[Air-l] multitasking

[Deanya Lattimore]

The term "multitasking" is still being used in all of these discussions 
to signify too many conflated variables to reach any significant 
conclusions from these data.

My point earlier was about processing differences.  Auditory and visual 
processing are different things to me, and so I assume to some others 
as well -- probably dozens of different things.  Measuring someone's 
ability to switch back and forth between windows to accomplish multiple 
tasks -- something that I can do with lightning speed -- says nothing 
about one's ability to listen in class and gloss over words on a screen 
at the same time, something that I would NOT be able to do with any 
measure of "success."

The windows task seems to be something visual for me -- I have no 
trouble processing many visual cues at one time.  The paying attention 
to words task seems to be auditory for me: two different "noises" no 
matter whether I am reading them or hearing them.

We'll have to accept that we have different kinds of processing 
abilities that transcend distinctions between a "multitasking" and 
"non-multitasking" dichotomy before we'll figure out how to design 
studies that can really teach us something.

Has anyone done anything to establish baseline processing differences 
before the "multitasking" tasks were recorded?

Deanya