Media multitasking: from cognitive functions to digital

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Abstract

The article presents the phenomenon of multitasking, representing simultaneous execution of two or more mental operations. Its particular type, media multitasking (MMT), is also considered as a relatively new format for combining various information flows that meets the requirements of the digital environment. The historical perspective of studying multitasking is presented: from individual experiments on the selectivity of attention to the phenomenon of digital everyday life. Modern empirical studies of MMT correlates among the main cognitive functions, including those of “light” and “heavy” multitaskers: attention, memory, thinking, and cognitive control, as well as productivity, academic performance, and metacognition are analyzed. The positive and negative effects of the MMT format are described. The resulting data set suggests that using the MMT format, which for most children and adolescents is gradually becoming a universal strategy of activity, the child adapts to an information-rich environment as a multiple and mixed reality. The importance of developing mechanisms for the formation of managed and controlled MMT for the education system is emphasized.

General Information

Keywords: media multitasking, multitasking, cognitive function, adolescents, cognitive control, metacognition, digital socialization

Journal rubric: Developmental Psychology and Age-Related Psychology

Article type: review article

DOI: https://doi.org/10.17759/jmfp.2020090401

Funding. The reported study was funded by Russian Foundation for Basic Research (RFBR), project number 19-29-14181 “Multitasking in the structure of digital socialization: cognitive and personality factors of effectiveness in the context of education digitalization”.

For citation: Soldatova G.U., Nikonova E.Y., Koshevaya A.G., Trifonova A.V. Media multitasking: from cognitive functions to digital [Elektronnyi resurs]. Sovremennaia zarubezhnaia psikhologiia = Journal of Modern Foreign Psychology, 2020. Vol. 9, no. 4, pp. 8–21. DOI: 10.17759/jmfp.2020090401. (In Russ., аbstr. in Engl.)

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Information About the Authors

Galina U. Soldatova, Doctor of Psychology, Professor, Professor, Department of Personality Psychology, Faculty of Psychology, Lomonosov Moscow State University, Head of the Department of Social Psychology, Moscow Institute of Psychoanalysis, Moscow, Russia, ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6690-7882, e-mail: soldatova.galina@gmail.com

Evgeniya Y. Nikonova, Assistant, Faculty of Psychology, Lomonosov Moscow State University, Moscow, Russia, ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6338-3764, e-mail: eniconova@mail.ru

Anastasia G. Koshevaya, Postgraduate Student, Associate Professor of Department of Personality Psychology, Faculty of Psychology, Lomonosov Moscow State University, Moscow, Russia, ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9684-1693, e-mail: koshag@inbox.ru

A. V. Trifonova, PhD in Psychology, Associate Professor, Department of Acmeology and Psychology of Professional Activity, Russian Academy of National Economy and Public Administration under the President of the Russian Federation, Moscow, Russia, ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7217-0066, e-mail: a-linblches@mail.ru

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