How to Reduce the Negative Effects of Media Multitasking

We conducted two experiments based on cognitive load theory and self-determination theory to, on the one hand, continue to explore whether there are differential effects of different media multitasking types and, on the other hand, try to find other factors that might play a role in this (i.e., autonomy). In the experiments, we created a daily media multitasking situation by presenting a movie and a mobile chat page on the computer in a split-screen format. The results basically support our hypotheses that people perform better with sequential media multitasking than with concurrent multitasking. Moreover, we found for the first time the role of autonomy in the effect of different media multitasking types on task performance. When people can decide for themselves how to multitask media, the difference in task performance between different types does not exist.