Researchers argue that multitasking is merely an illusion

Posted on April 7, 2011 | 1 Comment

KUSA-TV (Denver, CO) reports:

n a new study, researchers say the world’s best magicians are so successful because they’ve discovered how to manipulate an audience’s attention.The husband and wife researching team of Stephen Macknik and Susana Martinez-Gonde work at the Barrow Neurological Institute and they studied magicians, magic tricks and how an audience reacts to the tricks.

“We realized that magicians were the artists of attention and awareness,” Macknik said.

The researchers say they discovered multitasking is a myth. People can only concentrate on one thing at a time.

“If multitasking wasn’t a myth, if we could truly do multitasking, multiple things at the same time, then magic wouldn’t work,” Macknik said.

The team showed magic tricks to study participants while recording their eye movements and scanning their brain waves.

“We actually have tunnel vision,” Macknik said.

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One response to “Researchers argue that multitasking is merely an illusion”

  1. Tim @ Hypnose Berlin | April 7, 2011 at 8:57 pm |

    This seems interesting. But I’d like to know more details. For example – what exactly makes that statement true that if we really could do multitasking, that magic wouldn’t work? That’s not a necessary logical conclusion, so what is the exact reasoning behind it?