I have heard it said that the human brain can’t focus on two things at the same time. This logic is used to explain why people can’t talk on the phone and drive a car simultaneously, but there are things we can do at the same time if we practice hard enough. I was watching a video of Winifred Atwell playing Five Finger Boogie and both hands are clearly doing different things at the same time.
According to common wisdom her brain can’t be focused 100% on her left hand and 100% on her right hand, but is somehow bouncing back and forth between them, or she has memorized her left hand and is focused on her right hand, or she has memorized both hands and is thinking about something completely unrelated and is on automatic pilot.
I realize that she is not unique and anyone who plays piano has to master both hands playing at the same time, but if you can’t focus on two things at the same time how are these people to do what they do?
There is that simple old test of patting your head and rubbing circles on your belly at the same time. The first time you do it, it’s hard. With a bit of practice it becomes easy.
Anyone who drives a stick shift masters all kinds of simultaneous actions. Consider what you do as you approach a junction - check mirror, brake, depress clutch (steering all the time), brake more, move gear lever, look for traffic - (discuss last night’s TV with your passenger)… and so on. And mostly we don’t even have to think about it.
So you’re saying human beings can’t walk and chew gum at the same time?
Also, I think there’s sufficient evidence that humans can, in fact, drive and talk on the phone at the same time. There are ridiculous assertions that this is more dangerous than all kinds of really dangerous stuff, such as driving drunk. I’m not saying there aren’t any issues at all, but I think the testing methodologies here are flawed: obviously, if people are told to talk on the phone while driving, they’ll, you know, talk on the phone while driving. In the real world people will normally stop talking when the road demands their attention.
About using two hands at the same time: you are not making the difference between doing and thinking. You can do multiple things at the same time just fine. That’s because motor skills become very automatic. When I type, I don’t have to think about which finger I need to move where. Or even which letter I need to press. I just come up with the words and the rest happens “automagically”. After typing millions of letters, my fingers (well, the parts of the brain controlling those fingers) know exactly how to move in order to get the desired letter on the screen. I can easily type faster than five characters per second in bursts, and conscious brain simply doesn’t work that fast.
But people are horrible at paying attention to multiple things at the same time. I can’t type and listen to podcasts to any usable degree. I can make graphs or do other non-language activities while listening to (spoken word) podcasts, but I then absolutely absorb less information than when listening without doing anything else.
When you try to pay attention to multiple things at the same time, you’re actually switching between those things, and every time you switch there’s a significant penalty. This only works if the amount of attention needed for the task is relatively small and/or the amount of time the task requires doesn’t depend on the amount of attention.
There’s also a line of thought that your two brain hemispheres can operate somewhat independently so they could be doing two different things. But adding a third won’t work, as you only have two brain hemispheres. (Perhaps this is why I can make graphs and listen to podcast at the same time to a workable degree.)
ETA: forgot to refresh first. I see I’m late to the party. …
There is a big difference between two unrelated mental tasks and two related, but different physical motion tasks.
There’s also a big difference between repeating something you’ve learned and doing original thinking.
The joke about walking and chewing gum indicates humans can do some simple things simultaneously.
The issue is that most people, lacking formal repetitive training at doing different cognitive tasks simultaneously, fail to do them as well as they think they’re doing them.
And it’s this false confidence that causes problems. Just like most drinkers think they can drive fine while drunk. They might even be telling the truth about how their driving seems to them. But objectively, from the outside, it simply isn’t true.
Basically that - it’s muscle memory. Once you’ve learned a particular action or series of actions, that task gets delegated away from the ‘thinking’ part of your brain, like some kind of autopilot. Getting parts of your body to do different things independently takes practice, but it can be done - think about that ‘pat your head and rub your tummy thing’, or in fact, just the act of walking (think how many different muscles and senses have to work independently but in perfect sync to just get off your chair and walk across the room, without you having to even think about it!).
It’s also possible to occupy your brain 100% with a ‘thinking’ task, while your body is doing something else altogether (eg puzzling out a difficult work problem while in the shower).
This issue regarding talking on the phone while driving is not one of simply managing two tasks. Specifically, the act of talking on the phone creates a different situation that engages the brain in a different way than talking to a passenger in the car.
I have never heard that talking on the phone while driving is more dangerous than driving drunk, but efforts to dismiss the dangers of driving while on the phone are misplaced.
The National Safety Council has a web page linking to multiple studies regarding the issue. (Note further studies by government agencies on the lower right.)
What about playing a musical instrument that requires totally different types of movement with each hand? Like the violin, or other string instrument, in which the left fingers and the right bowing hand must operate independently, yet be absolutely in sync.? Though I can do this myself, I still find it amazing.
If I have to do a task that involves walking somewhere, then I need to consciously decide where to walk, and avoid obstacles that I may encounter, but not be so focused that I actually place each footstep.
IANA musician, and for me to play two-handed piano essentially I play two-handed chords. But I would guess for professional musicians, both hands are on auto-pilot in terms of individual notes but still need conscious attention to where the song is going, timing, volume etc.