Time Flies and Students are Productive When Attention is Combined With Multitasking Distraction

• In Event: Multitasking and Selective Attention

Abstract

Research on motivations for media multitasking has moved beyond productivity to social and emotional gratifications (David et al., 2014; Wang & Tchernev, 2012). In a sample of college students, we examined positive affect, arousal and productivity as motivations of multitasking. Further, we introduced a fourth construct, passage of time, which was evaluated on a continuum from “time stood still” to “time flew by” (Gable & Poole, 2012). Time passage was introduced to examine absorbing multitasking experiences that create the sensation of loss of time, which is typical in flow experiences (Csikszentmihalyi, 1990).

Multitasking and task-switching are demanding and complex behaviors that can be measured more accurately in real time. Therefore, using experience sampling or ecological momentary assessment (EMA) (Shiffman, Stone, & Hufford, 2008), three components of multitasking, number of activities pursued at a time, frequency of switching between activities, and attention to the primary activity, were used to predict motivations.

Authors

• Prabu David, Michigan State University

• Jared Scott Brickman, Washington State U

• Ranran Zhu, Washington State U

• Shuang Liu, Washington State U

• David Eduardo Silva, Washington State U