Learning everyday multitasking activities—An online survey about people’s experiences and opinions

Multitasking (MT)–performing more than one task at a time–has become ubiquitous in everyday life. Understanding of how MT is learned could enable optimizing learning regimes for tasks and occupations that necessitate frequent MT. Previous research has distinguished between MT learning regimes in which all tasks are learned in parallel, single-task (ST) learning regimes in which all tasks are learned individually, and mixed learning regimes (Mix) in which MT and ST regimes are mixed. Research using simple laboratory tasks has consistently shown that MT regimes are the most efficient–the so-called dual-task practice advantage. However, it is currently unclear which learning regimes are used in everyday life, and which regime people would prefer if given a choice. To answer these questions, 72 participants completed an online survey to describe their real-life experiences of MT learning (e.g., when learning to drive), their opinions about learning MT activities, and filled out the Multitasking Preference Inventory to assess polychronicity. Descriptive statistics showed that for everyday activities, particularly learning to drive, Mix regimes were both the most used and most preferred method, whereas MT regimes were the least preferred. A potential explanation is that everyday MT tasks are typically complex, and so people prefer to learn the individual tasks first, before combining the tasks into an MT learning regime. Preference to engage in MT, as assessed by the MPI, positively correlated (Pearson’s r = .24) with preference for MT learning regimes, suggesting that individual differences in learning of complex everyday MT activities can be determined. In conclusion, everyday life multitasking activities such as learning to drive are mostly learned in Mix regimes, i.e. a combination of ST and MT training, and people’s preference to learn such activities with MT regimes increases with their level of polychronicity.