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).
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.
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.
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.
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.
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).