Divided attention

This article, about the attention of multitaskers, published in the Journal of Higher Education, cites a study that found that “"Heavy multitaskers are often extremely confident in their abilities." Clifford I. Nass, a professor of psychology at Stanford University states: "But there's evidence that those people are actually worse at multitasking than most people."
The article refers to a 1956 paper by a then-Harvard psychologist postulated that working memory consists of about seven units, and, if people are stressed they can store much less.
The article is interesting in that it discusses the implications of this research on the classroom. One professor will not let students use computers or take notes while in a lecture class. He put the material online and in a podcast, but while they are in the class he wants them to pay attention to him.