"Does E-mail Make You Dumber?"
As reported in the August 2005 issue of DISCOVER magazine: A recent study for [Hewlett-Packard] found that British workers’ IQ test scores drop temporarily by an average of 10 points when juggling phones, e-mails, and other electronic messages — more of an IQ drop than occurs after smoking marijuana or losing a night’s sleep.
Now I find that fascinating. But Bob Stickgold, a cognitive neuroscientist at Harvard University who was quoted in the article, said something even more fascinating to me. "It didn’t [actually] affect their IQ at all; it [only] affected their performance on an IQ test. ”
So according to Stickgold, all this multi-tasking doesn't actually MAKE you stupid ... it just makes you APPEAR stupd! Well that ought to bolster everyone's self-confidence!!
Dr. Stickgold's comment, though highlights what might be at the very core of the Perceptions = Reality equation that plague so many people in the workplace. Because in business, if it APPEARS that you tanked on that big assignment, chances are pretty good that your boss is going to think you really DID. And that perception will probably be what your boss remembers as a reality.
Key Coaching Question: How do YOU manage perceptions like that - especially when you're feeling 10 IQ points to the worse?
Now I find that fascinating. But Bob Stickgold, a cognitive neuroscientist at Harvard University who was quoted in the article, said something even more fascinating to me. "It didn’t [actually] affect their IQ at all; it [only] affected their performance on an IQ test. ”
So according to Stickgold, all this multi-tasking doesn't actually MAKE you stupid ... it just makes you APPEAR stupd! Well that ought to bolster everyone's self-confidence!!
Dr. Stickgold's comment, though highlights what might be at the very core of the Perceptions = Reality equation that plague so many people in the workplace. Because in business, if it APPEARS that you tanked on that big assignment, chances are pretty good that your boss is going to think you really DID. And that perception will probably be what your boss remembers as a reality.
Key Coaching Question: How do YOU manage perceptions like that - especially when you're feeling 10 IQ points to the worse?
Labels: Just for Fun
posted by Barry Zweibel at 7:59 AM
2 Comments:
I usually drop ten points when I am tired without knowing it. When you are so buried in your work and have done it for a long time (many hours) I don't notice how "stupid" i get.
Dangerous...
/Pat
Thanks, Patrick. They say that listening to Mozart increases one's IQ by about 10 points. So I wonder if Mozart plus email would be, as Steven Wright would say, like having amnesia and déjà vu at the same time?!
Post a Comment
<< Home