Humans Can Only Think About Four Things At Once, Study Says

Many executives see themselves as prodigious multitaskers — checking e-mail while simultaneously talking on the phone, eyeing stock quotes, and performing all sorts of other busywork. But they’re probably doing a lousy job if they’re trying to focus on more than four things at once, a recent study maintains.

Researchers at the University of Oregon have concluded that the human brain has a built-in limit on the number of discrete thoughts it can entertain at one time. The limit for most individuals is four, according to the research team led by University of Oregon psychology professors Edward Awh and Edward Vogel.

That makes the human brain similar to an electronic gadget like an iPhone, they said. A 4 GB iPhone can hold about 1,000 four minute songs. But fewer tunes can be stored if they’re longer and consume more memory space.

By Paul McDougall
InformationWeek