It is very likely that, on more than one occasion throughout your life, you have tried to do two or more things at the same time. Depending on the tasks or stimuli, it may have been more or less complex for you. From studies to work to interpersonal relationships, divided attention is present in our daily lives.
Therefore, throughout this article we will explain in depth what is divided attention.
Divided attention: what it is and what are its characteristics
Attention is a complex cognitive process that is involved in most of our daily lives. Research carried out throughout history has allowed us to better understand how it works.
Over time, it has been shown that Care is not a single process, but there are different types of care with diverse characteristics and functionalities.. Although we can find various proposals with a multitude of components, the main ones are considered to be:
We understand divided attention the cognitive process that allows a person to perform two or more tasks—or attend to several stimuli in the environment—simultaneously. That is, this capacity allows us to process the information that arrives through several routes or channels at the same time and, in addition, respond to said demands from the environment at the same time.
It is important to keep in mind that, in the society we live in today, multitasking is a fact that is valued very positively since it is considered effective and is related to greater production or time savings.
However, there are many studies that show that the practice of multitasking can lead us to make mistakes and/or reduce performance or the quality of our performance.
What does neuroscience tell us?
For divided attention to take place, our brain must process, integrate and manage the information that comes to it through the various channels. These processes are complex and usually involve the activation of brain areas such as the prefrontal and parietal cortex, among others..
One of the important findings that neuroscience provides in this sense was mentioned above. It has been shown that our brain’s ability to attend to different stimuli simultaneously is limited. That is, the human brain is not programmed to efficiently process and carry out several complex tasks at the same time.
From science, more than one proposal has been made to explain this phenomenon. Although they receive different names and point out different aspects that could help us understand why our brain cannot execute several complex tasks at the same time, as a whole they point out this fact.
One of them, for example, points out that Our brain has finite resources and these are divided between the tasks we are performing. This, therefore, implies that performance is not optimal in any of them. Another theory suggests that only one task can be done at a time and then the rest fall behind.
In addition to these limitations, neuroscience has revealed other really important ones as well. It has been observed that when trying to carry out tasks simultaneously, not only attention is affected, but other factors such as speed and precision are also affected.
There are many situations in our daily lives in which divided attention is present. You’ve probably listened to music while doing any other task (studying, working, cleaning, cooking, etc.). Maybe you’ve been answering emails or checking your phone while talking to someone.
These are just a couple of examples and it is true that many of these situations can be harmless for our health—although perhaps not so much for our performance. However, we cannot forget what was mentioned in the previous section about the limits that our brain has because this can have a serious impact on our health and that of our environment.
It is vitally important to understand that answering telephone messages, for example, while driving can mean a decrease in our ability (and speed) to respond to any unexpected situation on the road. There are situations that require all of our attention and divided attention can pose great danger.
Besides, Divided attention can deteriorate our academic or work performance, as we have mentioned.. When we try to do several things at once, it is likely that our performance will be altered, the quality of our production will decrease while the probability of making mistakes will increase.
Last but not least, we can also see how divided attention can have repercussions on our relationships. Being aware of several things can lead to misunderstandings, confusion and even conflicts.
Strategies to improve divided attention
There are various tools that can help us improve our attention span. For example, Good time management can help us focus on the tasks we must carry out without having to divide our resources.. In this sense, there are also techniques that allow us to train our attentional capacity.
In addition, it is really interesting to incorporate tools like mindfulness. The practice of mindfulness allows our brain to attend to the stimuli of the present and reduces the tendency to be distracted by various stimuli. This also has a positive impact on our performance and performance, among many other benefits.
