By Navada Roberts
Imagine, you’re getting prepared to study for your next exam. You have your textbook open, your notes are ready, but you’re watching a TikTok on your phone. Or maybe you have a Netflix show on in the background for some “background noise”. Does this scenario sound a little familiar?
It may feel like you’re being productive because you’re multitasking multiple things at the same time, but in reality, cognitive psychology says otherwise. You’re not actually multitasking; you’re performing something called divided attention and it might be the reason why your study sessions aren’t as useful as you expected them to be. Don’t worry though, in this post I will discuss what you can do to balance your study and TikTok time.
What is Divided Attention?
Divided attention occurs when you try to focus on more than one task at a time. It splits all your mental energy between multiple tasks, unlike focused attention, where all your mental energy goes to one task. Your brain isn’t designed to completely process multiple tasks at once. Instead, it switches between the tasks, resulting in something called the switching cost. The switching cost is when you lose time, make more errors, and overall remember less information [1]. Research shows that even small distractions, like your phone buzzing or music playing in the background, can affect how you store information in your memory [2]. This is true when it comes to studying, because the more divided your attention is, the harder it is to understand and remember the information you’re learning. So next time you think that multitasking will save time, remember that it’s most likely the opposite.
The Myth of Multitasking
Multitasking seems very appealing to many people. Doing things like answering a text in class may make you feel accomplished, but that feeling is just a rise in your dopamine and in a way, is a trap. Researchers have found that many people overestimate their ability to multitask [3]. In fact, individuals who multitask the most often have the least accurate judgement on how well they’re doing [4]. Their false sense of confidence can make the habit of multitasking harder to break, because it feels efficient, but your brain is doing so much work but retaining less information. One reason this happens is that multitasking creates a sense of satisfaction in your brain every time you get a new notification or scroll between TikTok’s [5]. The more we reward ourselves with distractions, the harder it will be to focus. Over time, our brains can get used to a shorter attention span, which makes more focused studying much more challenging.
The Real Effects on Learning
As I discussed before, when your attention is divided, your brain has a harder time storing the information you need to remember. This means that even if you think you studied, you might not be able to retrieve the information later, like during your exam. One study found that students who tried to multitask while learning remembered significantly less information than those who focused on one task at a time [6]. It’s not just your memory that’s affected; your ability to comprehend what you’re reading is affected as well, because divided attention interrupts many actions such as connecting ideas, analyzing the information, and organizing your thoughts. It’s important to acknowledge that the effects of multitasking aren’t limited to the person doing it. One study showed that students seated near multitaskers in a classroom also had lower test scores [6]. Even being around distractions is enough to lower the amount of information you learn.
What to Do Instead
You may be wondering, what does work when you’re trying to focus and learn? The good news is that cognitive psychology provides us not only with answers on what not to do, but also fact-based strategies to better your focus.
- Use Focused Study Sessions
Instead of spending hours cramming for a test while “watching” Netflix, try something like the Pomodoro Technique. In this technique, you study for 25 minutes, take a 5 minute break, and repeat the cycle throughout your study session. This method keeps your mind clear and helps to hold your attention without making you tired [7].
- Create a Distraction-Free Zone
I’m sure you have heard the term out of sight, out of mind before. Building a habit of leaving your phone in another room or using the screen time feature on your phone can reduce the temptation you may feel to check your notifications while studying.
- Practice Monotasking
It may sound slightly boring, but using the concept of monotasking, or focusing on one task at a time, is really the most effective way to learn [8]. Set a clear goal for your study session, such as understanding a certain chapter better, and focus on following through on that goal.
- Add Active Learning Techniques
Rather than scanning through the text, start to use strategies that make your brain actually work with the material provided. Some examples are testing yourself, reading the material out loud, or drawing concept maps.
Wrapping it up: Focus is Your Superpower
With all of the forms of social media we have in our generation and the distractions they bring, the temptation to multitask isn’t going away anytime soon. On the bright side, now you know that divided attention makes studying harder, more time consuming, and less effective. So, next time you go to study for a big exam, try to put your phone away, get rid of any background noise, and allow your brain to focus. You’ll be surprised how much faster and more efficiently you learn, and your future self (as well as your GPA) will thank you.
[1] Monsell, Stephen. 2003a. “Task Switching.” Trends in Cognitive Sciences 7 (3): 134–40. https://doi.org/10.1016/s1364-6613(03)00028-7.
[2] Sana, Faria, Tina Weston, and Nicholas J. Cepeda. 2013a. “Laptop Multitasking Hinders Classroom Learning for Both Users and Nearby Peers.” Computers & Education 62 (March): 24–31. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2012.10.003.
[3] Rubinstein, Joshua S., David E. Meyer, and Jeffrey E. Evans. 2001. “Executive Control of Cognitive Processes in Task Switching.” Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance 27 (4): 763–97. https://doi.org/10.1037/0096-1523.27.4.763.
[4] Ophir, Eyal, Clifford Nass, and Anthony D. Wagner. 2009. “Cognitive Control in Media Multitaskers.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 106 (37): 15583–87. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.0903620106.
[5] Pashler, Harold. 1994. “Dual-Task Interference in Simple Tasks: Data and Theory.” Psychological Bulletin 116 (2): 220–44. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.116.2.220.
[6] Sana, Faria, Tina Weston, and Nicholas J. Cepeda. 2013a. “Laptop Multitasking Hinders Classroom Learning for Both Users and Nearby Peers.” Computers & Education 62 (March): 24–31. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2012.10.003.
[7] Cirillo, Francesco. 2006. “Cirillo — Pomodoro Technique.Pdf.” Berlin: Francesco Cirillo, Self-Published. https://friend.ucsd.edu/reasonableexpectations/downloads/Cirillo%20–%20Pomodoro%20Technique.pdf.
[8] Leroy, Sophie. 2009. “Why Is It so Hard to Do My Work? The Challenge of Attention Residue When Switching between Work Tasks.” Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes 109 (2): 168–81. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.obhdp.2009.04.002.