Why We Can’t Do More Than Two Things at Once
A little neuroscience research for your Monday: According to research from Etienne Koechlin (Université Pierre et Marie Curie in Paris, France) we can only handle two tasks at a time. Add a third task and our performance plummets.
This is due to an area in our brain called the medial prefrontal cortex (MFC). As the research demonstrates, this area is able to assign one task to one hemisphere of the brain while the other hemisphere works on the second task. Because we only have two hemispheres the MFC cannot handle any tasks past two. This may also explain why we have a difficult time making choices between multiple options.
The MFC is also the reward area of the brain in that it determines our motivations for a task. Our brain uses rewards to determine which option we should pursue. So, if you are given the choice of fish or chicken for dinner, your brain can easily make the choice based on the perceived rewards of the two options. Given a choice between steak, fish, or chicken, your brain quickly decides between two of the choices and then compares that choice to the remaining option. The more options, the more time it takes to process the pairings. Think about the time it takes to make a decision when you go to a Baskin Robbins and you have an idea of the processing that the MFC undertakes.
What are the practical aspects of this research? First, realize that at best, people can only handle two things at most. Second, when making decisions among multiple options, develop a method of weighing options in pairs so that you have a consistent way of ranking your options to derive the best choice. The most practical aspect of this research is that it demonstrates that focusing on one task allows us to use our whole brain on a problem rather than half a brain on two problems.
Tags: decision making, medial prefrontal cortex, multitasking