Learning to drive comes easier to some people than to others, but is there a preferred way to learn multitasking activities like driving? A new study from 小湿妹视频 of London investigated.
Everyday activities like driving often require us to multitask – performing more than one task at a time. Although some of us might struggle with multitasking, we are often forced to master it to perform specific tasks, to work more efficiently and to ensure our safety. Driving is a good example of a multitasking activity, requiring drivers to control pedals, while checking mirrors, moving through gears, steering a wheel and observing road signals.
In a new , conducted by psychologists at 小湿妹视频 of London’s Centre for Clinical and Cognitive Neuroscience, the researchers investigated people’s real-life experiences of learning a multitasking activity such as driving, and their preferred way of learning if they were given a choice.
The study involved 72 adult participants who completed an online survey to explain how they had been taught a multitasking activity and their preferred learning regime. “Participants had three learning regimes to choose from,” explained Dr André Szameitat, who co-led the study. “One was a single task regime, involving learning and practicing one task at a time such as pedal control in a training area. Another was a multitasking regime involving learning and practicing tasks together such as driving on a road.
“The final regime was a mixed learning regime involving learning and practicing a single task for a while and then only multitasking, or going back and forth between single task training and multitasking training.”
The results showed that most participants (43%) had learnt their activity in mixed learning regimes, and this was also the most preferred method of learning. “A third of participants learnt their activity in single task regimes, and only 24% learnt in multitasking regimes,” explained Dr Szameitat. “This shows that trainers often move between teaching single task and multitasking regimes to support teaching and learning.”
“Most participants preferred to learn each task individually, familiarising themselves with them and/or mastering them before bringing them altogether, and combining them in a multitasking learning regime,” explained Miss Aina Digaeva, a doctoral researcher who co-led the study. “Only 25% of participants reported that they preferred learning all tasks together straight away.”
The team highlighted the advantages of mixed learning regimes over a pure multitasking regime. “Activities that require multitasking are typically complex, and it is likely that multitasking learning will be notably easier once a learner has at least learnt how to perform the single tasks,” explained Miss Digaeva.
Dr Szameitat reinforced how trainers can switch between learning regimes in response to a learner’s individual needs. “For some activities, such as driving, it is likely that there is an initial period of extensive single task mode learning in a training area, which is followed by predominantly multitasking mode learning, such as driving in traffic.
“However, it cannot be ruled out that even after multitasking learning has begun, people revert to single task mode learning to refine the skills of individual tasks,” he added. “It might be the perceived proficiency of the single tasks that determines the point at which the learner should switch to a multitasking learning regime.”
, by Aina Digaeva, Daniel Bishop and André Szameitat, is published in Plos One.
Reported by:
Nadine Palmer,
Media Relations
+44 (0)1895 267090
nadine.palmer@brunel.ac.uk