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July 26, 2006 -- Multitasking may make you more productive, but it also makes it harder for your brain to learn, according to a new study.
Researchers found people had a harder time learning new things when their brains were distracted by something else, like talking or listening to music.
"When distractions force you to pay less attention to what you are doing, you don't learn as well as if you had paid full attention," says researcher Russell Poldrack, PhD, and UCLA associate professor of psychology, in a news release. "Even if you learn while multitasking, that learning is less flexible and more specialized so you cannot retrieve the information as easily."
Poldrack says distractions appear to affect the brain's learning processes, and tasks that require more attention -- like learning calculus or reading Shakespeare -- are particularly hampered.
Multitasking Disrupts Learning
In the study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, researchers used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to examine brain function and activity while adults (average age, 26) learned a new task.
The 14 participants were asked to make predictions after seeing a series of clues about cards with various shapes. With one set of cards, they learned the classification task without any distractions. In the second set, they learned while listening and keeping track of a series of high and low beeps.
The results showed that multitasking didn't reduce the accuracy of the predictions immediately, but it did hurt participants' ability to remember knowledge about the task later.
Researchers found that when participants were asked questions about the cards at a follow-up session, they did much better on the task they learned without any distractions.
When asked about the task they learned with the distraction, they couldn't extrapolate, or their knowledge was less flexible about the task.
Distraction Affects Memory
The fMRIs showed that when the participants learned without distraction, an area of the brain known as the hippocampus was involved. This part of the brain is critical to the processing and storing of information.
But when they learned the task while multitasking, the hippocampus was not engaged. Instead, an area called the striatum was activated. The striatum is involved in learning new skills like riding a bicycle.
Researchers say the results show that learning while distracted or multitasking alters the brain's learning processes and changes the way people learn.
Multitasking when performing certain tasks -- like listening to music while exercising -- may be helpful. But Poldrack says tasks that distract you while you try to learn something new are likely to negatively affect your learning.
"The best thing you can do to improve your memory is to pay attention to the things you want to remember," says Poldrack.
SOURCES: Foerde, K. PNAS Early Edition, July 25, 2006. News release, UCLA.