Die Erfindung des Multitasking

A common misconception is that our brain can handle multiple complex tasks simultaneously. However, numerous studies show the opposite. An impressive experiment by a Swedish research team illustrates this: Participants had to perform visual tasks in different environments while their brain activity was measured. The results were clear: the more complex the task, the less the brain responded to other stimuli. This shows that our brain cannot effectively focus on multiple complex tasks at the same time. Another illustrative example is that of a soccer player who was asked to solve mathematical problems during a game. Initially, he could still handle simple tasks without any issues, but as the complexity of the tasks increased, his game slowed down and eventually came to a halt. This underscores that as task complexity rises, performance significantly decreases when the brain has to switch back and forth between multiple tasks. These findings demonstrate that true multitasking is a myth, and our brain actually just switches quickly between different tasks—a process known as task switching. However, this switching costs time and energy, leading to a loss of efficiency.