Brain, Interupted

[Hum]

There?s a lot of debate among brain researchers about the impact of gadgets on our brains. Most discussion has focused on the deleterious effect of multitasking. Early results show what most of us know implicitly: if you do two things at once, both efforts suffer.

In fact, multitasking is a misnomer. In most situations, the person juggling e-mail, text messaging, Facebook and a meeting is really doing something called ?rapid toggling between tasks,? and is engaged in constant context switching.

As economics students know, switching involves costs. But how much? When a consumer switches banks, or a company switches suppliers, it?s relatively easy to count the added expense of the hassle of change. When your brain is switching tasks, the cost is harder to quantify.

There have been a few efforts to do so: Gloria Mark of the University of California, Irvine, found that a typical office worker gets only 11 minutes between each interruption, while it takes an average of 25 minutes to return to the original task after an interruption. But there has been scant research on the quality of work done during these periods of rapid toggling.

We expected the Interrupted group to make some mistakes, but the results were truly dismal, especially for those who think of themselves as multitaskers: during this first test, both interrupted groups answered correctly 20 percent less often than members of the control group.

In other words, the distraction of an interruption, combined with the brain drain of preparing for that interruption, made our test takers 20 percent dumber. That?s enough to turn a B-minus student (80 percent) into a failure (62 percent).

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[Phouchg]

Our brain needs more cores! Piledryer cores!

Or, rather, two brain in SLI or Crossfire, depending on your preference.

[Hum]

^ Maybe Intel should harvest the brains of the 'kick me' workers.

[astropheed Veteran]

This is why I do as little as possible, to stay efficient. :p

[Original Poster]

I am a great multitasker when it comes to programming multiple things... but if i get distracted from my groove I can sit there for an hour feeling lost and unsure on where i even am lol

[Arachno 1D]

The reliance on gadgets has made the human brain lazy, a simple addition of say three items of grocery goods that could be done manually quite easily in the past now needs at least two attempts by a 16 year old with a calculator and the assistance of their pubescent manager.Lord forbid the till going down and the requirement for paper and pen using the long forgotten maths calculations.

[astropheed Veteran]

I am a great multitasker when it comes to programming multiple things... but if i get distracted from my groove I can sit there for an hour feeling lost and unsure on where i even am lol

Oh good, I thought maybe I was retarded lol. I'm glad I'm not the only one that does this.

[The Evil Overlord]

*statement withdrawn* wasn't as witty or funny as I had intended....

[Hum]

I can eat and change the TV channel, at virtually the same time. :p

[Arachno 1D]

I am a great multitasker when it comes to programming multiple things... but if i get distracted .........OOH SHINEY!

There fixed it for you

I can eat and change the TV channel, at virtually the same time. :p

But dont ys hate it getting Maccy D burger sauce all over the remote :D

[Hum]

^ Nah, sloppy joe sauce

[Original Poster]

^ Nah, sloppy joe sauce

what is a sloppy joe? always hear references but never actually looked it up

[Hum]

Cooked ground beef, in tomato-y sauce [onion, green peppers], with spices -- I spare no expense :p

[Growled Member]

My job requires constant multitasking. I've gotten very good at it. It's mainly just paying attention and not allow yourself to become distracted.

[Arachno 1D]

Man multitasking

Are you listening to me?

Yes dear......Huh huh......yea......huh huh......mm..........sorry,what did you say?

GAHHH!!!!!

[Torolol]

hmm, that Joe sauce look tasty.

good way to use brain is like what it shown on classic Robocop TV series.

another good brain usages is on Ghost in The Shell series.