Question

What has research indicated about the ability of people to perform divided attention tasks?

a) People excel at divided attention tasks
b) People struggle with divided attention tasks
c) It depends on the individual's age
d) It's unrelated to cognitive abilities

Answer 1

Research has indicated that people struggle with divided attention tasks. Dividing attention can impair performance on both simple and complex tasks, as it puts additional demands on cognitive processes and can lead to errors or decreased efficiency.

Step-by-step explanation:

Research has indicated that people struggle with divided attention tasks. Divided attention refers to the ability to focus on multiple tasks or stimuli simultaneously. It involves allocating cognitive resources and switching attention between different tasks. Studies have shown that dividing attention can impair performance on both simple and complex tasks, as it puts additional demands on cognitive processes and can lead to errors or decreased efficiency (Chisholm & Hickey, 2017). For example, when driving and talking on the phone at the same time, individuals often experience reduced attention to the road and increased risk of accidents.