasking scores and task-switching effects (or cue-repetition effects), either in correlational analyses or in extreme group analyses of light and heavy media multitaskers. The results are discussed in the context of previous research, with implications for studying media multitasking in relation to task-switching performance.

Keywords: Cue repetition; Individual differences; Media multitasking; Switch cost; Task switching.

PubMed Disclaimer

Similar articles

Cited by

References

    1. Alzahabi, R., & Becker, M. W. (2013). The association between media multitasking, task-switching, and dual-task performance. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 39, 1485–1495. - PubMed
    1. Alzahabi, R., Becker, M. W., & Hambrick, D. Z. (2017). Investigating the relationship between media multitasking and processes involved in task-switching. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 43, 1872–1894. - PubMed
    1. Baumgartner, S. E., Lemmens, J. S., Weeda, W. D., & Huizinga, M. (2017). Measuring media multitasking: Development of a short measure of media multitasking for adolescents. Journal of Media Psychology, 29, 92–101. - DOI
    1. Baumgartner, S. E., Weeda, W. D., van der Heijden, L. L., & Huizinga, M. (2014). The relationship between media multitasking and executive function in early adolescents. Journal of Early Adolescence, 34, 1120–1144. - DOI
    1. Cardoso-Leite, P., Kludt, R., Vignola, G., Ma, W. J., Green, C. S., & Bavelier, D. (2016). Technology consumption and cognitive control: Contrasting action video game experience with media multitasking. Attention, Perception, & Psychophysics, 78, 218–241. - DOI

MeSH terms

LinkOut - more resources