Test your focus/how fast you juggle tasks

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Discussion Overview

The discussion revolves around participants' experiences and scores from a multitasking and focus test, exploring their perceptions of multitasking abilities and the implications of their results. The scope includes personal reflections on task-switching, focus, and the validity of the test itself.

Discussion Character

  • Exploratory
  • Debate/contested
  • Conceptual clarification

Main Points Raised

  • Some participants report scoring 100% on the tests, expressing surprise at their performance despite self-identifying as poor multitaskers.
  • Others mention challenges with specific aspects of the test, such as remembering odd/even and vowel/consonant distinctions, indicating distractions affected their performance.
  • A participant notes that high multitaskers tend to be more susceptible to distractions compared to low multitaskers, suggesting a potential link between multitasking and focus issues.
  • Concerns are raised about the test's validity, with some arguing that relaxing focus may undermine the test's intent, while others feel their perfect scores may not reflect true multitasking ability.
  • Several participants express skepticism about the test's ability to provide meaningful insights into multitasking capabilities, citing various reasons for their doubts.
  • One participant shares a personal anecdote about their multitasking habits, contrasting their high scores with their self-identified multitasking tendencies.

Areas of Agreement / Disagreement

Participants generally do not reach a consensus on the implications of their scores or the validity of the test. Multiple competing views remain regarding the relationship between multitasking ability and focus, as well as the effectiveness of the test itself.

Contextual Notes

Some participants mention missing questions due to expectations about the test structure, and there are references to the potential influence of prior experiences (e.g., gaming, shooting) on test performance. The discussion highlights varying interpretations of what the test measures and the subjective nature of multitasking experiences.

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100% on both. :smile:
 
Borg said:
100% on both. :smile:

Same here. Which surprises me, because I suck at multitasking.
 
100% on both. Too easy
 
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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.
 
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).
 
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.
 
TubbaBlubba said:
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.
 
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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.
 
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  • #10
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...
 
  • #11
BobG said:
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.
 
  • #12
Geigerclick said:
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. :smile:

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.
 
  • #13
DaveC426913 said:
One on hand, I disagree, because I scored perfect. :smile:

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. :biggrin:

We all know the people who scored 100% are somehow superior! :wink:
 
  • #14
I think everyone scored 100 so far right?
 
  • #15
I am getting crappy score on the second test because umm.. what's a consonant? :rolleyes:
 
  • #16
100 on both, I found that test very easy. On the other hand, I pretty much never multitask.
 
  • #17
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.
 

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