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Surprising Science

Do-It-All Elites

Researchers at the University of Utah have found that 2.5 percent of the population is able to do two or more tasks at the same time without hurting their ability to perform each.
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Researchers at the University of Utah have found that 2.5 percent of the population is able to do two or more tasks at the same time without hurting their ability to perform each. This elite group of “supertaskers” are able to talk or text while driving, among other abilities. These findings, of course, indicate that most people can’t do multiple things well at once. “The percentage of supertaskers is rare — 97.5 percent ought not to be engaging in multitasking,” say psychology professor Jason Watson, who performed the test.

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