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Study: People who multitask often bad at it

By: WASHINGTON (AP)
Posted: Tue 11:21 AM, Aug 25, 2009

Multitasking may be hazardous to your attention span. Researchers at Stanford University studied multitaskers, and found that those who do it the most are the ones who are worst at it.

The researchers divided 262 college undergraduates into two groups: high and low multitaskers. They compared such things as memory, ability to switch from one task to another, and the ability to focus on a particular task.

They found that people doing a lot of multitasking didn't score as well as others.

Communications Professor Clifford Nass of Stanford's says what it shows is the more media people use, "the worse they are at using any media."

The study's findings are reported in the latest edition of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.


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