Test your focus/how fast you juggle tasks

[Oerg]

How well do you score?

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/...istraction-filtering-demo.html?ref=technology

I scored slightly higher than average.

 

[Borg]

100% on both.

 

[TubbaBlubba]

100% on both.

Same here. Which surprises me, because I suck at multitasking.

 

[cronxeh]

100% on both. Too easy

 

[TubbaBlubba]

The juggling one... I tried it, switching wasn't a problem, the problem was remembering what was odd and even and vowel and consonant. I got distracted a couple of times through, I'll give it a shot later.

 

[BobG]

For the test your focus, I scored 92% and 1.67 with 2 distractions. I scored 100% with 2.00 for 6 distractions.

For the how fast you juggle tasks, I was slower than the low multitaskers, but faster than the high multitaskers. The slowness was slowness in general, as the difference between repeating/switching was less than either. My response time steadily improved for most of the test before becoming worse towards the end of the test (especially for repeating tasks).

 

[leroyjenkens]

The rectangle one I got 100% on both.
The next one I was the same as the high multitaskers for each of them, except slightly higher on the repeat tasks.

 

[BobG]

Same here. Which surprises me, because I suck at multitasking.

Then your results shouldn't have been surprising. The test wasn't to test your ability at multitasking. It was to compare the thought processes between low multitaskers and high multitaskers.

People who were high multitaskers tended to be more susceptible to distractions than people who were low multitaskers. The implications of the test being that an inability to focus on the objective at hand without being distracted is part of the reason people become multitaskers.

The results of the "how fast you juggle tasks" should give better results for multitaskers if capability were the main reason people became multitaskers. If you look at the results, multitaskers were slower at juggling tasks regardless of whether they were repeating tasks or switching to a new task. In fact, switching tasks caused more of a delay for them than it did the low multitaskers.

It's a short test, so the results aren't very telling. For example, I don't think extra distractions help my score. I think I probably missed the first "test your focus" question since I was expecting a clear break between the non-scored practice questions and the start of the scored test. I was kind of surprised to realize they were going right into the scored test and had no idea what position the red rectangles were into start. Who knows what other one I missed.

 

[magpies]

I almost got one wrong cause I was soooooo bored with that test. What is this suppost to show anyhow?

Also had I to double check that Y was a vowel before I took the one test. lol.

 

[Geigerclick]

100% on both, I let my eyes loosely focus on the center. That said, I was trained in getting a FSP when shooting, so I don't know that this is a fair test. Years of gaming, shooting, and driving seem to make this effortless.

I don't believe that this test is very telling, for a variety of reasons. Relaxing your focus and letting your periphery do the work probably bypasses the intent of the test. Then again, I do tend to play video games while listening to audio books, or read while listening to music or tv. So...

 

[TubbaBlubba]

Then your results shouldn't have been surprising. The test wasn't to test your ability at multitasking. It was to compare the thought processes between low multitaskers and high multitaskers.

People who were high multitaskers tended to be more susceptible to distractions than people who were low multitaskers. The implications of the test being that an inability to focus on the objective at hand without being distracted is part of the reason people become multitaskers.

The results of the "how fast you juggle tasks" should give better results for multitaskers if capability were the main reason people became multitaskers. If you look at the results, multitaskers were slower at juggling tasks regardless of whether they were repeating tasks or switching to a new task. In fact, switching tasks caused more of a delay for them than it did the low multitaskers.

It's a short test, so the results aren't very telling. For example, I don't think extra distractions help my score. I think I probably missed the first "test your focus" question since I was expecting a clear break between the non-scored practice questions and the start of the scored test. I was kind of surprised to realize they were going right into the scored test and had no idea what position the red rectangles were into start. Who knows what other one I missed.

Oh. Yeah, that makes sense. I can go into very, very, very deep focus when I'm doing stuff.

 

[DaveC426913]

I don't believe that this test is very telling, for a variety of reasons. Relaxing your focus and letting your periphery do the work probably bypasses the intent of the test.

One on hand, I disagree, because I scored perfect.

On the other hand I agree because it was super easy to simply let the red rectangles flood my peripheral vision. Frankly, I could not tell you anything about the non-red rectangles. I couldn't tell you how many there were, I wouldn't even be able to tell you what colour they were. They were simply invisible.

 

[Geigerclick]

One on hand, I disagree, because I scored perfect.

On the other hand I agree because it was super easy to simply let the red rectangles flood my peripheral vision. Frankly, I could not tell you anything about the non-red rectangles. I couldn't tell you how many there were, I wouldn't even be able to tell you what colour they were. They were simply invisible.

Heh, I know what you mean on both counts.

We all know the people who scored 100% are somehow superior!

 

[magpies]

I think everyone scored 100 so far right?

 

[cronxeh]

I am getting crappy score on the second test because umm.. what's a consonant?

 

[Ertosthnes]

100 on both, I found that test very easy. On the other hand, I pretty much never multitask.

 

[Gear.0]

I find it odd that I got 100% finding the test pretty easy to be honest.

I find it odd because I would consider myself a high-multitasker. When I'm on the computer I rarely ever do a single thing. Sometimes I even have 2 computers on playing a game on one while looking up stuff on the other, or doing one thing while reading a book.
Or, as an example, I am watching TV while writing this.