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Literature Review (Does Multitasking Improve Performance? Evidence from the Emergency Department)

  • Given the human brain’s inability to focus attention on two or more tasks simultaneously, many researchers (Hallowell (2005); Mayer and Moreno (2003); Pashler (1994)) believe that multitasked activities are eventually reduced to a set of sequential cognitive tasks.
  • Gladstones et al. (1989) and Pashler (1989) have found that individuals demonstrate severe interference when asked to perform simple tasks at the same time.
  • Aral et al. (2012) have recently examined IT worker productivity at an executive recruiting firm, and find that multitasking is associated with increased project output but diminishing marginal returns.
  • Hoshino et al. (2006), who recently examined the brains of multitasking individuals under functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), concluded that there is a neurological basis for the decline in productivity of multitaskers.
  • Laboratory studies have confirmed that subjects who switch between cognitive-intensive tasks experience information overload, which leads to a degradation in performance (Allport et al. (1994); Speier et al. (1999)).

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Updated 2021-07-26

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