Supertaskers: Why Some Can Do Two Things at Once

Multitasking has become a way of life. Most of us think nothing of juggling a couple of chores at once, whether at home or in the office or, most dangerously, on the road. And despite some states' bans on talking while driving, as well as a raft of studies showing the potential deadliness of distracted driving, chances are good that you still have cell-phone conversations behind the wheel.

Chances are also good that you think it's O.K. because you're a truly capable multitasker. Maybe you even consider yourself one of the few supertaskers who, unlike the rest of us, are so mentally agile that they can safely talk or text — or pen a novel — while driving.
(See a public-service announcement about texting while driving.)

A new University of Utah study on distraction in the driver's seat finds that such virtuosos do exist: the paper, which has been accepted for publication this year in the journal Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, found that a very small percentage of participants — 2.5% to be exact — were able to do other things successfully while driving (in the study, it was solving math problems and memorizing words) without a drop in performance on any task. In fact, some of these supertaskers performed better while multitasking than they did while completing the tasks alone.