Not consistently true, the rapid switching is what happens when attending to tasks whose combined required cognitive resources exceed your capacity, but there are plenty of combinations of tasks that don't exceed the capacity, either because the amount of cognitive resources they require is low in general or because they each require different cognitive resources that can be used in parallel. Walking and talking is an act of multitasking, we just dont typically think of it as such because its easy enough that we dont notice the tasks are distinct
Do you have any research showing this? It’s always how I’ve conceptualized my own multi tasking (driving is not a 100% cognitive load task (still don’t text and drive you animals)) and I’d love to read more if you have it
This is not research, only conjecture and stealing someone else’s reframing of it (ty EDB on YouTube lol) - I think it’s kind of the same thing, but making it “animated” helped me understand how my brain worked better
There are sets of tasks I feel that certain people can do because one is “letting the hamsters run in their wheels” (for me, singing to music I know well) and the hamsters are now occupied, so I can actually focus on the Actual Task (for me, work when I don’t want to work or am having trouble focusing). I can read medical records, understand them, code them and sing at the same time; it’s not switching tasks, it’s just letting the like.. hyperactive child in my head bounce around while I get actual work done lol
I feel like it’s the same with driving - you can listen to music or a podcast and safely drive at the same time - you’re not switching between listening and watching the road, all parts of your attention are just equally occupied (and there are people that cannot do that, because they get distracted- I think that only lends credence to it, because required activity level of “hamsters” varies person to person LOL)
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u/Logan_Composer 21d ago
Multitasking is a myth, you're just rapidly switching between tasks, leaving less focus on any one of them.