The best family days out in London and beyond rated by kids and teens
Published: 19th October 2014
Ever wondered if your kids are right when they claim listening to Spotify, or watching YouTube, actually helps them with their homework? Well, the answer is, probably not, but then again, they might just be right.
New research, carried out by students at Stanford University, concludes that 85% of teenagers perform simple tasks less well when distracted by music, phones or email.
However, for the other 15% of teenagers who took part in the three-year study, performance actually improved when there was outside stimulus. This fortunate group of students, labelled ‘high media multitaskers’, performed better in the test when listening to music, playing with their phones and checking their emails, than in a test when there were no distractions at all.
Alexandra Ulmer, one of the two main researchers on the project, said: “Maybe we see high media multitaskers excelling in this area because they’ve grown up with technology their entire lives . . . The results mean students should focus on what kind of learner they are, so they know how to work best.”
Her colleague, Sarayu Caulfield, said: “Media multitasking is a huge part of young people’s lives. So we may be able to cope with switching between tasks better . . . but most people still work at their best while focusing on one thing.”
