But after the multitasking trial, they had a much harder time drawing conclusions about their experience. Switching between the two tasks short-circuited their understanding; they got the job done, but they lost its meaning. “Our results suggest that learning facts and concepts will be worse if you learn them while you’re distracted,” said the lead researcher, UCLA psychologist Russell Poldrack.32 On the Net, where we routinely juggle not just two but several mental tasks, the switching costs are all the higher.
