

Multitasking: Study examines limits imposed by brain structure - FluidDjango
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=126018694

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fdkz
<http://www.rexresearch.com/kahne/kahne.htm>

Strand Magazine (October 1925) An Interview with Harry Kahne, Whose Brain can
do Six Things at the Same Time

... Figure 3: Writing with Both Hands, Both Feet, and Mouth Simultaneously ~ A
demosntration of multiple concnetration of both mind and muscle which Mr Kahne
frequently gives before doctors and psychologists. Note: the right hand is
writing backwards and revesed, whilst the mouth is writing backwards but
correctly).

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stcredzero
The limit can be affected by the stakes. How about drugs?

I've been in music competition situations where I've gone into hyper
vigilant/super multitasking mode and my recollection of time seems to have
expanded, like a scene from the Matrix. However, my brain overloaded and my
coordination melted down.

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csomar
What about performance? I think performance can explain this.

Imagine you are working (let say coding some code) and you have other things
that are playing in your mind (like taking the kids or your Credit Card debt)
so you'll be focused on two things, but you don't achieve the same
performance.

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timwiseman
Arstechnica also has a write up at
[http://arstechnica.com/science/news/2010/04/in-
multitasking-...](http://arstechnica.com/science/news/2010/04/in-multitasking-
more-than-two-tasks-do-not-compute.ars)

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Xurinos
I look forward to follow-up studies about how to train the brain to divide
into more tasks. Wasn't it Jefferson who by legend could handwrite two
documents simultaneously in different languages? I doubt he had a third lobe.

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Terretta
Two documents with two hands in two languages. That's one doc, hand, and
language per lobe. That anecdote fits in this article's model.

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Xurinos
What about thinking about what to write?

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asimecs
I have a rule in my team that you can only have 2 major tasks at one time.
This is supported by this research. However, we can also have multiple short
tasks that take < 30 minutes to do.

