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Multitasking and Social Media: How Multitasking Affects People’s Memory and Attention
Ayanna Lee
Florida International University
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Multitasking and Social Media: How Multitasking Affects People’s Memory and Attention
The new challenges of the modern business and technology have contributed to the rise
of multitasking. This involves handling many activities and often means that people have to
allocate their time to many tasks. This often leads to limited attentional resources, which creates
cognitive overload and diminished task performance (Sun & Zhong, 2020). Besides, multitasking
can lead to interferences, which leads to more pressure and low productivity of work. On the
other hand, the tendency of individuals to recall the first and last items of the list in a better way
than those in between is called the serial position effect (Li, 2010). The primacy effect means
that a higher number of items that are presented at the end have an advantage because they are
still in the short-term memory and thus the initial items have an advantage because they are
repeated. Multitasking can actually degrade the signal state of task performance, emerging from
the unfair distribution of cognition resources, which in turn restricts the management of
information. This research examines multitasking behavior and its consequences on prior
cognitive effects including the serial position effect. It investigates how people are capable of
handling multiple tasks at once and how recall of information is connected to the way that the
information is stored and later retrieved – a concept applying the serial position effect. This
paper thus compares and contrast the impact of task order, task complexity and the capacity of
working memory on performance. It also examines how the primacy and recency effects relate to
cognitive function to determine if there are any cognitive trade-offs linked with multitasking.
Studies examining the effects of multitasking on stress and cognitive function have
shown many physiologic and cognitive implications associated with it. Becker et al. (2023) in
their study identified that multitaskers' elevated cortisol levels—a sign of elevated stress—were
most noticeable when their jobs forced them to shift their focus between various cognitive
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demands. From these findings, it is possible to infer that multitasking could lead to significant
levels of physiological stress, which in turn may decline cognitive performance, especially in
cases where interruptions are more severe. Multitasking, according to the cognitive studies by
Guo et al. (2024), affects metacognition. The authors found out that multitasking interferes with
metacognitive monitoring and this means that people are less capable of evaluating their own
performance. Such individuals are, therefore, unable to understand that they are bounding or
making errors, which is a disadvantage given that most workplaces have intricate work
conditions that entail multitasking. As established by this study, multitasking thus reduces task
performance and people’s awareness of their own limitations.
One of the areas of interest is multitasking and its impact on such recall patterns as the
serial position effect. In their study of the primacy and recency effects in the context of Super
Bowl advertising, Li (2010) identified the serial position effect, which increases the chances of
recalling the initial and terminal adverts in a series. This effect suggests that multitasking,
especially when an individual is sequentially exposed to information, may adversely affect
memory recall. Multitasking impairs the ability to execute or recall more knowledge because,
when handling many tasks simultaneously, individuals likely have a poor recall of elements
halfway between the lists. This disturbance in memory processing is particularly relevant given
the habitual salient information that people experience when multitasking in digital
environments. Sun and Zhong (2020) explain that using media to multitask increases the problem
of memory retention because crossing the five human senses complicates focus on a single task
to build long-term memories. The consequences of multitasking in academic and professional
contexts are profound because it can make it harder for people to remember critical knowledge,
especially when digital media use is everyday.
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In the contemporary world, multitasking is often associated with media use, particularly
in social networks. Sun and Zhong (2020), in their work on the influence of media ecology
theory on media multitasking, operate with the definition of multitasking as a multimodal
behavior. They argued that media multitasking is more attention-demanding than conventional
forms of multitasking since it involves integrating many sensory sources, including sights and
sounds. The study reveals that media multitasking involving social media modality increases
user cognitive load, reducing the user’s attention and memory. To refine this idea, Yang and
Christofferson (2020) examined the socioemotional consequences of digital social multitasking
(DSMT), which is the use of social media during face-to-face interactions. Based on the study, a
specific kind of preoccupation with social media, DSMT, impaired the quality of face-to-face
communication. While multitasking on social media, the participants mentioned that they do not
deal with their counterparts as they would normally, which means that unlike lowering attention
levels, DSMT negatively affects social relationships. Accordingly, the study proved the negative
relationship between cognitive and social multitasking online and offline, showing that while
Digital Social Multitasking preserves social connectivity constantly, it undermines the quality
and emotional intensity of face-to-face interactions.
On the other hand, motivation has been discovered to play a significant role in the level
of concentration among students as well as the capacity to move from one task to the next. In
their study, Bachmann et al. (2024) aimed to compare the levels of autonomous and controlled
motivation with regard to multitasking behavior using the Self-Determination Theory (SDT).
Thus, the authors of an experience-sampling survey observed that only the groups with
autonomous motivation, because of the intrinsic interest and goals, could improve positive affect
and engagement during multitasking. However, regulated, motivated multitaskers who
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multitasked due to responsibilities or pressures experienced low attention and stress levels. These
results imply that this kind of motivation significantly influences students' ability to manage
multitasking demands, influencing their mental and emotional health. Like these findings, Yin et
al. (2024) examined multitasking in educational settings, concentrating on college students'
in-class media multitasking practices. The study investigated why students multitask with media
during lectures using a social learning perspective. It was discovered that students are frequently
driven by peer social cues and the advantages they see in multitasking. The study found that
multitasking negatively influenced academic performance, especially when it required frequent
task switching, despite the belief held by many students that it helped them stay informed and
connected. The authors concluded that, despite the cognitive disadvantages, students' media
multitasking activities are influenced by their social surroundings, particularly peer pressure and
internet connectivity.
For this study, college students were chosen as the subjects of an experimental study
designed in light of the findings from the reviewed studies. After reading a brief article about
political correctness posted on social media, participants will complete a multi-part survey to rate
whether or not they would like to read more stories based on their headlines. Participants will be
split into three groups: those who read the headlines before the PC article (known as the
"Headline-first" condition), those who read the PC article first (known as the "Article-first"
condition), and those who complete both tasks at the same time (known as the "Multitasking"
condition). Thus, the study seeks to answer the research question: What is the implication of
multitasking on memory and attention?
The study first hypothesizes, as indicated by the number of correct answers on the Part A
comprehension questions, that participants in the multitasking condition will remember less
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information from the PC article than participants in the "Article-first" and "Headline-first"
conditions. As a result, we anticipate that participants who multitask while reading the headlines
and PC articles would remember less information than those who complete these activities in
order. According to the serial position effect, details in the middle of a series are frequently
forgotten, but the information offered at the beginning (primacy effect) or end (recency effect) of
the sequence is more likely to be remembered (Li, 2010). Because multitasking is expected to
increase the impact of the serial position effect, which leads to lower recall of middle-positioned
items, the study hypothesizes that participants in the multitasking condition will have a more
significant difference in recall accuracy between Part A (PC article recall) and Part B (headline
recall). The disparity in accuracy ratings between Part A and Part B will be used to gauge this.
The study predicts that multitaskers will exhibit a more significant difference in memory
accuracy between Part A (PC article) and Part B (headlines) because of split attention and
cognitive interference.
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References
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motivation in students: An experience sampling study on multitasking, concentration, and
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https://dx.doi.org/10.1037/mot0000333
Becker, L., Kaltenegger, H. C., Nowak, D., Weigl, M., & Rohleder, N. (2023). Biological stress
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Guo, R., Liu, Y., Lu, H. J., & Jing, A. (2024). Can you accurately monitor your behaviors while
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Sun, T., & Zhong, B. (2020). Multitasking as multisensory behavior: Revisiting media
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Yang, C. C., & Christofferson, K. (2020). On the phone when we’re hanging out: Digital social
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Yin, C., Li, L., & Yu, L. (2024). Why do college students engage in in‐class media multitasking
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