The Multitasking Myth

'The Multitasking Myth brings the real world of airline flying to aviation psychology, and the insights of aviation psychology to airline flying. The authors show how to design operational procedures that fit both the ways pilots think and the actual demands the system places on them. Anyone who works in, or worries about, high-consequence operations needs these concrete suggestions. If you want to know what airline flying is all about-and how to make it more efficient and safer-read this book!' Benjamin A. Berman, Former Chief, Major Investigations, U.S. National Transportation Safety Board 'A delightful and insightful book! "Multitasking" is a much misunderstood myth, yet it represents a critical underlying topic in human factors: how can people safely pursue multiple concurrent goals in cognitively noisy environments? The distance between the two images of work can be huge. The "ideal" as laid down in written guidance makes generous assumptions about the cohesiveness, linearity and time-reversibility of tasks-which often has little to do with the messiness of "actual" event-paced practice. Loukopoulos, Dismukes and Barshi have put together the research in a way that is not only readable and enjoyable, but practically useful and relevant as well. This is the kind of book where the rubber of research meets the road of practice-in all kinds of safety-critical domains.' Sidney W. A. Dekker, Lund University School of Aviation, Sweden 'This work could serve as a useful source for airline training courses and graduate human factors courses.' Choice, Col 46, No 11, 2009 'It is not often that one comes across a book that is interesting, tractable, expands our understanding about important concepts and issues, and has such obvious and useful application in real life. The Multitasking Myth is just such a book.' International Journal of Applied Aviation Studies Vol 9, No 1, 2009 'If you work in aviation and want to know more about task-switching, this book will be of interest to you.' Aerlines ezine July 2010