Perhaps it's not just the fact that one is multitasking, but the constant break and refocus of attention to another stimulus could be what degrades cog function? This is all hypothesis, but when one is focusing on one activity, say facebooking, they're utilizing their visual cortecies (reading), hand-eye coordination (typing), emotional and memory centers of their brain (remembering friends and past events and their emotional impact on them). Now, when they switch to a phone call, they have to shut down and re-route energy from those areas of the brain to new areas: occipital lobe (hearing), broka's and wernikie's and other vocal areas (talking back), as well as re-energize area's that were previously used, like the emotional memory areas. So just like a computer redistributes energy if a new application is being booted, so too would a human brain siphon energy and allocate it around the brain when a new stimulus arises.
just a thought from a humble undergrad.
Isaac t.of NY9:37AM August 28, 2009
The problem goes beyond choosing to multi-task when we shouldn't. Even when we decide to devote our undivided attention to something in particular, the mind is excessively distractible. That's because there's been no major updating of the basic "wiring" our cave-swelling ancestors relied upon to stay perpetually alert to danger and opportunity. The unfortunate result is that the mind itself now prevents us from benefiting fully from the impressive power of undivided attention.
A clinical psychologist, I developed a way to help people achieve greater control over their own attention. Known as the MotivAider (http://habitchange.com), it's a simple pager-like electronic device that automatically keeps its user's attention focused on whatever the user chooses. People of all ages worldwide have used the device successfully for an extremely wide range of purposes.
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Isaac t. of NY 9:37AM August 28, 2009
Steve Levinson, Ph.D. of MN 11:29AM August 25, 2009