多任务的真相:你的大脑过程sses InformationThink you're making the most of your time by writing e-mails as you talk on the phone? Cognitive scientist David Meyer unmasks the illusion behind the counterproductive habit of multitasking.

It's the gospel of productivity in a maxed-out world: Multitasking helps you get more done faster. The only thing is, it doesn't, says David Meyer, a cognitive scientist at theUniversity of Michigan--where he serves as director of the Brain, Cognition and Action Laboratory--and one of the country's leading experts on multitasking.

"When you perform multiple tasks that each require some of the same channels of processing, conflicts will arise between the tasks, and you're going to have to pick and choose which task you're going to focus on and devote a channel of processing to it," he explains.