Is it possible for people to mentally focus on more than one thing at a time?

[Gear300]

People cannot visually focus on more than one thing without going cross-eyed. Is the same true for mentally concentrating on multiple tasks? Like reading and listening to two different things at the same time when studying? Is there a trick that choreographers or performance artists know? Or is this a stupid question?

 

[hutchphd]

Do you have a reference? It is true for neither your eyes nor your brain.

 

[Baluncore]

People cannot visually focus on more than one thing without going cross-eyed.

People with only one eye have no problem with going cross-eyed. Predators have two eyes on the front of their face, so they can focus on pursuit of their food, think cats or owls. Prey have one eye on each side of their head, think chicken or the compound eye of an insect.

You should not allow a single point of focus to distract you. That is true when driving on the road, when playing chess, or when defending yourself from multiple threats.

Peripheral vision is very important in dynamic situations. If you turn your head, or focus your eyes, you will lose the ability to be aware of the many things happening about you. When you face and look straight ahead, your peripheral vision enables you to see more than 180° in front and either side of you, your pupil is then furthest from your face. Try it sometime, become immersed in the environment, develop a thousand-yard stare and survive.

Your vision and your brain are parallel processors. Use them all, or lose them to a predator.

 

[Gear300]

Do you have a reference? It is true for neither your eyes nor your brain.

Lol, I haven't determined that yet.

Your vision and your brain are parallel processors. Use them all, or lose them to a predator.

Vision as well? I figured musicians could handle an ensemble of sounds, but also drawing artists? Sounds neat. Well thanks for the answers.

 

[Baluncore]

Vision as well?

When driving, do you look ahead, at everything that is about to happen, or do you look down at the control you are about to operate inside the vehicle?

Do you turn your head to look at the passenger's face when you are talking and driving, or do you employ your peripheral vision to know their facial response?

You appear to be admitting that you are driving without full situational awareness. That is a bit like the Dunning-Kruger effect.

 

[Gear300]

You appear to be admitting that you are driving without full situational awareness. That is a bit like the Dunning-Kruger effect.

My guess is that your answer is "yes, it is possible to multitask." Maybe I'll have the vision thing figured out one day.

 

[DaveC426913]

I am currently looking at the words on this screen while at the same time being cognizant of the can of pop next to me.

 

[Baluncore]

I am currently looking at the words on this screen while at the same time being cognizant of the can of pop next to me.

While reading that I also noticed my tea cup was empty and the cold morning light was coming in through the window. There were half a dozen other unimportant things present about me while I read the screen, along with an obvious "Post reply" button.

 

[hutchphd]

A truly remarkable system is the one that allows your eyes to fix on a target as you spin your head on any axis. By body standards it is lightning fast and you don't notice it unless it screws up (not good trust me). Most of the processing is not done in the brain (because it would be too slow).
Do you need to stop talking if you rotate your head while looking at your conversation partner????

 

[Ivan Seeking]

People cannot visually focus on more than one thing without going cross-eyed. Is the same true for mentally concentrating on multiple tasks? Like reading and listening to two different things at the same time when studying? Is there a trick that choreographers or performance artists know? Or is this a stupid question?

I once heard someone claim they can track two songs in their head at once. I used to toy with that while I was driving and I think I managed it a few times. I crashed the car but I still kept the melodies going [kidding].

Cool trick that is related: If I'm worried or upset about something and can't stop thinking about it, often almost nothing seems help. I can work out, or focus on work, or clean the house, or watch a movie, but nothing helps. My thoughts keep going back to my stressor.

But it turns out that I can't stress out on something if I put on music and sing along. It seems to be impossible to sing out loud and stress over the day at the same time.

 

[DaveC426913]

I once heard someone claim they can track two songs in their head at once. I used to toy with that while I was driving and I think I managed it a few times. I crashed the car but I still kept the melodies going [kidding].

Cool trick that is related: If I'm worried or upset about something and can't stop thinking about it, often almost nothing seems help. I can work out, or focus on work, or clean the house, or watch a movie, but nothing helps. My thoughts keep going back to my stressor.

But it turns out that I can't stress out on something if I put on music and sing along. It seems to be impossible to sing out loud and stress over the day at the same time.

Legend has it Rush drummer Neil Peart could keep a different time signature with each foot and each hand.