How do people multitask?

It is widely thought that multitasking enables us to get things done faster and better. But studies have shown that multitasking does not necessarily improve performance. In fact, we might *think* that we are multitasking, but in reality we are rapidly switching our attention back and forth between tasks, causing a cognitive cost to accomplish the tasks. In the brain, multitasking is managed by executive functions in the fronto-polar prefrontal cortex which control and manage cognitive processes, specifically goal shifting (i.e. deciding to do one task instead of another) and role activation (i.e. changing from the rules of a previous task to the rules of a new task). This task can be used to study these executive functions and how performance on this relates to other cognitive processes (i.e. attention, perception, etc.). Past research suggests that the prefrontal cortex is not programmed to perform heavy-duty multi-tasking.

Resources:

• Stoet, G.et al. (2013). Are women better than men at multitasking? BMC Psychology, 1:18. http://www.biomedcentral.com/2050-7283/1/18
• Science Daily. (2019) Sequential, concurrent multitasking is equally hard for men, women: Women perform no better than men in study investigating types of multitasking. https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/08/190814144505.htm
• Willis, J. (2016) The high costs of multitasking for you and your kids. https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/radical-teaching/201611/the-high-costs-multitasking-you-and-your-kids.
• Elmore, T. (2017). The unintended consequences of multitasking. https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/artificial-maturity/201701/the-unintended-consequences-multi-tasking. Psychology Today.
• American Psychological Association (2006). Multitasking: Switching costs. https://www.apa.org/research/action/multitask.

Parameters
The following features can be tweaked (default values in parentheses):

• Task instructions
• Duration of feedback (500 ms)

The following features are fixed (not changeable):

• Number of blocks: 6 (training, training, training, main, main, main)
• Number of trials per block: 10, 10, 20, 20, 20, 40
• Type of block: shape, filling, mixed, shape, filling, mixed
• Condition of blocks are also fixed: no switching, no switching, switching, no switching, no switching, switching

What data is collected? How is it scored?
The following variables are recorded:

• MultiT_reaction_time_switch
• MultiT_reaction_time_no_switch
• MultiT_correct_response_proportion_switch
• MultiT_correct_response_proportion_no_switch

The main variables are average reaction time (ms) and the percentage of correct responses, calculated for both the trials with the instruction switch and trials without the switch.