Can students really multitask? An experimental study of instant messaging while reading Laura L. Bowman a, * , Laura E. Levine a , Bradley M. Waite a , Michael Gendron b a Department of Psychology, Central Connecticut State University, United States b Department of Management Information Systems, Central Connecticut State University, United States article info Article history: Received 24 June 2009 Received in revised form 17 September 2009 Accepted 18 September 2009 Keywords: Adult learning Media in education Pedagogical issues Post-secondary education abstract Students often ‘‘multitask” with electronic media while doing schoolwork. We examined the effects of one form of media often used in such multitasking, instant messaging (IM). We predicted that students who engaged in IMing while reading a typical academic psychology passage online would take longer to read the passage and would perform more poorly on a test of comprehension of the passage. Participants were randomly assigned to one of three conditions (IM before reading, IM during reading, or no IM). We found that students took significantly longer to read the passage when they IMed during reading (not including time taken to IM) than in other conditions. However, test performance did not differ by condi- tion. Students who are managing busy lives may think they are accomplishing more by multitasking, but our findings suggest they will actually need more time to achieve the same level of performance on an academic task. Ó 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction The constantly changing array of new media has contributed to a way of life based on multitasking and ‘‘continuous partial attention” (Friedman, 2006). Young people in particular demonstrate their belief that they can pay attention to several things at the same time by text messaging while in class, talking on the cell phone while driving, or instant messaging while doing homework. Basic research has demon- strated the difficulty of performing certain tasks simultaneously (Rogers & Monsell, 1995) and the impact task switching has on time to complete tasks (Rubinstein, Meyer, & Evans, 2001). Applied research has focused on the everyday consequences of attempting to do so. For example, Strayer and colleagues have found that drivers’ focused attention on their surroundings is reduced when they are talking on a cell phone (Strayer & Drews, 2007; Strayer, Drews, & Johnston, 2003; Strayer & Johnston, 2001). Students often believe that they can listen to music, watch TV and/or communicate with friends online while doing school work without any detriment to performance. In one study, students who used laptops in the classroom reported that they often checked email and sent instant messages while listening to a lecture. Frequent multitaskers reported paying less attention to lectures and performed more poorly than others in the class (Fried, 2008). Instant messaging (IMing) has increased in popularity among young adults as a communication tool (Quan-Haase, 2007; Roberts, Foehr, & Rideout, 2005). Students often leave IM capabilities on while performing academic activities (Jones & Madden, 2002), especially when using the computer, and most students report that they usually answer IMs immediately (Levine, Waite, & Bowman, 2007). Users believe that use of IM gives them more control over their communication because they can compose their responses rather than responding imme- diately, as in face to face interaction (Madell & Muncer, 2007). However, they have little control over when they will receive IM messages unless they turn off their IM program. Therefore it seems highly likely that students are interrupting their academic work in order to read and respond to IMs that are social in content. When students use IM to help with their academic work, some studies have found that it enhances online participation in classes (Hra- stinski, 2006). However, other studies have shown that students use IM mainly for social, rather than educational purposes, even when its use is built into their course structure (Contreras-Castillo, Pérez-Fragoso, & Favela, 2006). 0360-1315/$ - see front matter Ó 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.compedu.2009.09.024 * Corresponding author. Address: Department of Psychology, Marcus White Hall, Central Connecticut State University, 1615 Stanley St., New Britain, CT 06050, United States. Tel.: +1 860 832 3118; fax: +1 860 832 3123. E-mail address: Bowman@ccsu.edu (L.L. Bowman). Computers & Education 54 (2010) 927–931 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Computers & Education journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/compedu