Single correct option
The passage below is followed by four summaries. Choose the option that best captures the essence of the passage.
A growing body of research suggests that habitual multitasking with digital devices is associated with poorer performance on tasks requiring sustained attention, not because the brain literally processes two streams of information simultaneously, but because rapid switching between tasks imposes a repeated cognitive cost each time attention must be redirected and reoriented. Heavy media multitaskers do not appear to develop compensatory advantages in filtering distraction; if anything, laboratory studies find they are more susceptible to irrelevant stimuli than light multitaskers, suggesting that habitual switching may erode, rather than train, the capacity for focus.
A growing body of research suggests that habitual multitasking with digital devices is associated with poorer performance on tasks requiring sustained attention, not because the brain literally processes two streams of information simultaneously, but because rapid switching between tasks imposes a repeated cognitive cost each time attention must be redirected and reoriented. Heavy media multitaskers do not appear to develop compensatory advantages in filtering distraction; if anything, laboratory studies find they are more susceptible to irrelevant stimuli than light multitaskers, suggesting that habitual switching may erode, rather than train, the capacity for focus.
- A. Multitasking is impossible because the brain cannot process two things at once under any circumstances.
- B. Frequent digital multitasking imposes repeated attention-switching costs and is linked to reduced, rather than improved, ability to filter distraction.
- C. Heavy multitaskers perform better on all cognitive tasks than people who rarely multitask.
- D. Laboratory studies of multitasking are unreliable and should not be used to draw conclusions about attention.
Show answer and solution
Answer: (B) Frequent digital multitasking imposes repeated attention-switching costs and is linked to reduced, rather than improved, ability to filter distraction.
The passage's two key claims are (1) switching costs, not simultaneous processing, explain multitasking's toll, and (2) heavy multitaskers show worse, not better, distraction-filtering. Option B alone captures both. A misstates the mechanism (the passage doesn't claim simultaneous processing is impossible in all circumstances, just that it isn't what's happening here). C reverses the finding. D is an unsupported claim the passage never makes.
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