ABSTRACT
Shan Xu and Zheng Wang, Ohio State University
Multitasking is generally defined as engaging in two or more activities at once. That involving media is called media multitasking. However, can we really do two things at once? Does multitasking actually exist? This chapter discusses the different types of multitasking behaviors and specifically the continuum of multitasking behaviors that ranges from serial to concurrent multitasking. Then it reviews the central bottleneck theories, multiple resource theories, and threaded cognition theory. These theories shed light on whether we can truly multitask. Finally, the concept of media multitasking is discussed in terms of a multidimensional framework and the level of analysis that can help us compare and synthesize the myriad media multitasking studies.
