While your daughter may be convinced that she can do all these things at the ____ time, a number of recently published neuroscience research papers argue that this is not in fact the case. Apparently what is really happening is that our brains ____ these tasks, rapidly switching from one to the other and choosing a ____ in which to do them. This may seem counterintuitive. Multitasking is a perfectly natural everyday ____. We can cook dinner while ____ in a show on TV or we can talk to a friend while walking down the street without bumping into anybody or getting run over. However, research suggests that there is an enormous difference between how the brain can deal with what are referred to as "highly practiced tasks," such as stirring or walking, and how it responds when, for example, you think about adding another ingredient or you decide to change the direction you are walking. In this case, our brains require us to concentrate on the activity at hand. The problem, it seems, occurs when human beings try to ____ out two or more tasks that are in some way related. We can see the ____ of this if we look at what happens when people use cell phones while driving (even if they are hands-free). Most people feel they are ____ of driving and having a conversation at the same time. Thisis fine until they need to process language while driving, for example on a road sign. Then the language channel of the brain gets ____ and the brain can no longer cope. A similar thing occurs if the conversation changes to something visual, for example your friend describing what his new apartment looks like. In this case, as you try to imagine what he is describing, the visual channel of the brain is overloaded and you can no longer concentrate on the road. David E. Meyer, director of the Brain, Cognition, and Action laboratory at the University of Michigan, who is considered to be one of the world's experts in this field, believes that human beings "will never, ever be able to overcome the ____ limitations in the brain for processing information during ____. Itjust can't be done, any more than the best of all humans will ever be able to run a one-minute mile."

multitasking myth

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