[Air-l] multitasking

[Ben Anderson]

On 14/10/06 18:12, "Barry Wellman" <wellman at chass.utoronto.ca> wrote:

> As this is the Association of Internet RESEARCHERS, I wonder if anyone has
> done any Research on multitasking

At what level of granularity? Whilst using devices -  i.e. multiple
tasks/apps or doing multiple activities in parallel in 'everyday life'?

If the former I'd suggest looking at some of the (military) HCI/CSCW
research on this.

If the latter then this is what people who use time-use diary data think
about a lot. E.g. Making a phone call whilst on the bus, looking after the
children whilst watching TV & doing household chores. Now I dunno if that is
'multi-tasking' as others have defined it here but it certainly defeats the
24-hours = a zero sum game.

And yes, there is research on this using time-use diaries. E.g.

Reconsidering the division of household labor: Incorporating volunteer work
and informal support
Jennifer Hoook
Journal of marriage and the family 66(1) 101-117, 2004

Introducing multitasking to the study of travel and ICT: Examining its
extent and assessing its potential importance
Kenyon , S     Lyons , G
Transportation Research Part A, 2 (41) 2007 p 161-175
(Not out yet)

We're doing some work on multi-tasking (at this level) using longitudinal
and cross-sectional time-use diaries as part of an ongoing research project.
More soon :-)

http://www.essex.ac.uk/chimera/projects/esoctu/

Ben
----
Dr Ben Anderson
Deputy Director, Chimera, University of Essex
+44 (0) 7710 187 806
http://privatewww.essex.ac.uk/~benander