Abstract The simultaneous engagement in more than one form of media, known as media multitasking, is an ever-increasing phenomenon in our daily lives. Previous studies have associated media multitasking with lower self-control, greater sensation seeking and inattention, which could have detrimental effects on task performance. The current study examined task performance and mind wandering of heavy, intermediate and light media multitaskers as a function of task difficulty in an n-back task. The results showed that intermediate media multitaskers performed better than heavy media multitaskers at the more difficult than easier levels of the task. The performance of heavy and light media multitaskers did not significantly differ across difficulty levels. Intermediate media multitaskers also mind wandered less than heavy media multitaskers; however, their mind wandering did not differ from that of light media multitaskers. Thus, the results indicate an inverted U-shape relationship between media multitasking, task performance and mind wandering. The findings further suggest that the association between frequent media multitasking and greater mind wandering may be due to executive function failures as a result of insufficient cognitive control and distraction.

中文翻译：

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适度的媒体多任务处理与最佳任务性能和最少的走神有关

摘要 同时参与一种以上的媒体形式，即媒体多任务处理，是我们日常生活中日益增多的现象。先前的研究将媒体多任务处理与较低的自我控制、更大的感觉寻求和注意力不集中相关联，这可能对任务绩效产生不利影响。当前的研究检查了重度、中度和轻度媒体多任务者的任务表现和走神，作为 n-back 任务中任务难度的函数。结果表明，中级媒体多任务者在比简单任务更困难的水平上比重媒体多任务者表现得更好。重型和轻型媒体多任务处理者的表现在难度级别上没有显着差异。中级媒体多任务者也比重媒体多任务者少走神；然而，他们的走神与轻媒体多任务者没有什么不同。因此，结果表明媒体多任务处理、任务表现和走神之间存在倒 U 形关系。研究结果进一步表明，频繁的媒体多任务处理和更严重的走神之间的关联可能是由于认知控制不足和注意力分散导致执行功能失败。