121 |
P a g e
25 The experiment with chicks suggests that some numerical
ability exists in newborn
animals.
26 Researchers have experimented by altering quantities of nectar or fruit available to
certain wild animals.
27 When assessing the number of eggs in their nest, coots take into account those of
other birds.
SECTION 3
Multitasking Debate
Can you do them at the same time?
A
Talking on the phone while driving isn't the only situation where we're
worse at
multitasking than we might like to think we are. New studies have identified a bottleneck
in our brains that some say means we are fundamentally incapable of true multitasking If
experimental findings reflect real-world performance,
people who think they are
multitasking are probably just underperforming in all - or at best, all but one - of their
parallel pursuits. Practice might improve your performance, but you will never be as good
as when focusing on one task at a time.
B
The problem,
according to Rene Marois, a psychologist at Vanderbilt University in
Nashville, Tennessee, is that there’s a sticking point in the brain. To demonstrate this,
Marois devised an experiment to locate it. Volunteers
watch a screen and when a
particular image appears, a red circle, say, they have to press a key with their index finger.
Different coloured circles require presses from different fingers. Typical response time is
about half a second, and the volunteers quickly reach their peak performance. Then they
learn to listen to different recordings and respond by making a specific sound. For
