Media multitasking refers to simultaneous engagement in two activities, or the act of switching between multiple activities, of which at least one is a media activity. Based on this definition, we had 134 Norwegian undergraduates read four partly conflicting documents on sun exposure and health on a computer in order to write a report on the issue, with half of the participants (randomly assigned) receiving and reading short, authentic social media messages on a smartphone while reading the documents, and the other half reading the documents without being sent any such messages. Further, we manipulated what participants did after reading each document paragraph, with half of the participants (randomly assigned) briefly summarizing the main idea of each paragraph in writing, and the other half just rereading each paragraph. Participants’ integrative processing (i.e., cross-text elaboration strategies) were assessed with a task-specific self-report measure immediately after reading all four documents, and their comprehension of the documents was assessed by analyzing their written reports in terms of their ability to elaborate and integrate information within and across the perspectives discussed in the documents. Results indicated that social media multitasking on a smartphone disturbed both the integrative processing and the integrated understanding of the documents, with main idea summarization mitigating or counteracting these negative effects of multitasking. However, when controlling for working memory, reading comprehension skills, and prior knowledge, integrative processing was not found to mediate the effect of multitasking on integrated understanding of the documents. Limitations of the present study and directions for future research are discussed.

中文翻译：

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媒体多任务处理对多个文档的处理和理解的影响：主要思想总结是否有影响？

媒体多任务处理是指同时参与两项活动，或在多项活动之间切换的行为，其中至少一项是媒体活动。根据这个定义，我们让 134 名挪威本科生在电脑上阅读了四份关于阳光照射和健康的部分相互冲突的文件，以便就此问题撰写报告，其中一半的参与者（随机分配）接收并阅读简短、真实的社交媒体另一半在阅读文档时在智能手机上发送消息，而另一半在阅读文档时没有收到任何此类消息。此外，我们操纵参与者在阅读每个文档段落后所做的事情，一半的参与者（随机分配）以书面形式简要总结每个段落的主要思想，另一半则重新阅读每个段落。在阅读所有四份文件后，立即使用特定于任务的自我报告措施评估参与者的综合处理（即跨文本阐述策略），并通过分析他们的书面报告的能力来评估他们对文件的理解。详细阐述和整合文件中讨论的观点之内和之间的信息。结果表明，智能手机上的社交媒体多任务处理扰乱了文档的综合处理和综合理解，而主要思想摘要减轻或抵消了多任务处理的这些负面影响。然而，在控制工作记忆、阅读理解技能和先验知识时，没有发现综合处理可以调节多任务处理对文档综合理解的影响。讨论了当前研究的局限性和未来研究的方向。