Keeping All the Plates Spinning: Understanding and Predicting Multitasking Performance

Abstract

This chapter offers a broad definition of multitasking performance and raises important considerations related to this definition. It outlines the many task and environmental characteristics that potentially influence multitasking performance in critical ways. The chapter suggests several avenues for conducting future research on multitasking performance. It is important to acknowledge that external factors out of the individual's control may affect measures of multitasking performance, and these factors are distinct from multitasking performance itself. Multitasking performance does not simply require multiple tasks; performance requires a conscious shifting from one task to another. Empirical research could investigate how multitasking traits relate to a wide variety of important outcomes. Multitasking can be thought of as a trait: Some people seem to perform consistently well across a variety of multitasking situations, whereas others tend not to perform well at all and may benefit more from training interventions tailored to a specific problem.

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