Active vs passive media multitasking and memory for lecture materials

Access to digital technology in the 21st century has led to the emergence of media multitasking (MMT), which involves attempting to engage with multiple streams of media at the same time. This behaviour, which is frequently considered to be a form of inattention, has become increasingly prevalent in educational settings, such as undergraduate lectures. The aim of the present study was to examine volitional media-multitasking (MMT) during an asynchronous online lecture by giving participants the opportunity to engage with a secondary, non-required media stream (i.e., the game of snake). Participants (n = 222) were randomly assigned to either an Active condition, in which they could play the snake game using the arrow keys; or a Passive condition, in which they could watch the snake game, but could not play it. In both conditions, participants could toggle the snake game on and off, using a keypress. MMT was indexed behaviourally by measuring the percentage of time participants had the secondary stream toggled on (i.e., snake time percentage), a method pioneered by Ralph et al. (2020), and subjectively by asking participants to what extent they engaged with other media while the lecture was playing. Following the lecture, participants completed a multiple-choice quiz and self-reported their level of MMT. Our behavioural measure (i.e., snake time percentage) indicated that participants spent significantly more time MMT in the Active condition than the Passive condition. However, there were no significant differences in self-reported MMT or quiz performance across conditions. Furthermore, correlations between both measures of MMT and quiz performance were non-significant. Thus, the present study found no performance decrement as a result of, or in association with, increased volitional MMT.