Can You Really Multitask?

Поделиться
HTML-код
  • Опубликовано: 23 окт 2024

Комментарии • 647

  • @K.1234-g2c
    @K.1234-g2c 7 лет назад +899

    Hank: 'or maybe you're watching scishow while you're doing some calculous homework.'
    Me: *looks up and stares at screen* 'How does he know?????'

    • @TamannaDas
      @TamannaDas 7 лет назад +23

      K. 1234 He knows everything.

    • @vegardl.fjeldstad8321
      @vegardl.fjeldstad8321 7 лет назад +65

      Hank sees all. Hank knows all. Hank is all.

    • @virusboy07
      @virusboy07 7 лет назад +13

      K. 1234 *calculus

    • @bill18286
      @bill18286 7 лет назад +35

      K. 1234 that's a well integrated comment, although perhaps a little derivative

    • @iPhatDeluxe
      @iPhatDeluxe 7 лет назад +9

      we need to converge back into the topic at hand.

  • @comeupinns4497
    @comeupinns4497 7 лет назад +273

    dude i cant even singletask

    • @justinward3679
      @justinward3679 7 лет назад +21

      Upgrade to a dual core CPU.

    • @UpcycleElectronics
      @UpcycleElectronics 7 лет назад +5

      Megalo Tops Upgrade your ARM.

    • @patsonical
      @patsonical 7 лет назад +3

      Just download more RAM and reformat your CPU, you'll be triple-tasking in no time!

    • @T38-m8o
      @T38-m8o 6 лет назад

      ur cpu is overheating. get a water cooled cpu

    • @natureportal9285
      @natureportal9285 4 года назад

      Monotask*

  • @CINEMARTYR
    @CINEMARTYR 7 лет назад +194

    Multitasking with this on in the background... Editing a video, whilst eating a banana whilst listening to this, I wonder if I could sleep too!

  • @jleviathan9766
    @jleviathan9766 7 лет назад +20

    I wish more teachers understood this, because listening to lectures and note taking requires immense patience and concentration. I feel like I'm often falling behind other students I'm certain classes because I "can't multitask", but in reality, everyone's struggling just as much as I am and the teachers just arrogantly declare that we will have it harder in the future so we better get used to it. Taking notes is hard, it requires filtering out the useless details, and once you've finally structured what you need to write down, you've already missed a big part of the lecture and end up having a very unclear idea of what the class was about! Super frustrating. I wonder if it's just easier to sit back and listen to the lecture instead of fussing over notes and rely on my memory instead.

    • @NerdyZanoth
      @NerdyZanoth Год назад

      I found that the best way for me to learn something complex was to read a section of the textbook and take notes as I did (usually just summarizing the textbook).
      Then when we covered the topic in lecture, I would take notes on anything new discussed in the class and ask any questions that I had while reading the textbook.

  • @seleuf
    @seleuf 7 лет назад +7

    As someone who multitasks A LOT (usually 2-5 tasks at a time) this was very interesting to me but I'd also like a lot more information on it. Things such as further research on if multitasking brains are different from single-task brains, if any tasks actually can work together (like listening to music while working) and which ones absolutely don't (like trying to read a book and watch a film at the same time), the effects of multitasking on stress levels both in people who generally prefer to focus on one thing at a time and in people who prefer to multitask as much as possible and maybe also what effects multitasking has on people with anxiety problems such as feeling extreme restlessness when doing 0-1 tasks.

    • @AtoZthyme
      @AtoZthyme Год назад +2

      These are such good questions! I hope I come across some research on these intermixing

  • @polinamar
    @polinamar 7 лет назад +173

    I understand this point (and agree with it), but I have a question? What constitutes multitasking (the bad ineffective kind)? Working and watching tv - yes, sure. But that about working while eating? Or listening to background music or walking on a treadmill? Or that fidgeting, particularly for people with ADHD, is said to improve focus in some cases? Is that multitasking?

    • @sylviaodhner
      @sylviaodhner 7 лет назад +5

      +

    • @philiptouw3623
      @philiptouw3623 7 лет назад +20

      Nope, I don't think that's multitasking? Fidgeting is mindless movement for the most part? So I think it's almost like talking and walking. The walking doesn't take much actual thought. with things like adhd Fidgeting is usually used to help so that your brain doesn't try to switch back and forth between tasks. Or at least that's what I've gathered in research

    • @anssiaurum264
      @anssiaurum264 7 лет назад +2

      polinamar [this comment is here for reply notifications]

    • @johnnybloggs215
      @johnnybloggs215 7 лет назад +11

      Most of those actions are quite mindless in the sense we don't need to think about them to do them. Take breathing as an example, you can do nearly any action in the world and not have to think about breathing, this is because breathing is set on an automatic cycle within the brain when direct thinking isn't needed, it is much the same with walking and eating and various other actions. As for fidgeting i can't comment on that as i haven't got any knowledge about that :(, however i would say that fidgeting allows something for the brain to focus on so it is less likely to wander in attention.

    • @ojiverdeconfleco
      @ojiverdeconfleco 7 лет назад +14

      polinamar I think that actions from different orders don't interfere as much, like washing dishes (motor skill) while talking with partner (cognitive skill), but there's still a little loss in the efficiency of both tasks.
      In the case of fidgeting, perhaps the movement helps ground the person in the current situation, thus easing their shifting attention; but in any case, here we're talking of someone who already finds it difficult to accomplish one task, so their efficiency is messured accordingly.

  • @chikaokolo4929
    @chikaokolo4929 11 месяцев назад

    This is the best science show online. You all are the only ones who include sources for the information that you deliver.

  • @nadaqueocultar
    @nadaqueocultar 7 лет назад +3

    I can't repeat enough how glad I am that this channel exists. This is everything I could ever need to satisfy the bit of me that's sad because I chose another major instead of psychology.

  • @LeieSistal
    @LeieSistal 7 лет назад +13

    Well for me multitasking is a great way to stay motivated in my work, I tend to watch a lot of series or youtube video, while I draw or do 3d model. seems to work well for me.

    • @NigraXXL
      @NigraXXL 7 лет назад +14

      This is true. In some situations "multitasking", even if not really, helps you stay motivated.. while doing one thing at a time would result in an inefficient workflow because of the low motivation state of someone.

    • @sylviaodhner
      @sylviaodhner 7 лет назад

      +

  • @brod2man
    @brod2man 7 лет назад +9

    Hank: "IT'S BECAUSE YOU'RE HEARING WHAT I'M SAYING!"
    me: *tabs back to video* "what's he saying?"

  • @pennyballoon15
    @pennyballoon15 7 лет назад +3

    Great example of psychological research that is applicable to policy. If we can't multitask, then we definitely can't text and drive safely and why it is not permitted.

  • @FAN3LL1
    @FAN3LL1 7 лет назад +2

    I wish that you could have taught me any subject while I was in school. You have taught me more in the past 4 years than I learned throughout all of highschool. You are the best Hank!

  • @Calvinatorzcraft
    @Calvinatorzcraft 7 лет назад +268

    But my brain is a ten-core core i7-6950x

    • @Calvinatorzcraft
      @Calvinatorzcraft 7 лет назад +32

      With hyperthreading

    • @Giorgal
      @Giorgal 7 лет назад +9

      Actually that would be slower than normal human brains. Human brains have like 100 billion underpowered cores (we call them neurons). Hard to beat that with only 8 cores no matter how more powerful they are than one neuron.

    • @abonynge
      @abonynge 7 лет назад +16

      You underestimate how inactive my brain is.

    • @Calvinatorzcraft
      @Calvinatorzcraft 7 лет назад +3

      can still multitask better

    • @hanjaffa
      @hanjaffa 7 лет назад

      calvinatorzcraft those don't exist

  • @alicenelson1453
    @alicenelson1453 7 лет назад +4

    Hank: "On top of that, your pre-frontal cortex is easily distracted by new things, like kittens..."
    Me: *in utter astonishment I quickly shift attention from my cat playing, back to Hank*

  • @VBrinkV
    @VBrinkV 7 лет назад

    Wow! First SciShow Psych vid, and I already learned something practical & beneficial to my life.
    When I first started taking Accounting, I decided to listen to music while I read. However, I did not have a playlist set up. I stopped studying every 4 minutes to make a decision on what I'd listen to next. When I finished reading the chapter, I thought, "That was great! I got a lot done and enjoyed music while doing it!" Then I took the exam and learned super quick that Accounting would be much harder than I initially thought.
    Since then, I never thought music and work mixed for me. Until now. I could just set up a playlist ahead of time and listen to it while I work. No stopping, no switching between tasks. no decisions to be made. Just enjoying music while reading/working. Thanks! :)

  • @moth4514
    @moth4514 7 лет назад +47

    i did this during the video itself, i wonder if the video to longer to watch

    • @jglenister0419
      @jglenister0419 7 лет назад +12

      Moth *took we can tell you were multitasking :)

    • @WardOfSouls
      @WardOfSouls 7 лет назад +11

      Moth While the video itself plays in the same amount of time regardless of your attention, if someone were to quiz you on the content of the video and compare your results to the results of someone who watched without doing other tasks, there will probably be a measurable difference in understanding and retention.

    • @Tyler.8046
      @Tyler.8046 7 лет назад +1

      +WardOfSouls Someone doesn't understand sarcasm ...

  • @Veruvir
    @Veruvir 7 лет назад

    The use of awareness of research methodology and critical thinking awareness in this video is highly commendable.
    Sometimes brevity glosses over crucial epistemological foundations in research.
    Production quality 10/10.

  • @Ginny97263
    @Ginny97263 4 года назад

    I had to watch this for a college class and its wild to watch hank green for school, since back in 2010 I sent my high school teacher some of the vlogbrothers videos during their week of educational content before crash course and sci show were even a thing

  • @the_slow_one
    @the_slow_one 7 лет назад

    This is most useful video from SciShow I have ever seen. Thanks for making it.

  • @Duntorah
    @Duntorah 7 лет назад +11

    Hah! I'm working on Discrete Math, not Calculus. Got ya there!

  • @KyleFarrugiaTPCG
    @KyleFarrugiaTPCG 7 лет назад +4

    "Go do your project and then come see Scishow"
    - currently procrastinating

  • @ghoulishartist
    @ghoulishartist 6 лет назад

    I stopped filling in numbers and letters in my cross stitch app, to type out this comment.
    I listen to this, while on that app however, somehow helps me focus on what I'm doing, but I also can hear everything in the video. I've done this many times, with Lets Players, SciShow, SciShow Space, and Creepypasta's. I'd say that's multitasking in a way.

  • @jacheto
    @jacheto 7 лет назад +5

    i am studying for my test tommorow and i just distracted myself to this video, it was a slap in my face

  • @DaveBanMoos
    @DaveBanMoos 7 лет назад

    What's with tasks, where you can use your muscle memory? Examples: Eating and watching a video, knit and talking, typing/writing notes during a lecture, etc.

  • @adriancamden
    @adriancamden 7 лет назад +2

    This video is pretty much spot on! Humans are not very good at multitasking. Based upon the comments, it looks like some people might be skeptical; I see a few people mentioning doing homework and watching/listening to this video. I’m not sure if this helps proves the point of the video, but, Hank mentions that quality of performance goes down when you are trying to multitask, missing this point could be explained by doing homework and watching/listening to this video at the same time.
    I have seen a few people talk about legitimate situations of people multitasking (playing guitar and signing at the same time). Theories that speak to this are capacity theories, Kahneman (1973) first purposed that our attention, and thus ability to multitask, has a limit, and you can think of this limit as a pool of attention. The more tasks that are added to the pool the more your attention will get eaten up. The complexity of the tasks plays a major role as well; where you might have enough resources to do a few simple tasks (i.e. holding a phone while picking up garbage while listening to a podcast), you might not have enough capacity to more than one complex task (learning to play the guitar while listening to a podcast).

    • @chipsounder4633
      @chipsounder4633 6 лет назад

      I think having stuff on in the backround calms us down like a good song or a funny joke!! it takes the stress away and helps us to think more clearly

  • @drunkenroundtable
    @drunkenroundtable 7 лет назад

    My wife was texting me while I was watching this video. I had to stop it and rewind a couple times because I missed things. Great example of not being able to multitask.

  • @irishmigit
    @irishmigit 7 лет назад +1

    Playing video games while watching youtube, that's how I've watched most of crash course and scishow is while I'm on a video game.

  • @raizo-ftw
    @raizo-ftw 7 лет назад

    this dude keeps getting better with every single video god bless it

  • @rarebeeph1783
    @rarebeeph1783 7 лет назад

    I'm great at doing things in the background. Well, some things. Particularly rhythm games and math homework.
    I just drop focus, talk to people, sing songs... And when I'm done, I just assess my results. If I notice that I made mistakes, I just do the thing again without distractions. This usually increases my speed (and sometimes accuracy), and therefore productivity.

  • @jnerosfire
    @jnerosfire 7 лет назад +4

    The problem comes in when your job includes 6 or so tasks that have to be completed, but because of the structure of it that makes you have to handle task 1 as a prioroity, but tasks 2-6 have to be done as time permitts inbetween task one over and over all day, (an office where I have to work with the public as well as other job duties) so I can't say "I will finish task one, then two..." or "I will work on task one for an hour, then task 2....". Employers have kind of come to expect it now and if you don't do it, then they don't want you there. That's not to mention all the times we get interrupted while trying to complete something. Something that should have taken me 15-30 minutes friday took over an hour because inevitably as soon as I sat down to work on it the phone kept ringing. :-( So I know it's absolutely not as efficient of a way of handling things. Just wish Employers realized that.

    • @harusameiro
      @harusameiro 7 лет назад +1

      THIS. Story of my life right now, I work in an office environment too. Inevitably I have stretches of whole hours where I fail to complete a simple 2-minute task because every time I sit down to start on it the phone rings. God it drives me absolutely crazy! Sometimes I catch myself not only speaking and listening to the person on the phone, but taking notes and packing boxes and juggling another phone line that's on hold, all while trying to silently correct the new guy with hand and face gestures and listen in on the conversation taking place in the room just in case. I mean I can do it and it certainly feels like multitasking but it mostly feels like flying by the seat of your pants lol.

  • @TheFireworksv1
    @TheFireworksv1 7 лет назад

    loving the new channel Hank. Can you please do a episode on "autopilot" how you can not concentrate on something but it still happens. E.G driving home after a long day at work, or doing the dishes.

    • @UpcycleElectronics
      @UpcycleElectronics 7 лет назад

      TheFireworksv1 Veritasium just did an episode on this last week, it's definitely worth a watch ;)

  • @nizzle1931
    @nizzle1931 6 лет назад

    Hank, the example you're giving is about multitasking with two activities that need considerable focus. I bet people do fairly well doing an activity that requires a lot of focus, like watching Sci Show, and doing something requiring less focus, like folding laundry.

  • @snozzmcberry2366
    @snozzmcberry2366 7 лет назад

    Petting cat, listening to voice and reading text, with no mistakes. *Touché.*
    (I know that's not how it works, pedants)

  • @frizider2
    @frizider2 7 лет назад

    Im so happy that hank is on SciShow Psych. He is the best host by a mile, i love Hank

  • @jennieivins
    @jennieivins 7 лет назад +22

    What about high stress jobs where you have to do multiple things at once. Like air traffic control, being a short order chef, or having three kids? There are people that are super good at those things. Is it because it isn't multitasking or are they just exceptions to the rule?

    • @UpcycleElectronics
      @UpcycleElectronics 7 лет назад +2

      Jennie Ivins "There are people that are super good at those things." -This would need to be studied scientifically to determine what they are capable of and their individual efficiency. These individuals may be exceptional when compared to their peers in similar circumstances, but that in itself is a bias.
      Intuitively a flight controller that only guides 1 plane at a time will make less mistakes than an individual that controls 10 at once. An individual may be able to handle 10 planes within a manageable and acceptable margin of error, but they will inevitably make more mistakes than someone that has less tasks to manage. Keep in mind a job like an air traffic controller is much more complex than a simple, plane lands, takes off, or crashes senario. There is a much much larger system put in place where it takes several compounded layers of mistakes done in series before they lead to disaster. The pilots of the aircraft also have much of the same information and follow a protocol that effectively checks the system for mistakes.
      The types of mistakes made, I imagine, go largely unnoticed. Things like delaying a take off or landing on one runway because of focusing most of their attention on another runway, or mistakes in call signs that must be repeated, delays in responding to an approaching flight, etc.
      This type of intuitive reasoning applies anywhere. I don't believe the circumstances you've brought up relate to effective multitasking, but instead reflect on our perception of a socially acceptable level of accuracy.

    • @JB-tm7xy
      @JB-tm7xy 7 лет назад +5

      Jennie Ivins Most jobs have systems in place to reduce the amount of multitasking. I am not familiar with air traffic controllers, but I imagine they have a way to prioritize flights or some kind of automatic notification system to alert workers, instead of relying on each person to keep track of every flight detail at all times. Chefs who have a lot of orders typically read the order tickets and collect/create the food based on the similarities between the orders, which I don't think is considered multitasking since the one task is to identify similarities between stimuli. Parents who try to watch many children while doing household chores will probably do a bad job, like the video describes. However, most parents (try to) find some way to occupy all of their children in order to get things done. The point is, high stress jobs should have a system or aid to reduce the need to multitask or else errors or injury will occur.

    • @therabbithat
      @therabbithat 7 лет назад +4

      They have studied moms, they aren't really multitasking. If you are cooking and your kid comes up to you to ask you how to do a multiplication question, you stop cooking to help. What moms are a bit better at is not losing their place / forgetting what they were doing before they were interrupted.
      Air-traffic controllers are painfully aware that they can only do one thing at a time. In fact, people were killed when someone came up with the bright idea of putting all the information overlapping on one screen instead of many. "Change blindness" caused death.

    • @theshermantanker7043
      @theshermantanker7043 4 года назад

      @@00O3O1B Multitasking IS a real thing, don't don't on the bandwagon with all the Neuroscientists. Tests have proven that although people are pretty bad at multitasking, it's GENUINE parallel processing and not switching between tasks very quickly. There is a HUGE difference between "Humans are pretty bad at multitasking" and "Humans cannot multitask at all"

  • @muhammadarafatgaruda
    @muhammadarafatgaruda 3 года назад

    Thanks a million!

  • @mochiattoart514
    @mochiattoart514 5 лет назад +1

    ... meanwhile, I'm commenting this w my left hand, doodling w my right hand, listening to him w my ears, chewing w my teeth, reading my science book w my eyes, and bouncing a ball w my feet lmfao.. no, this is not a joke

  • @Saplingbat
    @Saplingbat 7 лет назад

    When I would meet with my occupational therapist with my mom and dad, I would play on my gameboy but still be able to tell them back everything they said when asked if I was paying attention.

  • @TheRealE.B.
    @TheRealE.B. 7 лет назад

    Confession? I ALWAYS multitask while watching SciShow. For this episode, I was replacing a broken shoelace. Sometimes I'm eating dinner. Ironing clothes. Grinding on phone games. Sometimes, I focus my attention very intensely on a task, but I also don't like to have idle capacity, so it's not uncommon for me to jump tasks while waiting for a browser tab to load. I also hate eating without also doing a mental task at the same time.

  • @girl.distressed
    @girl.distressed 7 лет назад +1

    I think it depends on the kind of multitasking... listening and singing along to music makes me more productive while cleaning, but reading a book while watching tv delays me from finishing my book

  • @SafinaLalani
    @SafinaLalani 7 лет назад

    This show is great! Thanks, Hank!

  • @tinchomorassi
    @tinchomorassi 7 лет назад

    Casually i just finished a reading about the detriments of multitasking and in that reading it also said that our way of thinking is becoming shallower because of trying to multitask, thus getting use to not concentrating in any task

  • @lauradevereuxfilm7390
    @lauradevereuxfilm7390 7 лет назад +7

    I'm watching SciShow while doing maths homework..
    Are you stalking me Hank??

  • @shoshana5869
    @shoshana5869 7 лет назад

    I was watching this while reading the comments and it took me an embarrassingly long amount of time to realize the irony.

  • @thomasrichardson5425
    @thomasrichardson5425 7 лет назад

    One thing to add is that sometimes it doesn't count as multitasking if you're incredibly well practiced in 1 thing. for example expert tennis players have practiced their backhand so often that they can do it without thinking, leaving them free to also think a few steps ahead in the game.

  • @zakholman8659
    @zakholman8659 7 лет назад +6

    How would this relate to something like listening to music while doing homework?
    would it make you less productive as well?

    • @baldingprimate1926
      @baldingprimate1926 7 лет назад +3

      one of those activities is gonna lose out, i do the same and most of the time i find that the more focused on the work i get the more distant the music feels until sometimes i dont even realise the music's changed.

  • @khangchau9665
    @khangchau9665 7 лет назад +24

    Deja vu... i think i might have seen this video before, months ago, feeling weird... by the way why does deja vu happens? What happens in the brain while deja vu happening?

    • @eggo1541
      @eggo1541 7 лет назад +1

      Khang Chau esause did a video on Deja vu; but I can't remember if he talked about why it happened.

    • @eggo1541
      @eggo1541 7 лет назад +3

      vsauce*

    • @langelov6001
      @langelov6001 7 лет назад

      same

    • @yushatak
      @yushatak 7 лет назад +3

      My recollection of why it happens is that your brain's perception get's a little screwy and thinks that the events that are currently happening are in the past like a memory at the same time as they're also in the present. It's relatively harmless but quite an odd feeling.

    • @theshermantanker7043
      @theshermantanker7043 4 года назад

      Recollection from fragmented areas of memory

  • @iLOLZU42
    @iLOLZU42 7 лет назад

    You need to do an episode on why we get distracted or why we dont like to do large projects/amounts of work, because *that* would be really useful.

  • @haleya2814
    @haleya2814 7 лет назад

    i seriously love hank so much. he makes learning easy

  • @mariaer9692
    @mariaer9692 7 лет назад

    Thing is some tasks take a set amount of time- like watching a video, movie or listening to a radio show. You can't really speed it up by paying attention to it, so getting other stuff done at the same time seems to me not to be any loss. Those experiments they made that you mentioned were all with active tasks and I wonder if the result wouldn't be different if the tasks were more passive. Even if there is concentration loss on what I am doing, for example watching something, the time saved by multitasking could well make up for that attention loss, depending on the task.

  • @vrstovsek
    @vrstovsek 7 лет назад

    *Watching this video AND reading comments at the same time!!! I'm a multitasking MONSTER!!!!!*

  • @playingshadows123
    @playingshadows123 7 лет назад

    So this means that Sci Show Psych will continue? Yay!

  • @oli2.019
    @oli2.019 7 лет назад

    I feel like I have always been bad at multitasking. Now it finally shows that people are just lying when they say it doesn't hurt their result.

  • @magniloquentlypuncturedkey2524
    @magniloquentlypuncturedkey2524 7 лет назад

    I'm a starbucks barista - yes, I can multitask. It's part of the job description.

  • @avicohen2k
    @avicohen2k 7 лет назад

    well, thats why multitasking helps doing tasks you dont want to do. when i was studying i noticed that doing something fun every 15-30 min helped me stay focused longer in general. when only studying i got bored and tired quickly. switching to a fun social ativity for 5 minutes and then going back made me feel refreshed and i could study for another 20 minutes with ease. i would consider that multitasking efficiently ; )

  • @katisawriter
    @katisawriter 7 лет назад

    I'm a recruiter and every time a manager tells me they need "soemone who is good at multitasking" I want to say "that's not a thing!"

  • @romantheflash
    @romantheflash 7 лет назад

    This is interesting, I have always wondered about multi-tasking and I never went over this in my studies, but this is pretty cool. Makes sense as to why I can't really listen to most music and do work without concentrating on either on or the other.

  • @falwyn
    @falwyn 7 лет назад

    As a person with ADHD, I would definitely be interested to hear more about this. On the one hand, I have definitely struggled with the urge to multitask while also seeing that splitting my focus was not good for either task. On the other hand, I have also had experiences where I seemed unable to focus on a required task unless I was also stimulating my brain with something else at the same time (e.g. I needed to edit some photos but couldn't make myself do it unless I also watched Buffy reruns at the same time). I suspect this example at least is not really multitasking, but something else... sometimes i experience something similar where I need, for example, to listen to music while I write but only at first -- after a certain amount of time, it's better to write in silence. But the music seems to help me corral my focus initially. I'm curious about this and the connections to multitasking and so on. (Esp ways for me to avoid ineffective multitasking, but still use this external stimulation/distraction in ways that sometimes seem to help...)

  • @RyBl212
    @RyBl212 7 лет назад

    it does seem that two conscious tasks do go slower and become more difficult. but it also seems that subconscious tasks, like listening (to music)​, and a conscious task like painting can be symbiotic positively; whilst multitasking. of course listing to sci show/space/psych or other vlogs are more complex and require more of a conscious effort. so it would be more distractive than effective

  • @chinorrata
    @chinorrata 7 лет назад +36

    What about singing and playing an instrument at the same time?!
    I mean I'm learning to play guitar and I have some problems with that. Please Answer!

    • @kylemaddox3423
      @kylemaddox3423 7 лет назад +8

      you make a good point. lots of people can do that. future video?

    • @shukenten4191
      @shukenten4191 7 лет назад +16

      I had the same question. It seems music may be one of the exceptions. I reckon its because music is a kind of script ie. its often set in stone, and you can learn to do one thing, like the guitar, and once you get that down to near pefection, you learn the other (the lyrics) and stick them together.
      Multitasking in the other sense like at work (trying to take notes, listen to someone, typing and thinking of a complex problem all at once) is more dynamic and they come out of nowhere, so you are thinking on your feet. This is probably harder for your brain to take in at once due to that dynamic nature of the tasks.
      Hope that made sense. Just a theory.

    • @MakeMeThinkAgain
      @MakeMeThinkAgain 7 лет назад +9

      There's also the issue of what your body is doing and what your mind is doing. When you gain the ability to do things without "thinking" about them, concentrating can even throw you off. I'm not musical, but I'm guessing that people who sing and play an instrument, or sing and dance, at most "think" about one of the activities while their bodies know to handle the other.
      Sports is like this, too. A quarterback is not thinking about running around while looking for a receiver and calculating where he needs to throw the ball.

    • @shukenten4191
      @shukenten4191 7 лет назад +5

      Agreed, thats another thing with instruments; you program your body movements too until it becomes automatic. Im guessing thats another different part of the brain though I may be wrong. Different parts working separately, but in tandem?? Any brain experts here? :]

    • @NitroBex
      @NitroBex 7 лет назад +3

      I had a simpler scenario, where Hank had said I was concentrating because I heard him I happened to be playing a puzzle game. I know i was concentrating on the game but still heard Hank. If it is separated by senses is it maybe not multi tasking? Like can you taste, smell, touch, hear, see and think all independently of each other at the same time?

  • @ephan15
    @ephan15 7 лет назад +2

    "watching scishow while doing calculus homework"
    how accurate. :P

  • @ColinJonesPonder
    @ColinJonesPonder 7 лет назад

    I opened the back door to let the cat in as you said, "Kittens"... 😂
    I think multitasking is possible with tasks you don't have to think about, but if you use working memory, it's not multitasking, it's prioritising.

  • @Scerttle
    @Scerttle 7 лет назад

    It's Hank! Clearly PsychShow is best show.

  • @NintendoPolitics
    @NintendoPolitics 7 лет назад

    I watched this while at work; well I don't actually watch, I listen. My boss knows I do this and says my productivity actually increased on days when I listen to videos/music.

  • @susannahmio
    @susannahmio 7 лет назад

    my constant struggle while interpreting simultaneously. it feels like doing ten things at once and it's exhausting after a short period of time.

  • @duanebridges2915
    @duanebridges2915 7 лет назад

    There are a couple of very specific tasks that I can do at the same time. I can sing along to 80's music while playing Pokemon Go at an 80's Cover Band show. One task is strictly memory and verbal and the other task is strictly motor control. Both tasks are damn near rote for me.
    I cannot drive and hold a cell phone at the same time. I am completely unable to hold the phone to my ear while the car jostles about. Both driving and holding require motor control and I simply cannot split my motor control at all.
    I can talk to the passenger while driving without any problem though, so long as it is casual conversation. I have severe depression and for most of my life I have avoided eye contact with people I am discussing things with unless it is job related. Thus I can talk to a friend and never ever glance at them - which is a good thing since controlling a steering wheel and pressing pedals is different enough that it is a difficult multitask for me. My BFF ALWAYS takes his eyes off the road and I freak out. Luckily, neither of us are licensed to drive anymore.
    But stop and think about it, controlling your hands on a yoke and throttle, while controlling your foot rudder pedals, while listening to weapons lock tones, while judging visual vectors, while wondering if a 20mm shell is going to rip through you, is multi-tasking and people do it. They can do it because the rule-sets for each don't overlap the same parts of the brain and can instead create synergies and not distractions.

  • @justinward3679
    @justinward3679 7 лет назад

    Sharing this channel with my professor :D

  • @arillusine
    @arillusine 7 лет назад

    Multitasking while listening to the video, reading the comments, and thinking about tomorrow's clinic...

  • @ttrev007
    @ttrev007 7 лет назад +1

    hmmm. my sisters used to use multitasking as a way of dealing with her ADHD. Perhaps is was the Dopamine that she was responding too. She does much better on meds when the insurance company does not take the coverage away. They also increase dopamine.

  • @thomasalexander1563
    @thomasalexander1563 7 лет назад

    Need more focus to this channel,,
    Love SciShow Psych,, And SciShow, CrashCourse...
    Thank you for your educative content

  • @johnwaldmann5222
    @johnwaldmann5222 Год назад

    Measuring happiness via smiling, and endorphins is like guessing wildly as to whether a person is in chronic pain by examining their hair follicles. And I would by experience argue the latter is a more scientific approach.
    People who are in chronic pain extremely often have hair that overnight turned grey. That is observable, and a strong correlation. However, chronic pain suffers often smile to mask their pain so as to fit in and be less exposed to other’s judgement. Severe chronic pain sufferers quite often (I am one) engage in a level of brutal excess activity to drive their bodies into generating endorphins to quench their pain for a time. Endorphins are more effective than prescribed analgesics.
    So high levels of smiling and endorphins correlate better with chronic pain, and masking behaviour than with happiness. And very few in chronic pain (physical or mental, or spiritual) could be described as anything other than miserable. Misery is the direct opposite of happiness in every culture on earth, even when those cultures express the happiness/misery dynamic differently, and acknowledge pain differently.
    Ohh and to see pain expression accurately just watch for micro expressions in the upper lip. I wear a stash so as to avoid discomforting strangers with my chronic crps pain, so I suffer less of the additional pain that results from dysfunctional social interactions.
    Ohh dear, those silly psychologists are measuring the wrong things once again says the anthropologist trained to observe the whole, and the detail rather than the focused nonsense of psychology.

  • @isabellapatterson1406
    @isabellapatterson1406 7 лет назад

    When you actually have a project due tomorrow but you're watching scishow instead

  • @jordanleighton6893
    @jordanleighton6893 7 лет назад

    This is probably amongst the most relevant to my question, which I'll probably keep asking until there's an answer. Can you do a holistic episode on ADHD?

  • @HL65536
    @HL65536 7 лет назад

    You CAN do 2 things at the exact same time, but they need to occupy diffent processing areas. You cannot do 2 things that require concious processing at the same time, but if one occupys the unconsious (autopilot) part (walking, eating, ...), another task can be done conciously.

  • @limalicious
    @limalicious 5 лет назад

    My dad yells at the tv every time a particular ad comes on where a girl claims she's good at multitasking. XD

  • @cubex2160
    @cubex2160 7 лет назад

    well while i have to agree with the examples of multitasking that u gave, i am playing a game at the moment and listening to you all the same. Some of the tasks are easily doable simultaneously you just have to do the right ones.

  • @wishdumain
    @wishdumain 6 лет назад

    OK I'll finish reading my book before watching any more of these.

  • @Jason_Hayward
    @Jason_Hayward 7 лет назад

    A lot of things can be called multitasking. (TL:DR at the bottom)
    Driving, operating the car while keeping track of where everything is around you and where you are going. Games are a great example. Many of them pretty much require you multitask to be successful.
    Starcraft, early game you need to keep track of your economy, watch your minimap, work on setting up your army, find your enemy, and avoid any trap they may try.
    League you need to keep track of general location of both junglers, kill minions, avoid and clash with your lane opponent. Keep track of who is doing good and bad, Choose what items you want to get that game in what order. Where are you in your lane what is the risk of pushing forward or should you pull back, ect.
    (both of those are higher level play not low level)
    So it definitely is more about the difficulty of each task and the number of them there are, because a large number of things done can be broken up in to many task. The more complex and difficult the worse you are going to get the more things you add to it. The faster you need to be the more apparent a slow down will be, Such as with driving. A slow down of even a bit can cause bad things because you need to be pretty fast in reacting to avoid crashing at times.
    Where as if you are writing it isn't as big of a deal as long as you go back over what you wrote because a mistake or typo there likely won't be as bad because you can go back and fix it. Or in many cases it is still completely understandable so it doesn't matter. Quality required at the end of your task is also something to consider. Higher quality you need the lower number of tasks you want to have to do at once. Lower quality the more tasks you can partake in.
    As in everything Moderation and thought should go into If you should do pretty much anything your thinking about doing. Are you doing something possibly dangerous maybe do less things at once so it is safer. Just need something done quality be damned well multitasking isn't as much of a problem there.
    I mean walking itself could be considered multitasking. You need to keep your balance, control your movement, decided where you want to go, and avoid obstacles. People often connect that with things like talking. Generally keeping your balance isn't a problem so an easy task but on something like ice it become much more difficult of a task. Controlling your movement is generally easy in say your house. In a windstorm though? If are unsure of where your trying to get how much difficulty is deciding where you are heading going to be? In say the dark how much harder is avoiding obstacles going to be?
    TL:DR
    I think a bigger problem is people think often thing of things like driving as one task instead of many that have gotten easier to manage at once. The more tasks you do at once the worse the quality of each task gets. The more difficult/complex the task is the more it demands overall. Different conditions make different tasks more difficult which makes the things your trying to do harder.

    • @JohnStephenWeck
      @JohnStephenWeck 7 лет назад

      multitasking means you are doing things at the same time, not in a sequence. like in starcraft, you can only do one thing at a time.

  • @7_y1ar
    @7_y1ar 4 года назад +1

    Lol I’m watching this because it’s in my autoplay videos and I’m answering right now and drawing

  • @lachronic7821
    @lachronic7821 7 лет назад +2

    I'm actually watching this while doing math homework..haha!

  • @FacelessMusic2day
    @FacelessMusic2day 3 года назад

    I wonder how this plays out in work environments. My past job required me to answer phones/questions while also performing computer task and occasionally having to write things down. Now trying to remember order numbers and last names in memory is complicated at times. But I was able to talk to people in person, while calling online support as well as typing in information on a screen to solve order problems which would be considered multitasking. I’m sure you can imagine the amount of noise i had to block out working customer service in a store that gets about a 1000 people a day.

  • @MrGrokku
    @MrGrokku 7 лет назад

    "Never half ass two things. Whole ass one thing" - Ron Swanson.

  • @ClearNight34
    @ClearNight34 7 лет назад

    "maybe you're watching sci show while doing calculus homework"
    spot on hank...

  • @rudolfs110
    @rudolfs110 7 лет назад

    Really like this channel

  • @magus104
    @magus104 7 лет назад

    i imagine multi tasking isnt much more of a performance hit than being overly exhausted

    • @angelic8632002
      @angelic8632002 7 лет назад

      Then you would be wrong
      You can only pay attention to one thing at a time

  • @TaylorSchult
    @TaylorSchult 7 лет назад

    I was also multitasking during this video and forgot I was until the end.

  • @lucidmoses
    @lucidmoses 7 лет назад +1

    I'm going to have to stop with the bubble gum while I'm walking. :p

  • @sparkle1596
    @sparkle1596 7 лет назад

    this is really helpful! i've always wondered about this

  • @dmarsub
    @dmarsub 7 лет назад

    cookinh eating and sci show goes very well together :)

  • @CaffieneKitty
    @CaffieneKitty 7 лет назад

    I want to show this to my boss and coworker, who seem to think wanting to focus on one task at a time is a crime against humanity. :-P

  • @unclecuddles5232
    @unclecuddles5232 7 лет назад

    I don't know if I'm simply more aware of my mistakes or slower pace while trying to multitask, especially over long periods of time, but I know I'm horrible at it and almost never do it if that is an option

  • @velvetsrose
    @velvetsrose 7 лет назад +42

    People keep trying to multitask, would, in the future, it be possible that people may evolve to actually be able to multitask?

    • @willhudson5625
      @willhudson5625 7 лет назад

      artonthefridge well kinda like our jaws got smaller than our ancestors with the invention of agriculture something could spawn a need to multitask

    • @diegoreig4708
      @diegoreig4708 7 лет назад +1

      Will Hudson I dont know to what degree the our neural plasticity of our brains would let us get an even bigger or better prefrontal cortex just from practicing more and more multitasking. But that is something I asume humans have always done, unlike agriculture

    • @willhudson5625
      @willhudson5625 7 лет назад

      I was more referring to the fact that as our environments and ways of life change so do our bodies

    • @willhudson5625
      @willhudson5625 7 лет назад

      Not natural selection but just side effects I guess you could call them

    • @rusca8
      @rusca8 7 лет назад +2

      Juliane Nguy That's not how evolution works. You'd need multitasking to be helpful in having more children or surviving easier so that you have them. Also, childs from multitasking parents should be multitasking kids, so just training yourself wouldn't work, it should be in the genes somehow :/

  • @fromscratchauntybindy9743
    @fromscratchauntybindy9743 7 лет назад

    Damn that dopamine feedback loop - why doth my brain conspire against me?
    Here have a little surge of dopamine - now make a unnoticed error - here have a little surge of dopamine... hehehe now she'll have to stay back after work to fix everything and get "held accountable" by the boss... 😨😣

  • @vanomisoo2492
    @vanomisoo2492 7 лет назад

    thank you!!!

  • @Masterpouya
    @Masterpouya 7 лет назад

    OK SciShow... it's 1 am... I'll single task "Sleeping", I got your point Hank...
    ;-)

  • @Axle0Fael
    @Axle0Fael 7 лет назад

    So you're telling me that I shouldn't drive and watch SciShow at the same time?.. Well there goes my Friday night¿

  • @sunny_ua
    @sunny_ua 7 лет назад

    I watch SciShow while working. And indeed whenever I need to concentrate, on work, I stop hearing and comprehending whatever the host is saying. Luckily, large chunks of my work involve pure muscle memory and can be done without having to concentrate on it.

  • @akshatshah3717
    @akshatshah3717 6 лет назад

    I do Geometry and SciShow at the same time, all the time 😂 Wish me luck on Midterms! 😂😂😂

  • @Quroe_
    @Quroe_ 7 лет назад

    You know, you probably WOULD have caught me watching Scishow while doing Calculus homework if I weren't on Spring break. :p

  • @VlogsByMarc2018
    @VlogsByMarc2018 4 года назад

    Piano players can multitask. Working the pedal, reading two different pieces of music and two hands doing different things