Trudon 1

Rachael Trudon
Dr. Reid
English 101
October 16, 2015

Media Multitaskings Effect on the Attention Span of a Human

Multitasking is an everyday occurrence that happens with a wide variety of ages. Each
age group is presented with different distracting tasks that they are faced with that can lead to
multitasking. Media multitasking is becoming more popular than ever in the current generation
that we live in, because of all of the upgrades and inventions of technology. Through research,
media multitasking has been shown to produce a negative effect on peoples lives and hindered
peoples attention span. As technology has advanced, media multitasking has become a major
influence in peoples attention span and how fast they become distracted. This new age has
brought both advances and downfall to society in multitasking and media use.

Ralph, Brandon, David Thomson, James Cheyne, and Daniel Smilek. "Media Multitasking and
Failures of Attention in Everyday Life." Psychological Research 78.5 (2014): 661-69.
Business Source Complete. Web. 19 Oct. 2015.

This article Media Multitasking and Failures of Attention in Everyday Life discusses
the effect of media multitasking, and how it relates to attention that we are presented with
everyday. These three aspects are, failure of attention and cognitive errors, mind wandering, and

Trudon 2
attention control specifically on attention switching and distractibility. The results of this article
show that media multitasking has no relation in struggles in attention switching or distractibility.
However, studies have shown that media multitasking has been proven to affect the cognitive
ability of your brain and your behavior.
I believe that this is both a creditably source and useful. The authors of this journal article
are, Ralph, Thomson, Cheyne, and Smilek are all scholarly well known journal article writers
that participate in media multitasking in their everyday lives. I would consider them to be experts
on this subject because they are encountering this task in their everyday lives, and have to work
around it. This article uses a large variety of different sources that can ensure to the reader that
their findings are not more biased towards one side of the argument.
This source is going to be beneficial to me when writing my research paper because it
gave me a large variety of sources that will allow me to include in my article. In this article it
also presented me with a copious amount of data such as percentages and a variety of years that
different studies were conducted, and the data presents a clear finding in the support of my
research paper. This is going to help me in my paper because it is one of the few articles that I
picked that talked about task switching.
Katidioti, Ioanna, Jelmer P. Borst, and Niels A. Taatgen. "What Happens When We Switch Tasks:
Pupil Dilation in Multitasking." Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied 20.4
(2014): 380-96. PsycARTICLES. Web. 19 Oct. 2015.

In this article it discusses the difference between external interruptions and internal
interruptions. Three multitasking experiments were conducted and the change in each experiment
that was being observed was the change in the participants pupil size. They were able to notice

Trudon 3
the change in their pupil size from when they were changing from a primary task to a secondary
task. The results of this article showed that the time when the user is trying to decide if they
should switch tasks or not is the time where the distraction comes along, as you lose your
thought process that you once had.
I believe that this is a reliable source because it shows the several different studies that
were done, along with the outcome. The authors of this article are Katidioti, Borst, and Taatgen,
who are all from the University of Groningen. Some of the information that I found that was so
interesting and useful was the average time frame that people change between two tasks, which
was on average of three minutes. There were several different statistics that I will be able to use
in my paper.
After reading this article I am not sure if I am going to definitely use it for my paper
because it does not directly focus on my research paper topic, however I still believe that this is a
reliable and useful source for someone else to use if they are focusing on this topic. The
information is not directly related to my topic so I do not want it to lead my paper to be off track.
However, if I chose to use this source it will give me the ability to talk about the ability to
determine if someone is being distracted by an internal or external distraction.

Alzahabi, Reem, and Mark W. Becker. "The Association between Media Multitasking, Taskswitching, and Dual-task Performance." Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human
Perception and Performance 39.5 (2013): 1485-495. PsycINFO. Web. 19 Oct. 2015.

The article The Association between Media Multitasking, Task Switching, and Dual-task

Trudon 4
Performance by Reem and Becker discuss the effects of media multitasking and just regularly
multitasking. The researches also included the cognitive effects that multitasking can cause as
well as the distractions that it causes too. The findings of this article showed that there is a
substantial difference between multitasking, media multitasking and task switching. Task
switching is extremely different than multitasking and is better for your attention span and your
cognitive ability as well.
I believe that this source is very reliable and creditable. The authors of this article are,
Alzahabi and Becker who are researches at Michigan State University. The article presents the
reader with several different experiments that were conducted and all of the experiments had the
same outcome. The experiments were all done with different people and in different locations,
however studying the same topic. This article is similar to my first source that I used, so this will
give me the opportunity to compare the two articles.
This is going to be the most useful source that I have and is going to provide me with the
most information for my research paper. This article provides me with several statistics that will
help me when trying to inform the reader. I picked this article on purpose so that I would be able
to compare this article to a similar one that I already have.

Christensen, Claire G., David Bickham, Craig S. Ross, and Michael Rich. "Multitasking With
Television Among Adolescents." Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media 59.1
(2015): 130-48. Academic Search Complete. Web. 19 Oct. 2015.

In this article it discusses the problem that comes along with adolescents watching

Trudon 5
television while trying to complete a different task at the same time. Demographics of the user
were being evaluated in this study to see if they had an affect on weather or not an adolescent
would change their mind about multitasking. They also looked to see if the demographics of the
TV show would affect the users decision about multitasking. The results that were found showed
that if someone was watching a drama then they were less likely to be distracted by a technology
device.
Not only do I think this article is very reliable and useful but also interesting. I only have
one kind of these articles that look so deeply into the actual distraction that is created and the
type of person who is distracted by certain events. This article will give me extremely interesting
and unique findings compared to my other sources. The author of this article is, Claire G.
Christensen, David Bickham, Craig S. Ross, and Michael Rich.
This source will be useful for my paper because it will allow me to go into more depth
when discussing what types of people are most likely to get distracted by certain tasks. This will
also help show the different studies that were done that prove that some people are more prone to
being distracted than others are. The different variables of this can be, age, race, what activity
that you are doing that may lead to distraction, gender etc. All of these variables are accounted
for when trying to determine if an adolescent would change their mind about multitasking.

Seeber, Catherine M. "Stop Multitasking: Doing It All Accomplishes Nothing." Journal of

Financial Planning 28.5 (2015): 38-39. Business Source Complete. Web. 19 Oct. 2015.

Trudon 6
In this article it discusses the different ways that adults can be distracted vs. how
adolescents can be distracted. The adults usually tend to be in their offices more often than not or
in a work area so they are being distracted my computers, emails, and coffee. Kids are more
likely to be distracted by a phone, TV, lap top, etc. The author also then goes into talking about
how distraction can be avoided if you set boundaries and balance.
I believe that this article is extremely reliable because of the author. Catherine M. Seeber
is a principal and senior financial adviser at Wescott Financial Advisory Group with offices all
around the United States. She has first hand experience with all of these aspects because she sees
it and experiences it herself on a daily basis.
This article is different than most of my other articles because it talks about the difference
between distraction that adults encounter and the ones that adolescents encounter. I believe that
this article will help me go into more specific details in my paper about distractions and how
they can be avoided, because none of my other articles talk about the solutions. This article
provides accurate examples as to the different types of people who may get distracted, for
example an adult is more likely to be distracted by their email rather than a kid is.

Trudon 7

Works Cited

Alzahabi, Reem, and Mark W. Becker. "The Association between Media Multitasking, Taskswitching, and Dual-task Performance." Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human
Perception and Performance 39.5 (2013): 1485-495. PsycINFO. Web. 19 Oct. 2015.
Christensen, Claire G., David Bickham, Craig S. Ross, and Michael Rich. "Multitasking With
Television Among Adolescents." Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media 59.1
(2015): 130-48. Academic Search Complete. Web. 19 Oct. 2015.
Katidioti, Ioanna, Jelmer P. Borst, and Niels A. Taatgen. "What Happens When We Switch Tasks:
Pupil Dilation in Multitasking." Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied 20.4
(2014): 380-96. PsycARTICLES. Web. 19 Oct. 2015.
Ralph, Brandon, David Thomson, James Cheyne, and Daniel Smilek. "Media Multitasking and
Failures of Attention in Everyday Life." Psychological Research 78.5 (2014): 661-69.
Business Source Complete. Web. 19 Oct. 2015.
Seeber, Catherine M. "Stop Multitasking: Doing It All Accomplishes Nothing." Journal of
Financial Planning 28.5 (2015): 38-39. Business Source Complete. Web. 19 Oct. 2015.